Meeting Gorbachev (2019)

A fascinating survey course in the life and career of the last General Secretary of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev. Today he is seemingly every non communists favorite communist, Gorbachev's life was a kind of a tragedy, though one with mostly good results. He was a true believer in the communist economic system and in the Soviet state, but was also a pragmatist and a realist, he more then anyone (Reagan included) allowed the Cold War to end peacefully, when it certainly could have ended otherwise. A fairly conventional subject matter for a Werner Herzog documentary, but he still gives the proceedings some of his stylist flourishes and of course the directors distinctive voice. ***1/2

I continue to be fascinated with the late Soviet period and the miracle under which things ended peacefully, and much of that miracle can be attributed to Gorbachev. I think he is one of the 20th Century's great men, a man whose pragmatism ultimately outweighed his ideological commitments.
Though he still has not forgiven Boris Yeltsin.