JonathanGrudin

The question to ask is, "Why did Werner Herzog, who has made such terrific but decidedly offbeat documentaries, make a conventional biographical documentary with extensive conventional interviews in which the subject did the speaking?" The answer is clear: Herzog believed that it is of huge value today to see who Gorbachev was and hear what he had to say decades after he was in power. Herzog is correct. Two sad observations are that not more people have seen or absorbed it, and that the world lost what could turn out to be the final opportunity to avert our species' overriding focus on implacable competition and warfare at a time we face existential threats that could only be addressed through peaceful collaboration.