Werner Herzog and André Singer's riveting documentary, filled with archive materials and based on three long interviews, provides access to one of the world's greatest living politicians. Now 87 and battling illness, Mikhail Gorbachev, former General Secretary of the U.S.S.R, has mellowed and slowed down. Still, gently but resolutely, he is pushing towards his goals. Herzog, as on-screen interviewer, celebrates Gorbachev's three remarkable accomplishments: negotiations with the U.S. to reduce nuclear weapons; cessation of Soviet control of Eastern Europe and the reunification of Germany; and the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc.
