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War & Remembrance - Vol. 2, The Final Chapter: Parts 8 - 12 |
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War & Remembrance - Vol. 2, The Final Chapter: Parts 8 - 12
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by Mpi Home Video
Sales Rank: 14076
Price: $68.99
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Mini series Studio: Mpi Home Video Release Date: 08/31/2004 Starring: Robert Mitchum Hart Cochner Run time: 690 minutes
Viewer Reviews
After 18 hours of "Winds of War (WW)," it's hard to be brief about the 30-hour sequel, "War and Remembrance (W & R)." Both works were written by Herman Wouk and directed by Dan Curtis. Other reviewers have been so critical of the sequel, mainly with cast changes, that you find yourself dwelling on faults. But the fact is WW was finished in 1983; W & R was produced 5 years later. So the two works couldn't really use the same cast.
To begin with, criticism of "W & R" seems out of proportion. No, "W & R" is not better than "WW." But we wonder what else people could have expected. Nazi brutality and glimpses of the holocaust may have been overdone, but that's how the author and the director wanted them. Moreover, we believe fault-finding about some performers, notably Jane Seymour and Robert Mitchum is just not fair. In our view, Jane does a marvelous job playing Natalie Jastrow Henry--probably better than Alie MacGraw had she reprised the role. (By the time of this production Alie would have been pushing 50 and 20 years too old for the part. Besides, Alie's just too feisty a person to put up with all Natalie had to endure in "W & R.") Regarding Mitchum, yes, he's five years older in this production but we didn't see him "doddering" as some reviewers say. No, Mitchum was fine.
As to other cast changes in "WW," we generally have positive views. We see Sir John Gielgud as an improvement playing Natalie's uncle, Aaron Jastrow. Similarly, Robert Hardy was better as Winston Churchill, despite a limited role. Hart Bochner was fine as Byron Henry, replacing Jan-Michael Vincent. And Sharon Stone seemed properly vampish as Janice Henry, Warren Henry's widow. We don't see the actor playing Hitler as a downgrade over the one who played him in "WW." On the contrary, we found him better, as he didn't have a lisp when he spoke and otherwise played the raving maniac Dan Curtis wanted. Actors playing Germans all did well in our view, especially Jeremy Kemp as the fictitious General von Roon. Granted, casting Barry Morse was odd as German Field Marshall von Halder, after Morse had played a Nazi banker in "WW." But Morse did well in the part, especially when he tells Hitler, "You lost the war when you declared war on America. " For this attack of conscience, Halder gets fired.
Finally, on the cast, Sky Dumont, who played Count Ciano in "WW," returns to "W & R." But this time he plays Col. Claus von Stauffenberg. We thought Dumont was fine as Stauffenberg both in bearing and performance. What a tragedy his real-life person didn't do as well in assassinating Hitler. 10 million lives may have been spared if Hitler had died on July 20, 1944, when Stauffenberg tried to blow him up.
Action sequences involving the Battle of Midway, submarine engagements, and the naval battle at Leyte Gulf are all done well in W & R. Missing, however, are the final surrender of the Japanese in the Pacific and in-depth drama on Stalingrad and Kursk where the Russians dealt the Germans staggering defeats. D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge are OK, but not as profound in the movie as they really were. Scenes of these momentous events were all overshadowed, though, by the long ordeals of Natalie and Aaron Jastrow and their fellow Jews. They are tortured by the Nazis from place to place and finally end up at Auschwitz. Truly, the mass murders, gassing, and incineration of innocent people has to be one of the most horrifying depictions ever put on film.
Other negatives about the production include subtitles having wrong names and information. Example: von Roon being called, Roehm. Also, the way some of the characters were either killed off prematurely or were never retrieved after being developed earlier. Most outstanding of these may have been the character of Warren Henry being killed at the Battle of Midway after his heroic attack; Berel Jastrow being shot by the Nazis after his harrowing escape; and Leslie Slote being killed as a paratrooper after being trained all his life as a diplomat. Also, as said above, too much time is devoted to the endless savagery of the Nazis. Nevertheless, it brought to mind the quote from Hans Frank, one of the Nazis hanged at Nuremberg: "A thousand years will pass and the guilt of the German people will still not be wiped out."
To sum up, we found "W & R " a thoroughly engaging series, well worth our time and money. Special features, moreover, add to the storyline. We give the movie four (4) stars, as contrasted to five (5) for "Winds of War," mainly because of the negatives cited above. "WW" was a hard act to follow, but "W & R" did about as well as could be expected. At times the show is hard to watch, but it makes impressions you'll never forget.
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War & Remembrance - Vol. 2, The Final Chapter: Parts 8 - 12
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