The Last Class Review: An Educator First

The Last Class, by director Elliot Kirschner, offers a look at Robert Reich’s final semester teaching his “Wealth and Poverty” class at UC Berkeley.

One of the things that The Last Class does effectively is to draw a straight line between the bullying that Reich endured growing up as a young man and the work he did as an adult. Reich was born with multiple epiphyseal dysplasia, which caused him to be much shorter than his peers. As he went through law school and began his service in the government, he began to notice the ways that the system bullied those with less access to money or power, and started to focus on ways that he could help. As a professor, he used his platform to teach others to be observant of those same disparities. 

An impressive aspect of this documentary is its ability to remain focused on the topic at hand. When someone has had a sprawling career like Robert Reich, it would be easy to get lost in the weeds talking about the various aspects of his life that might be tied to the subject, but Kirschner keeps The Last Class firmly focused on Reich’s work as a professor at Berkeley, specifically the final semester of this lecture. This isn’t to say that other aspects of his career are not touched upon, but the focus remains on his work as an educator.

The negative side of this focus is that there are aspects of the film that feel somewhat thin. It is just over an hour long, and that doesn’t include any visuals or animations that could engage a viewer beyond an interest in Reich. Knowing that he draws a good bit, it was disappointing that there isn’t some element of animation included in the film.

The Last Class is a nice blend of one-on-one interviews with Reich and footage from his “Wealth and Poverty” class. In the direct conversations with Reich, he explains his fondness for teaching. In one scene, he and one of his teaching assistants explain some of his philosophy around teaching. Rather than speaking to the students in terms of absolutes or right and wrong answers, he prefers to teach them how to think critically about the information they receive and to reach their own conclusions then. 

This style of teaching clearly resonates with his students, as Reich’s class attracted nearly 800 students each semester that he taught it, with the final class swelling to 1000. The Last Class also includes footage of Reich around campus, and everywhere he goes, he is greeted by current and former students who want to speak to him and thank him for the work that he has done. There is clear affection between him and the people that he has taught. 

The film also shows how difficult it is for Reich to bring this aspect of his career to an end. He states that he hates the idea of retirement and is loath to use that term in reference to what is happening. In a touching and somewhat humorous scene, we see Reich sorting through his office, trying to decide what to keep, what to donate, and in the case of a chair he got as Secretary of Labor during the Clinton administration, how to get it back to Washington, DC. 

It is worth watching through the credits, as there are clips from Reich’s many television appearances, both serious and comedic, that give a larger sense of who he was. Overall, The Last Class is a relatively straightforward documentary about someone who has lived an exceptional life. While this film details Reich’s final moments in a classroom, there is no question that Robert Reich will remain an educator for many through the legacy he has left behind.

The Last Class will open at Quad Cinema (New York) on June 27, 2025, with a national expansion to follow.