Rendez-vous avec Mikhaïl Gorbatchev

Rating of Subject (Gorbachov): 5 Rating of Herzog's lifetime body of work: 9/10 This hagiographic film: 3 stars at best

The simple fact is that in terms of the tearing off of the USSR control of over 100 million subjugated people in eastern Europe, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Lech Walesa were the major players, and Gorbachev was more or less swept along by events rather than participating steering them. Even historians on the left in Poland, Hungary, the Czech republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukrainian,e, Belorussian, the Baltic countries even Germany widely acknowledge this. Gorbachev ought to have been asked by Herzog if he would acknowledge the debt he and the citizens of former Soviet Russia have to the brave people in Lithuania, Ukraine, Poland, etc.

Don't get me wrong. Herzog is a genius. After Greenaway, he is my favorite. The imagery, the laconic way he narrates the surreal in his documentaries, and his crafting of his fictional work are without par. But he fails when he gets political. And he is at the very least, proffering up survivor bias, because, well, Gorbachev is alive and can spin his role, while Reagan and Thatcher are dead. Gorbachev makes so many frankly untrue statements unchallenged in "Meeting" that it is stunning.

Is meeting Gorbachev as bad as "Bad Lieutenant II" or "Salt and Fire"? NO. Anywhere near the level of Aguirre, Fitzcaraldo, Cave? also an emphatic: NO.

Greetings again from the darkness. Werner Herzog has been one of the most prolific filmmakers over the past six decades, and with so many projects, it's not surprising that his films range from very good (AGUIRRE: THE WRATH OF GOD) to fascinating (GRIZZLY MAN) to disappointing (QUEEN OF THE DESERT). With this latest documentary, co-directed with Andre Singer, Herzog sits down for interviews with Mikhail Gorbachev three times over a six month period, and yet somehow squanders this rare opportunity by ensuring his own mug gets equal screen time, and his own voice even more.

Mikhail Gorbachev was the 8th and final President of the Soviet Union and is considered to be one of the most influential political figures of the second half of the twentieth century. He is now 87 years old, and his diabetes likely contributes to his puffy, bloated look and his recent hospital stay prior to his third interview with Herzog. The film walks us through a chronological look back at Gorbachev's life and his beginnings as the son of peasants. His father became a decorated war hero, and upon returning to his war-torn country, offered this to young Mikhail: "We fought until we ran out of fight. That's how you must live."

Having joined the Communist Party at an early age, Mikhail went on to study at the prestigious Moscow State University, which soon led him into politics. He was a fast riser and a true man of the people ... unusual for the Soviet Union. We see many interesting photos and clips, including video of a senile Leonid Brezhnev presenting Gorbachev with an award. The film breezes through the 3 year period which saw funerals for Brezhnev (1982) and his successors, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko. These deaths led to Gorbachev becoming the youngest leader in Soviet history as General Secretary of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet Union.

Herzog as an interviewer spends entirely too much time on screen and narrating. We have come to hear what Gorbachev has to say, not take Herzog's word that he's authentic, or to waste time with the presentation of a box of sugar-free chocolate. It's a bit of a fluff piece, and Herzog is certainly no Mike Wallace; however, it is quite informative to go through the timeline of Gorbachev's life.

We are reminded of Gorbachev's reform platform that included Perestroika (re-structuring) and Glasnost (transparent government), and there are clips of Margaret Thatcher, Lech Walesa, George Shultz and James Baker offering their insight into dealings with this most unusual Soviet leader. Gorbachev does offer his thoughts on the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the fall of the Iron Curtain, the tearing down of the wall and reunification. His historic "breakthrough" meeting and subsequent handshake with Ronald Reagan took place at Reykjavik, Iceland, in a building that is now a tourist attraction.

Ever the optimist, Gorbachev still firmly believes the world should be rid of nuclear weapons, and this segment provides some contemporary context as this topic has reared its head again in modern politics. He bluntly offers his take: "People who don't understand cooperation and disarmament should quit politics." He serves up a hot take on America after the Cold War ended, but is given little time to discuss Helmut Kohl and the 10 Points of Light. The 1991 coup where Boris Yeltsin seized the moment is clearly still painful for Gorbachev, and Herzog offers up a soft landing by ending the film with personal and legacy topics ... what he terms the tragedy of Gorbachev. The love of his life, his wife Raisa, is ever-present even after her death, and he understands that many consider him a traitor and responsible for the disintegration of the Soviet Union. His idealism for a social democracy remains impressive and is likely the reason his story is more humanistic than political. Looking back, he simply states, "We tried."

Werner Herzog interviews Soviet Russia's last president Mikhail Gorbachev, while exploring his life & political career. I wished the documentary covered more about Russia's power struggle and internal issues at the time than just the big headlines about end of cold war & fall of berlin wall that we could probably get from online archives. But anyway, listening to Herzog's chilling voice with deadpan humor is always a joy. He is the best narrator in the world indeed (sorry, Morgan Freeman :D). I thought Herzog was pretty uncritical but that's probably to get more things out of Gorbochev and also the fact that he has lived for so long in divided Germany. But again, I would have liked to see a more challenging take on him that reflects his shortcomings along with achievements.

Interesting in parts but largely devoid of meaningful conversation. A few headlines on various topics is all you get most of the time.

It was sad to see Gorbachev so old and incapable of producing anything but a few simplistic sentences on camera. It makes me wonder if that was even necessary to include any footage of an old sick man and whether it adds anything to the history-recap-101 genre to which this documentary gravitates.

In 90 minutes, It is impossible to present the political lay-of-the-land of the 1980s to establish context for this historical figure. The film intertwines history channel-like snippets of major historical events with trite commentaries of Gorbachev's contemporaries and Herzog himself.

Do we learn anything about Gorbachev beyond the wiki-level factoids? No. Does this film convey that there is another dimension to the person that it tries to explore? Absolutely not. If anything, people and events in this film are presented with almost distracting unidimensionality.

The main value of this film is probably limited to the nostalgic documentary footage that is sprinkled over the meaningless monologues and the lulling senile voice of Werner Herzog that creates an anticipation for something deeper than is being delivered on the screen.