Mikhail Gorbachev, Ted Turner, Henry Kissinger Assemble to Mark Disc Release of ‘Cold War’

homemediamagazine.com ^ | April 30, 2012 | Anne Sherber

[Tailgunner Joe]

NEW YORK — It was hard to imagine, watching Mikhail Gorbachev and Henry Kissinger arrive at the Paley Center for Media in New York April 29, that the two grandfatherly old men were once at the very epicenter of Cold War politics. Gorbachev, once head of the notorious KGB and the USSR’s final president, and Kissinger, Nixon’s Secretary of State, often credited with and blamed for U.S. involvement in Vietnam, were at the Center to support the May 8 Warner Home Video DVD release of Cold War ($68.92).

The series, which was produced by and broadcast on CNN in 1998, was the brainchild of Ted Turner. According to Sir Jeremy Isaacs, the series’ executive producer, Turner’s motivation was his concern that history would not do justice to what he saw as a seminal period of history during which the USSR and the United States both developed the ability to end life on earth.

“Ted Turner said to me, ‘our grandchildren will not understand what the Cold War was. It will be a paragraph in a history book,’” Isaacs recalled.

According to Isaacs, who also produced The World at War, another epic documentary series that exhaustively chronicles a specific period of history, the original plan for the series was that it would be 40 episodes long, one for each year of the era. The running time was eventually halved, but Turner ultimately added four additional episodes. According to Pat Mitchell, who served as co-executive producer of the series and is now CEO of the Paley Center, a museum of broadcast media, it is already used extensively at universities and libraries as a teaching tool and is one of the most requested titles by visitors to the Paley Center.

Gorbachev, who presided over the dismantling of the Soviet Union and who was interviewed at length and figures prominently in the series’ last four episodes, said through a translator that although he occasionally had questions about the filmmakers’ perspective, he was impressed with the program’s comprehensiveness, overall.

“To some extent, one viewpoint seems to prevail,” he said. “But the series is very informative. It draws a line under all those conflicts that brought us several times to the edge of the destruction of civilization.”

Both Turner and Isaacs said that the DVD release of the documentary, which is narrated by Kenneth Branagh, is a case of a film that was waiting for a format. Isaacs noted that to prepare to answer questions about the series, he recently watched it from beginning to end and was struck by its depth.

“Some of the episodes are so packed with information that you have to concentrate to really understand,” he said.

The ability of disc viewers to maneuver through the series at their own pace makes the experience of watching much more rewarding, he said.

“DVD may be the medium for which Cold War was best made,” Isaacs noted.

Turner also was impressed when he revisited the series.

“I’m proud to have come up with the idea for the series and proud that it was executed so well,” Turner said. “Of all the documentaries that I have produced, I am proudest of this one.”

Warner Home Video plans to market Cold War to universities and museums. But, according to Rosemary Markson, SVP of TV and special interest marketing at Warner Home Video, the company also will be reaching out to mass-market outlets.

“It’s perfect for Father’s Day,” Markson said.

[Jeff Chandler]

Kissinger, Nixon’s Secretary of State, often credited with and blamed for U.S. involvement in Vietnam

By whom, historical ignoramuses?

[easternsky]

Losers all three of them

[SeeSharp]

Gorbachev, once head of the notorious KGB and the USSR’s final president,

Gorbachev was never the head of the KGB.

[mkjessup]

I wonder how much credit President Ronald Reagan is given for the victory of the West over Moscow?

My guess? Not much.

[dead]

Nixon’s Secretary of State, often credited with and blamed for U.S. involvement in Vietnam...

That's awesome. I credit/blame JFK for dropping the bomb on Japan.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Like it never happened..

[mkjessup]

Exactly. The undiscerning among us (which accounts for much of what passes for modern American society these days) will accept this load of revisionist crap as if it were the gospel truth.

ANYthing with Ted Turner’s hands on it has to be viewed with suspicion, if for no other reason: he’s effin NUTZ.

[Charles Martel]

Every time I see Gorbachev, I can't help but revisit this little piece of 1988.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Correcto!

[SierraWasp]

Somebody really blew the casting on this one!!!

[hedgetrimmer]

There was no ‘victory’.

The fall of the Berlin Wall and subsequent events were merely the kicking of the communists bees nest to let them swarm all over the world, especially the United States to wreak the havoc of communism on America.

Gorbachev was GIVEN a piece of the San Francisco Presidio for his home base (ironic or premeditated?). He established Green Cross International for the theft of water rights in the US and preceded to corrupt municipal governments into selling water rights to foreign entities.

He has participated in many global government initiatives and walks a free man in spite of his treasons against the US since taking residence here.

I am personally convinced that the fall of the Berlin Wall was solely to send communists out from Russia where they had been contained the whole cold war, out in to the free world to destroy it.

Evidence of this is identified in the current occupant of the white house.

[mkjessup]

Well in your world, I suppose that means that Ronald Reagan was just one more useful idiot in the
international Communist conspiracy, right?

Why of course, Reagan was just an amiable dunce, a figurehead for the regime of New World Order
villain George H.W. Bush, who was really running the show from '81 to '89, turned over the reins to
his adopted brother Billy Jeff in '93, who proceeded keep the seat warm until the Son of Bush was
given the ok by our Communist masters in Moscow to begin the preparation process for Comrade
0bama to inaugurate our final demise in January 2009. They're all working together. How could we
not see? Welllll, it's been nice chatting with you but don't let us keep you from your work, c'ya!!

[newnhdad]

I remember this series. I was able to view some of them but I remember there was a bias and I tuned it out. I’d be curious to see the whole thing again.

[hedgetrimmer]

Is Alinsky all you’ve got?

[stephenjohnbanker]

It is amazing to me that Turner managed to make 4 billion dollars, while having been insane his entire life ..including college : )

[mkjessup]

Is Alinsky all you’ve got?

I got your 'alinsky' right >>>> HERE <<<<

Go screw yourself.

[hedgetrimmer]

What a nice way to make your point! We should all take lessons.

[mkjessup]

The point is on the top of your head. Maybe you need to spend more time pondering the conspiracy theories of Alex Jones ok?

[hedgetrimmer]

Although critics have accused the Park Service of dragging its feet, they do credit park officials with one thing: securing Mikhail S. Gorbachev as the Presidio's first civilian tenant.

In a dedication ceremony in April, the former Soviet President and his wife were given the keys to a Coast Guard officer's house, where they will run the Gorbachev Foundation, which will conduct research on global political and environmental issues.

Conspiracy theory slams as sooo Alinsky.

Can't you converse like a normal American?