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Thorn Birds (4pc) (Spanish) |
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Thorn Birds (4pc) (Spanish)
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by Warner Home Video
Sales Rank: 68800
Price: $49.98
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The second most-watched miniseries (after <I>Roots</I>) of all time, <I>The Thorn Birds</I> was originally broadcast in 1983 and captivated viewers with its story of a lifelong conflict between the spirit and the flesh. Adapted from the bestselling novel by Colleen McCullough, the production stars Richard Chamberlain as a Catholic priest named Ralph de Bricassart, whose life in Australia between 1920 and 1962 is one long torment as he pines for his lover, Meggie Cleary (Rachel Ward), while seeking advancement in his clergyman career. The passion and the guilt make for compelling drama, but a stellar cast of supporting players adds muscle to the proceedings: Barbara Stanwyck (who won an Emmy for her work as Meggie's tough aunt), Jean Simmons, Richard Kiley, Christopher Plummer, Bryan Brown, and Mare Winningham. Chamberlain, who was something of the king of the miniseries form at the time, is very good in the lead, as is the often-underrated Ward. Their affair is indeed irresistible to watch, which proves to be true, too, of the story's thick weave of church politics, forbidden desire, social change over decades, and family secrets. <I>--Tom Keogh</I>
Viewer Reviews
Overall well produced TV series and I watched intently with many emotions of passion, heartache, compassion, and joy for characters portrayed. The Stanwyk character was deplorable esp. with the line: on my mouth! YIKES!!! The aging process was well done for Cardinal Vittorio, Ralph, Grandma Fi, BUT Meggie looks more gorgeous every year, esp. the last scene, they tried to grey her hair, tho unevenly, during the same scene and nary a wrinkle....no biggie compared to her whisper yelling and flat dialogue, but very beautiful woman...Justine was prolly the worst cast in the series, waaay too wooden for a bohemian, maladjusted, wild child, head movements were even too stilted and not pretty enough to be Meggie's daughter...Dane portrayed the deepest expression of character as supported by the other family members and was very touching. I could not believe that his two good looking uncles stayed unmmarried, very strange...and the young Meghan had too mature dialogue for believability, with her bold questions and observations that nary an adult would deliver or even have elevated critical thinking skills during that era....apologies for my stream of consciousness review here but thankfully not a PhD thesis...also, never understood the reasons for not telling Ralph about Dane 'cept for the heart wrenching reveal at the end which IMHO was theee best scene in the series...great crying jag Richard!!! I cried too....anyhow, my biggest dissapointment was the ending with Ralph decrying that "WE always go for it" (?) i.e. the thorn bird's sole joy of life or something to that effect when I felt that is the last thing either of them did....Ralph especially, he fought that "song" to his death, and loved the inital description of the Thorn Bird myth but never saw the parallel in the series....nice try but would have liked him to reject the church and had his final days with Meggie and fade out TRYING to be that Thorn Bird but failing....well, I know Aussies and back then they must have treated their women worse than they do now....Bryan Brown was delightful but character development flawed with the devotion and conviction of needing a woman and love to... how can I impress the wankers cutting cane???...they just didn't flesh out a believable character, And what is up with the D. H. Lawrence and Henry Miller references? Lady Chatterly's Lover is so out of place for a cripple, 50's mentality, Australlia, and farmer IQ types...did Colleen try to impress the audience with her breadth of literary repertoire? so to wrap up....I watched every episode, sometimes twice, and worked my schedule around this series as I had not seen it since 1983 after reading the book...I rarely do this and my friends razzed me about it but I was hoping for a recapture of my life 25 years ago, but what I found is a deeper understanding of loss, patiently waiting for love, and how to overcome adversity, kudos for the enjoyment but had to comment on my issues with the production. And oh yeah, Dr. Kildare was still a major hottie!!!
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Thorn Birds (4pc) (Spanish)
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