Meeting Gorbachev

Seen at the Glasgow Film Theatre

Cecil says: I don't know whether it's because I saw this film on my own, without Bea to bounce thoughts off afterwards, but I felt very thoughtful after seeing this film; it made me reflect on where we are in the world and whether I could have done more to play my own part in the direction the world has taken.

Watching someone like Gorbachev and seeing the story of his life from very ordinary and fairly rural beginnings to negotiating peace deals with the US President and then overseeing the break-up of the Soviet Union, made me reflect with sadness above all at the leaders we have today.

To think that we are left with the likes of Putin, Johnson, Xi Jinping, Johnson, Morrison (FFS!!), Trump (I only leave him last because I think for once he deserves to be at the bottom of a list) is such a sad reflection of the direction we have taken since the late 80s and early 90s.

It was very moving to see how the loss of his wife so bore into the soul of Gorbachev. That more than his own political downfall seem to leave him deeply saddened and lost, though it was also amusing to hear him reflect on Yeltsin ("should have banished him to Siberia") and his opportunistic power-grab which led to the USSR falling apart.

I love Herzog's films anyway, and although his questions (and occasional commentary) are secondary to the Gorbachev narrative, the film would not be the same without Herzog's imprint.

I left the cinema thinking of that desperate line from The Year of Living Dangerously (which apparently quotes Tolstoy paraphrasing something from Luke in the Bible): "What then must we do?"

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