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War and Remembrance - Volume 1

War and Remembrance - Volume 1

List Price: $129.98
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The single best account of the war mingled with romance
Review: The account of WWII is excellent and the acting is at its finest. Who could ask for more when u look at the entire cast...it's no wonder this series, done in the late 80s holds up so well. After viewing the entire program, it honestly stayed with me for many days. In fact, I will probably recall scenes from this film for the rest of my life, especially the reenactment of the concentration camps and the transferring of the jews to the camps. I am pleased that the director/producer decided to continue Winds of War with this account--I think it will be viewed in years to come as a notable and important account of world history.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wake Up
Review: The Henry family continues their journey through the WW 2. You'll begin the tour of country after country with members of this family. You'll be drawn into their lives and live the nightmare with them. You'll share their fears, joys, loves, and tears. Take the trip. You'll never forget it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Amazing
Review: This boxed set version of War and Remembrance is amazing! After seeing the whole thing on VHS, I'm amazed at the DVD quality in comparison. Was very happy with my purchase. The cast is strong all around.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Amazing
Review: This boxed set version of War and Remembrance is amazing! After seeing the whole thing on VHS, I'm amazed at the DVD quality in comparison. Was very happy with my purchase. The cast is strong all around.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A huge story but not a huge waste of time
Review: This film, along with its second part, was the last of a now almost-extinct species--the TV miniseries. Nowadays, networks use that term for two-parters like "Patton", which is about all the easily-bored type of viewer can handle. Critics, who tend to speak for that constituency, said that "War and Remembrance" was the last straw. But how can you get a story about a family who fights in both theaters of operations of World War II, in the air, on and under the sea, takes part in the diplomatic aspects, the entertainment industry of the day, has as in-laws politicians, physicists working on the a-bomb, and holocaust survivors, covers over a thousand pages each in this story and its prequel "Winds Of War"--how are you going to cram that onto two lousy VHS tapes? Actually, there are a few scenes that weren't in the books. If you missed this saga when it aired, or any parts thereof, this is your chance to see it again (or to fill in the gaps). Seems like a lot of money, huh? Hey, come on, remember back when a one-tape flick cost almost this much?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: That movie is the best that I ever seen.
Review: This is a very true movie. The Concentration camp images were very terrifiants and because I know that all of these crimes were happened, it was a very realistic experience.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Too High Priced
Review: This is an excellent series and I would buy the complete set if the price was reasonable and complete. Unfortunately, War and Remembrance is only half complete, yet at the same price as the Winds of War. If the price was $120.00 for the complete DVD series of both I would buy it. It is definitely over-priced for an incomplete series.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Rember When...
Review: This mini-series has many problems: Mitchum is far too old for the part of Pug Henry, plus his romance with Pamela Tudsbury (ineptly played by Victoria Tennant) is not credible. And, the character of Natalie Henry remains problematic: Although supposedly a fiesty go-getter, she makes one foolish decision after another, so many that it becomes difficult to sympathize with her.

But the recastings are all improvements over "The Winds of War": John Gielgud, Robert Morley, Jane Seymour (without whom the project would have foundered), and even Hart Bochner are welcome upgrades. And pros Polly Bergen, Jeremy Kemp, Topol, and David Duke successfully reprise their roles from the first entry.

And give director Dan Curtis credit: No one before or since has presented a narrative with this kind of force and sweep. Moreover, he presents the inner workings of the Third Reich fairly convincingly. Ultimately, these attributes overcomes problems of characterization and script. I have to admit that I watch it once a year, and it always holds my interest. (This review covers Part 2 as well.)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Parts of this are 5 stars--good war flick but overlong.
Review: This miniseries adaptation of Herman Wouk's "War and Remembrance" is pretty faithful to the novel, which itself is a continuation of Wouk's "Winds of War" which is also a miniseries.

For those who are not familiar with these two novels, they are stories of the period immediately before, and then during, World War II. "War and Remembrance" is set in the period immediatly after the Japanese bombing at Pearl Harbor, and encompasses the entire war.

This production suffers from the flaws inherent in most miniseries: it is too long. The well-done and good parts are sandwiched in with a lot of extraneous material that in a true movie would have been left out and never missed.

This is essentially a number of interconnected stories, all of which have the Henry family (particularly Pug Henry, the patriarch) as the common nexus. Pug Henry is an American naval Captain (later Admiral) in a variety of interesting assignments. He has two sons: a naval aviator and a submariner. Then there is the Natalie (the submariner's wife) and Aaron Jastrow story--two Jews caught up in Hitler's Europe and the Nazi persecution of the Jews. The miniseries, like the book, tries to tell all of these stories--it never settles on one or two the way a movie would.

The result is mixed. My favorite part by far of this series, which itself is worth the price, is the volume that deals with the Battle of Midway. Wouk's Battle of Midway is far superior to the Henry Fonda movie on the same subject. It is historically more accurate, faster paced, and overall far better done. It is a magnificent tribute to the battle that turned the tide in the Pacific. The Fonda movie practically ignores Admiral Raymond Spruance, the true genius of Midway. That is rectified here. The segment that deals with the submariner son and "Lady" Aster is similarly excellent. All of the segments that deal with the Russians are superb.

Two portions of this miniseries really drag. Natalie and her Uncle, Aaron, in Nazi-occupied Europe is far too long and not particularly well done to begin with. The choices Natalie makes are asinine--she should have gotten and stayed the hell out of there, and when she doesn't, it becomes difficult to stay interested in her plight. Further, the scenes at the concentration camp are ugly, unpleasent, and frankly not very good entertainment. Certainly not fit for families with children to watch. I imagine this is Wouk--he is said to have insisted that this portion be played out. The result is not pretty, and most of this could have been done in a more summary and more entertaining fashion--the object should be to entertain, not to rub the viewer's nose in the horridness of the Nazis.

The acting in this miniseries is uneven. I found the actor who played Byron (the submariner son) to be a poor substitute for Jan Michael-Vincint. The Hitler character is poorly done; essentially a caricature. I didn't think Jane Seymour was a particularly good Natalie, but she was wildly better than Ali MacGraw, who is rumored to have asked for a Presidential pardon for her acting in "Winds of War." The rest are OK but not great.

If you are into the "War and Remembrance" story (as I am) you will want to own this collection--its strengths are the fact that it faithfully follows the story, and it truly does a wonderful job with the Battle of Midway, the submarine parts involving Byron, and the parts where Pug is in Russia. You can skip over some of the other parts when re-watching it with the good old "chapter search" function of the DVD, and it does come in handy here.

Speaking of the DVD, the audio and video are both very good. The chapters should have been more finely delineated--the entire Battle of Midway is shown as two chapters. Four or five would have been appropriate. Minor quibble.

Worth owning and watching.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Only half the story
Review: This was the second of two TV series dramatizing Wouk's two wonderful books: The Winds of War, War and Remembrance. Together, those books tell a full story of the characters and all their problems and motivations are clear. Much of what happens in War and Remembrance is prepared in Winds of War. Starting with War and Remembrance for me begs too much foreknowledge. If Winds of War will be released later, it'll seem to me like watching the story backwards. I think you need both. If you read the books, you'll want to read both. Hopefully they'll give us Winds of War on DVD too, and soon.


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