I'm just shocked Time Magazine didn't do the same cover, just substituting Trump for Yeltsin. Just goes to show you that Democrats ALWAYS project.
Posted on 05/04/2019 7:45:26 PM PDT by OddLane
Sometimes, a history lesson works better when it’s a little ragged and personal. Clocking in at a little over 90 minutes and consisting primarily of a sit-down interview with the former Soviet leader, Werner Herzog’s Meeting Gorbachev speeds through a vast stretch of the 20th century, explaining the decline of the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain through the eyes of the man whose reforms precipitated much of it. But Herzog himself brings a surprising — and, it turns out, necessary — element to their interactions: that of the grateful world citizen, one of billions who felt the first pangs of existential relief when Gorbachev brought a new openness to the USSR and began talking nuclear disarmament with President Ronald Reagan.
Meeting Gorbachev is a hagiography, but it’s unafraid to position itself as such; Herzog makes his case proudly and passionately.
The director opens by first apologizing to the former Soviet leader for the crimes committed by Germans against Russians during World War II. “I am a German, and the first German you ever met probably wanted to kill you,” he suggests. Gorbachev counters that his childhood neighbors in the Northern Caucus town of Privolnoye were a family of Germans who owned a sweet shop, and that he was fond of them as a result. “I thought that such wonderful sweets could only be made by good people,” he recalls thinking...
(Excerpt) Read more at vulture.com ...
For a Russian? That’s nothing to sneeze at.
Of all his films, the best IMHO was Aguirre, Wrath of God. A movie that explores raw power. I think this was his top achievement in film.
Fitzcarraldo is also up there, and cool... actually (in the movie and for real) moving a LARGE steamship to the top of a mountain in, I think, Peru?... and dropping it on the other side, as it careens thru a river, with Klaus Kinska its “owner” and passenger.
Fitzcarraldo is a great film.
Stroszek was very good, too. Although some film critics have portrayed it as an indictment of the American dream, it is anything but, IMO. It is a study of the consequences of self-destructive behavior.
“” “” The problem with Yeltsin was that he couldn’t say no to Bill Clinton.”” “”
I know it sounds ridiculous but early Putin thought Yeltsin wasn’t good enough at it. He thought he could do better but soon reformed.
Gorbachev is unpopular in Russia but I believe you are downplaying his role. Gorbachev had all the right ideas. Maybe he didn’t have a political touch to make the rest inspired or a system was too rotten to fix.
“Same guy that brought me to tears laughing at Timothy Treadwell being eaten by a bear. That just funny!”
That was the movie “Grizzly Man”. Someone made a YouTube video satire of the movie. Funniest thing I ever saw on the internet:
https://youtu.be/BlU-DNztO94
He was truly menacing.
Very interesting . The Soviet Union deployed a lot of pilots to Manchuria to participate in the air war over Korea. The Russians were already experienced jet pilots and flew the Mig-15 very well. Their success in air to air combat with the F-86 was much greater than the USAF would allow to be released for decades. The Soviets redeployed most of these pilots back to Europe in early 1953 and the USAF victory rate shot up against a purely CCF opposition. The redeployment was to provide experienced cadre for a much enlarged jet equipped tactical force being rolled out in the Soviet Union and in East Germany.
The lesson here might be that both US technology in the 1980’s was really superior to the best Soviet products (as was shown in the Gulf War in 1991) and that the Soviets very low number of flying hours (I have been told it averaged out around two (2) hours per month) for their pilots versus Israelis who flew every week in an operational environment.
Each major battle in the air has its own characteristics. Technology changes the parameters so greatly that a decade can make the situation completely different.
Wiped? Like with a cloth?
Yeah. This is the new thing, that Gorbachov was responsible for ending the Cold War.
He is, in the same way a turkey is responsible for Thanksgiving Dinner.
The problem with Yeltsin is that he was too drunk to function during most of his presidency. Putin was brought in with the hope of being a sober replacement.
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