‘Gorbachev’ consistently engaging

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Jordan to play Clark in new film series

Herzog meets Gorbachev, or should that be the other way round, in an encounter that on paper should be one for the ages: Werner Herzog, the incisive documentarian (here in tandem with frequent co-director Andre Singer), engaged in a meeting of minds with as robust a subject as Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, architect of Perestroika and Glasnost and the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union. But the interview, which happened over three shorter sessions and is interspersed with standard archive footage and a few other talking heads, finds Herzog on unusually obsequious, almost fanboyish form, his (very natural) admiration for Gorbachev dulling the edge of his more eccentric instincts.

To be fair, the great German filmmaker tries to bend the encounter to his will, but he’s almost immediately shut down by Gorbachev who is having none of his Herzogian shenanigans and proves consistently resistant (though genially so) to Herzog’s efforts to inject poetry and tragic irony and pathetic fallacy into the narrative of his life. Even his opening gambit is to politely but flatly refute Herzog’s mournful assertion that “the first German you ever saw wanted to kill you” with a story about the delightful biscuit-making Germans whom he encountered before the war.

Herzog doesn’t really ever recover anything like equal standing, and, coupled with the translation issue which means the spontaneous interruptions and reactions of natural conversation can’t occur, his time actually meeting Gorbachev in “Meeting Gorbachev” is mostly organized as a series of very brief questions prompting (sometimes unrelated but always fascinating) long monologue answers. Gorbachev, though he looks unwell and a little unlike the figure so etched into the historical memory of anyone alive in the ‘80s and ‘90s, is a consummate and brilliant politician even now, and he is practiced in the art of saying only what he wants to. Thankfully, even without much modern-day context (Putin is rarely mentioned, and the contemporary consequences of the end of the USSR are only broached in general terms) there’s more than enough in what he wants to say to keep us attentive.

There are a few flourishes outside the bland, shot-reverse-shot interview footage itself. Crows wheeling through the sky and a weirdly jerky drone shot, as well as Herzog’s unmistakably lugubrious, Golem-like voiceover taking us through Gorbachev’s early years do occasionally remind us who’s nominally in charge here. And the other interviewees, such as Horst Teltschik, former national security adviser to German Chancellor Helmut Kohl during the reunification period, and former Polish president Lech Walesa are less constrained by admiration and thus more able to give the otherwise cozy affair a little edge.

 Perceived

Walesa especially touches on the real sticking point of Gorbachev’s legacy (and the difference in how it is perceived in Eastern versus Western Europe) when he implies that his idealism made him (usefully) shortsighted: “Communism cannot be reformed, only dismantled” says Walesa, going on to describe how he and the Polish independence movement supported Gorbachev’s reforms because they knew they would actually mean the end of the Soviet Union – an outcome Gorbachev explicitly did not want, and which he still regards as his great regret.

But while this is fascinating and fertile territory to explore, Herzog prefers a gentler tack more often asking how such-and-such made Gorbachev feel, rather than how it affected his thinking (for a more analytical and more urgent approach to Gorbachev’s legacy, particularly with regard to the great de-escalator’s views on the recently resurgent nuclear threat, seek out Leila Conners’ 2017 documentary “The Arrow of Time”, in which he also participates). Herzog’s softer approach does yield some touching material, especially concerning Gorbachev’s wife Raisa, whom he still misses intensely (“her perfume, her voice, the laughter”), but it can also feel like a bit of an indulgence, like in the section where he giddily presents Gorbachev with a hamper full of specially commissioned sugar-free chocolate (Gorbachev, in failing health for a variety of reasons, is also diabetic).

His admiration for this towering figure of late-20th-century history is understandable, and he conducts the interview a little the way you think you might, if you had a few hours’ face time with Gorbachev, mostly content to sit at his knee and listen to him speak without too much direct challenge. But that is itself disappointing: Herzog miscasting himself in the role of the everyman interlocutor. We might have hoped for a more sparky encounter, but “Meeting Gorbachev,” though consistently engaging, is less a fireworks display than a fireside chat, and so feels curiously like an opportunity missed.

Also:

LOS ANGELES: Another Tom Clancy character is headed to Hollywood.

Paramount Pictures has tapped Michael B. Jordan to play Clancy hero John Clark in a new film series, Variety has learned.

Sources tell Variety that Paramount is developing two pics based on the Clancy books “Rainbow Six” and “Without Remorse”, both novels in which Clark is the main star. “Without Remorse” will be the first film of the two, serving as an origin story for the character.

Akiva Goldsman will also be spearheading this endeavor as the film’s main producer with Jordan, Josh Appelbaum, and Andre Nemec also producing. Paramount is currently meeting with writers and directors for “Without Remorse”.

The news comes after Amazon and Paramount TV recently released a rebooted “Jack Ryan” series on its streaming platform, starring John Krasinski, to positive reviews.

Clark, a.k.a. John Terrence Kelly, is an ex-Navy Seal-turned-operations officer for the CIA and would go on to appear in 17 novels starting with 1988’s “The Cardinal of the Kremlin”. Though mainly seen as a secondary character who helps CIA analysis Jack Ryan with more of the physical elements of any mission, Clark finally stepped into the spotlight with “Without Remorse”, which tells his backstory on how he came to work for the CIA.

Clark was also the focus of “Rainbow Six”, with followed his new task force and its mission to protect the world from its greatest terrorist threats. (RTRS)

In films, Clark has been played by Willem Dafoe in Paramount’s “Clear and Present Danger” adaptation, starring Harrison Ford as Ryan, as well as by Liev Schreiber in “The Sum of All Fears”, which starred Ben Affleck as Ryan.

The studio has been trying for years to get adaptations off the ground for both “Without Remorse” and “Rainbow Six”, with Chris McQuarrie and Ryan Reynolds circling the projects at one point. Jordan is considered one of Hollywood’s biggest stars currently, and is coming off the massive hit “Black Panther”, which has earned him Oscar buzz for his role as antagonist Killmonger.

Jordan has “Creed 2” bowing this Thanksgiving, and has been plotting out his future slate before filming his legal drama “Just Mercy” in the fall. Warner Bros had been aggressive by pitching him on several properties before Paramount arrived with the prospect of leading a film franchise, instead of just one movie.

The Clark projects mark Jordan’s second film series, along with “Creed”, that isn’t comic book-related – an impressive feat for any movie star today. (RTRS)

By Jessica Kiang

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