BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Rpgcatech Disapointment

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Delight Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

hitherejimbo-1 I watched "Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance" when they were first aired in 1983 and 1988 respectively. With five years in between I had no problem adjusting to the appearance of new actors in "War and Remembrance." Having just watched both again with no break between the two I am very conscious of the substitution of new actors. First, Sir John Gielgud was superb as Aaron Jastrow. He brought a warmth and humanity to the role that was lacking in John Houseman's cold personality. But why, oh why was Ali McGraw dropped in favor of Jane Seymour? Ali was marvelous as Natalie. Depending on what the script called for every emotion flitted across her face - determination, fear, love, stubbornness, flirtatiousness, humor. In contrast Jane Seymour most of the time had a blank expression on her face She has a nice smile but you rarely see it. Even at moments of high drama like her reunion with her husband and with her child she was largely expressionless. And why was the excellent Jan-Michael Vincent dropped for Hart Bochner? Bochner is a good looking young actor indistinguishable from many others. In scenes where he was in a room with other officers I had trouble picking him out. But in spite of these criticisms the "Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance" are magnificent epics which keep viewers enthralled, particularly people like me who lived through World War II.

Deusvolt .....of War" But as reasons, they cited production values centering on shooting locations, authentic sets, care in staging shots, and other technical aspects of production. No one said the very obvious: "Remembrance" is better than "Winds" because of the higher caliber of acting. Jane Seymour's nuanced portrayal of Natalie was certainly better than Ali McGraw's one-dimensional haughty, petulant and flibbertigibbet Natalie. Gielgud was more professorial and a really convincing intellectual Jew compared to Houseman. His delivery of that sermon on the biblical Job as a "stinking Jew" (an epithet Jews were required by the SS to use in introducing themselves in the concentration camps) was very moving. The noble but conflicted Byron characterization by Hart Bochner is certainly not the shallow hot in the pants Byron portrayed by Jan Michael Vincent. For some reason, I also preferred the Warren Henry of Michael Woods over that of Ben Murphy who wasn't bad at all but Woods had the charisma or the "glow about him" that Pamela Tudsbury (Victoria Tennant) described. Polly Bergen's acting or maybe her role as Rhoda much improved in "Remembrance" because in "Winds" she was just this overly excited and artificially cheerful navy housewife bowled over by the seeming glamor of Nazi Germany. Now in "Remembrance" she displays a fuller range of acting descending into regret and downright pathos as she realized that she flirted away her marriage and family. I realize I may not be being fair in blaming the actors named. For all we know, Herman Wouk's screen writing skills improved in the five-year interim between "Winds" and "Remembrance." Similarly, Curtis' directorial savvy may have also improved. And that brings me to the matter of comparison between the book and the screenplay. The film generally succeeds in bringing to the TV audience the gist of the story (stories actually) in "Remembrance," but actually it is not a faithful rendition of the book's narrative. Certain contrivances were used to bring key characters to interact with each other to get the audience into the flow of the epic. For example, in the film Pug and Armin von Roon were personally acquainted or even friends in a sort of way. But in the book they never met as far as I can recall. Admiral Henry was writing a memoir or a postwar analysis of the battles and the conduct of the war and was using a book written by Von Roon as a reference which he was refuting on several points. I was somewhat sympathetic to the Von Roon character in the book but still he was presented as somewhat of an opportunist who supported Hitler as long as he was winning the war and turned against him only when Germany was losing. In the film, however, Von Roon (excellently played by Jeremy Kemp) was shown to be an early critic of Hitler and hinted at as one of the plotters of the failed assassination of the Fuhrer.Your Edit Subject:

kathyjp I have had this on VHS and now on DVD for a long time, I love it and have re-watched it a few times. I must say that Jane Seymour was preferable to Ali MacGraw as was Hart Bochner to Jan Michael-Vincent. I have both Winds of War and War and Remembrance so I can say that I prefer Hart and Jane as I have seen both series. If you are going to watch this series do watch Winds of War first. The scenes in the concentration camps are horrifying and terrible, but this adds to the excellence of the program because you want to be able to emphasize with what is happening to these innocent victims and feel their pain, anguish, confusion and bewilderment.

possumopossum Only Dan Curtis with his genius for horror could portray the holocaust for the horror that it actually was. Watching this series can give one nightmares, and they can be more frightening because this all actually happened. Never before or since have I seen such gruesome details about what went on in places like Auschwitz and Thereisenstadt.I loved the documentary style in which they told this story. The only thing I didn't like about this series was that the bombing of Hiroshima seemed to be glossed over in the end. It was like an "Oh, by the way..." thing. A brief comment about the war being over, and on to look for the kid. Such an important moment in the movie--and history--deserved more attention than it got. But I guess at that point, they were in a hurry to finish the thing because it was eighteen hours long as it stood. Except for the hurried ending, it was a great series.