Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

To those who stumble upon War and Remembrance, watching this series is somewhat difficult if you haven't seen Winds of War, the first part of the story. It too is available on DVD and I highly recommend getting it. Otherwise there are just enough in-jokes and previous references that you'll get confused. So if you go on, I'll assume that you've either seen or read Winds of War and will know what I'm talking about. War and Remembrance is essentially a history lesson that's told dramatically. The lesson, of course, is about the second part of World War II, the part that the United States was most actively involved in. That's the strength of the series, how well it deals with the history, and of showing the viewpoints of American, Russian, and German officers, and American, British, and German politicians. You saw all the sides in this, and the lesson was much the better for it. Were the points a bit obvious at times? Of course, but when you spend the kind of money they did on the series, you want to reach the broadest possible audience. How does it compare with the book? Quite well really, the mini-series was long enough that relatively little was left out or compressed. There were little scenes here and there, but nothing major was on the cutting room floor. Does it help to have read the book first? That depends on if WWII history is your thing. If it's not, then reading the book is a great primer, long though the book is. But if you're contemplating a 25 hour mini-series, something tells me that length is not an issue for you. The casting is always the key to any mini-series or long-form series (like Lost), and here it's a mixed bag. Dan Curtis, writer/director/producer/bossman cast Winds of War's characters almost uniformly too old for their parts, and while some of them are back for this one, some were either let go or chose not to come back. Those who are back include Robert Mitchum as Pug Henry, Polly Bergen as Rhoda Henry, Victoria Tennant as Pam Tudsbury, David Dukes as Leslie Slote, and Ralph Bellamy as Franklin Roosevelt. Bellamy to me is FDR, I can't read about him in history books without picturing Ralph's face. Likewise Polly Bergen was PERFECT as Rhoda, the then semi-retired actress just nailed it in every scene. Dukes was a great Leslie, the actor was taken from us far too early. And Mitchhum? Way too old for the part even in Winds of War, and the five year break in between did him no favors either (something he pointedly brought up to Curtis in between, telling him to hurry up with the W&R script). His romance with the much younger Tennant was a bit off putting as well, solid though she was. But Mitchum had a gravitas and depth that was badly needed for the role, and for that I can't bring myself to criticize him. His acting was certainly top notch, as always. The newcomers? Jane Seymour replaces Ali MacGraw as Natalie Jastrow Henry, and while the acting is better, it's the age that really matters. MacGraw was 15 years older than the part and it really showed, though the character is the most frustrating of the books/series, behaving stupidly at almost every turn. Hart Bochner replaces Jan-Michael Vincent as Byron Henry, and the age is better, but Bochner isn't the Byron of the books, and is such a long way off that it's like they wrote the character to fit the actor, rather than hire an actor to fit a character. Vincent was a mess by this point, but I would have liked to have seen his take on things. John Gielgud replaces John Houseman (who was very sick when production began, and would soon pass away), and he fit Aaron Jastrow a little better for the Paradise Ghetto parts. I just couldn't see Houseman more or less becoming a rabbi, talented an actor though he was. Most of the minor parts were re-cast, including an amusing switch by where Barry Morse, who played the German banker Wolf Stoller in WoW, played German General Halder here. All in all the acting was an improvement, for the most part. The extras? Well they're not bad, considering. They have a series of retrospective docs, with interviews with most of the surviving actors (Mitchum, Dukes, and Gielgud are among the actors who had passed on by this point), and a lot of Dan Curtis (who too has died since). Curtis does not lack for confidence, as the interviews will show, and it's totally necessary when you're shepherding a pair of nine figure mini-series to the screen, when $100 million meant a lot more in a budget than it does now. They cover as much as can be covered really, and take the place of an almost impossible to do commentary track, much as I would have liked to have listened to one. The video and audio quality are about what you would expect from a 20 year old series, and since I doubt they'll go the Blu-Ray route with either series, this is the best we're going to get. The price? Awesome, for how much you get. I'd been waiting for the makers of the series to get reasonable with their pricing (they topped out at over $140 at one point), and now it's a great deal, especially for how long the mini-series is. The myth is that W&R killed off the long form mini-series, as the ratings were only so-so for how much money was spent. Instead, I think that the genre has transferred to regular serielized TV dramas like Lost and Heroes. One long story, told over many hours, with a large cast. Not much difference really, if you think about it. Four stars.