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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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IWAS DISSAPOINTED
I HAD WATCHED THE WINDS OF WAR TWICE I LIKE IT SO MUCH. I WAS REALLY DISSAPOINTED ON THIS ONE. IT WAS PRICED TOO HIGH AND THE COLOR WAS POOR.
Rating: 
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Robin, Crawfordsville, Indiana
I have the entire series and they were all AWESOME!!! I love how the makers of this movie include the entire family of the main character, Pug Henry. I'm a huge history buff and this movie shows tons of footage and tells a fantastic story. I collect a lot of war movies and this one is my ultimate favorite. I ordered the complete set via Amazon and I got it very quickly w/o any problems. If you love war movies or anything history related this is the movie for you. You'll want to rewatch it over and over again.
Rating: -
R.I.P David Dukes and Leslie Slote
I'm no historian so I'm only going to deal with casting here and there are spoilers so stop now if you must. While I wholeheartedly agree that Seymour is a better actress than Ali MacGraw, I still liked Ali's brown-eyed spunk and I managed to overlook some of her godawful line (and shriek) delivery in WOW. Seymour's Natalie was a totally different character in W&R, and it was hard to make the transition because of that: she was quiet, diminutive, delicate. Very distracting. The great Gielgud is unsurprisingly a definite improvement over the great but not quite as great Houseman; the scene in the Nazi's office where you watch his old man get kicked about and this spoiled and pampered distinguished gentleman sees the reality of brutality up close and personal for the first time tears your heart apart. Bringing Barry Bostwick in for the marginal cigar chomping character from WOW was inspiring; I'm sure you can catch a young Sharon Stone in a typical role, but did you spot a young Michael Madsen in the submarine? For me, the most heartbreaking casting replacement was Jan Michael Vincent being replaced by Hart Bochner. Vincent may have looked constipated at times in WOW, as some reviewer pointed out, but a constipated (and hung over, I'm sure) pretty boy is better than a pretty boy with a lump of coal personality (Bochner). Vincent had personality, as anyone who witnessed his classic Howard Stern appearance, knows - sort of a Brad Pitt on the outside and Mickey Rourke on the inside. And there was some chemistry between him and MacGraw in WOW; they looked like they were hanging out at the local bar in between scenes. But back to War and Remembrance....I admit I still have four hours left to view here, but the one scene in W&R with Seymour and Bochner I've witnessed so far was dead and dull - nothing there. Nothing...... Oh Mitchum fine, a little tired, but fine. Victoria Tennant aka former Mrs. Steve Martin - lovely, should have kept her hair consistent, but lovely. Spot Ian McShane - so much life, then poof, gone, you find out, in a voice-over by Tennant. Steven Berkoff makes a fun Hitler - definitely an improvement over the WOW Hitler, but I longed for Derek Jacobi or Anthony Hopkins who each played Hitler around that time in Inside the Third Reich and The Bunker. Now finally, for me, the unsung hero of both WOW and W&R: Leslie Slote, played by the late David Dukes, a highly underrated film, television, and stage actor who dropped dead of a heart attack on a tennis court in 2000 at the age off 55. In WOW he was flawless and center stage as Natalie's fiancee thrown to the side by Byron but still determined to win her back; in W&R he was thrown to the side by a whole host of people, possibly because his character was written that way in the book I did not read, or possibly because his star was no longer on the rise in 1988. He did manage to squeeze in a couple of outstanding scenes: one where he uncovers the evidence of German atrocities, and two, where he tells Byron on the phone that Natalie's situation is damnable and he's struggling to keep from falling apart. Leslie loved Natalie more than Byron; if Jan Michael Vincent did not convince you of his love for Natalie, Hart Bochner was not about to. But the way David Dukes played him, Leslie was the one who should have walked in and rescued Natalie and gotten the girl. The reason I am submitting this review now before finishing the series is because I'm bummed out that Leslie died so suddenly in that ambush. I just felt he was thrown out. A paratrooper? Leslie? Anyway, Dukes had real talent and substance. And he kept his hair consistent. Mark of a great actor: continuity.
Rating: -
Imperfect - but compelling
All the massive reviews here that point out bits of weak acting, regard the series as too long, bemoan the over-dramatization of Hitler (although honestly I have no idea - he obviously wasn't sane), cliched plot twists and some improbable plot elements are right. But they miss the point.
Despite its moments of dated narration, War and Remembrance really does transport you back to the 1940s. The length of the series precludes you from watching much else, so in a way you do participate in the war as an observer of the Henry clan. The main problem with history, in general, is that it happened to people we don't know. Through immersion, this film starts to erode that barrier. I.e., as Aaron and Natalie slip down the slope of Nazi persecution, you can't help but care about what happens. Ditto for the Henry men fighting in the Pacific - you want them to come home safe, because you've spent enough time with them to have felt like they were your siblings or children.
With regard to acting, Mitchum continues to be Pug Henry. I don't know how anyone else could have played that role. He's stoic, but in Wouk's books Pug isn't exactly a bubbly kind of guy. Jane Seymour is a much less obnoxious Natalie - I believe Ali McGraw would have been a distraction in this role, whereas Seymour conveys true fear and anxiety. John Gielgud, as others have mentioned, is riveting - just superb. Peter Graves looks out of date - somehow he has just always looked 1970s, and he doesn't quite fit here. You could argue that Polly Bergen (as Rhoda Henry) is superficial and that her romantic swings are trivial against the backdrop of world events. But Wouk probably knew this, and the truth is that even in desperate times a lot of us are more focused on our own heartbreak and loves, so even that soap opera -- poorly acted, in my opinion -- fits here.
Others have commented about how this series omits or glosses over the internment of Japanese Americans, the huge casualties in China and other aspects of the war. Honestly, I think this is ridiculous critique. What is amazing is how Wouk was able develop such a vast scope for his work and cover as much as he did -- Russian front, Pacific Theatre/Pearl Harbor, Italy, Poland, Turkey, the UK, the Desert War -- I mean, it's staggering. Someone will doubtless complain there wasn't enough emphasis on womens' role in the armed forces, and you could probably make that argument. But in the context of War and Remembrance it's a piffling complaint.
So now that I've written another massive review, and probably not as good as the others, I would set forth War and Remembrance as one of those films that everyone should see. With all its flaws, it succeeds brilliantly at animating an era slipping from out collective memories, in a way that has value as a history lesson and nonetheless pulls you in emotionally. Five stars, not because it's perfect, but because it's unrivalled in its effect.
Rating: -
War & Remembrance
This is one of my favorite mini series. I love Robert Mitchum in the series. People who don't believe that the Holocaust happened should watch this.
