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List Price: $89.97 | | Label: Mpi Home Video
Salesrank: 20436
Released: August 31, 2004 |
| Our Price: $47.58 |
| Used Price: $43.97 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Mini series Studio: Mpi Home Video Release Date: 08/31/2004 Starring: Robert Mitchum Hart Cochner Run time: 690 minutes
Description of War & Remembrance - Vol. 2, The Final Chapter: Parts 8 - 12:
The second half of this massive miniseries covers events from the last two years of World War II with members of our fictitious family--the Henrys--scattered throughout the world. Pariah "Pug" Henry (Robert Mitchum) visits Russia and England as an advisor--and proposes to his much-younger lover, Pamela (Victoria Tennant)--before retuning to the Pacific theater to join his son Byron (Hart Bochner), a submariner, in battling the Japanese. Meanwhile, Byron's wife, Natalie (Jane Seymour), and her uncle (John Gielgud) continue their harrowing plight, starting in the "Paradise Ghetto" and leading to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
This half--11.5 hours--aired on ABC in May 1989, six months after the first half. Unfortunately there is no kinetic battle sequence like the first half's Midway clash to absorb the viewer. Director Dan Curtis relies more on newsreel footage (and the sometimes heavy-handedness of narrator William Woodson) to cover large events. To compensate, the filmmakers give inordinate screen time to the conspiracy to kill Hitler (Steven Berkoff) by his inner circle. Like in Herman Wouk's novel, Hitler's decision to eliminate the Jews is the backbone of the entire series and the film's steely reenactments of these events--an amazing achievement for network television--is quite harrowing. Authenticity (filming at Auschwitz) plus ace performances (Seymour has been rarely better, Gielgud is outstanding) combine for a powerful statement, although the whole production is sometimes weighed down by the soap-opera elements of the Henrys' lives. The original Winds of War miniseries had a higher caliber cast, which is missed here. However, a few actors shine in their atypical performances, including Barry Bostwick (who tied with Gielgud for the Golden Globe) as a flamboyant submariner and David Dukes as a desk side attaché who reaches new depths in the war. Although admired and very watchable, the series did not impact the industry as much as its predecessor or sweep the award circuit as other miniseries (Roots, Holocaust, etc.) did, although it did take home the Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries.
The 7-DVD set contains an informative booklet, a CD soundtrack, and a disc of extras. Dan Curtis makes comments over 70 select minutes of the series (shown out of context), hitting the highlights of filming, a nice way of letting the filmmaker talk without searching for the commentary throughout the various discs. There's a new 30-minute feature combining new and old footage on the making of this massive production, and a 15-minute featurette on composer Bob Cobert. --Doug Thomas
War & Remembrance - Vol. 2, The Final Chapter: Parts 8 - 12 Reviews:
Winds of War and War and Rememberance 
2008-12-02 - I am thoroughly happy with the purchase of Winds of War and War & Rememberance. These are fantastic movies. It brings you into the war and makes you part of it. The stories were linked together so you really needed to have both of these great movies. Buying from Amazon has been the best for me and I will continue to make purchases with them. AL
Faulty DVDs 
2008-11-23 - Unfortuantely, the DVDs I received are faulty. The captions are locked on. No attempt at turing them off through the main menu will shut them off.
War and Remembrance Remembered
2008-11-23 - We have always considered the mini series "Winds of War" and "War and Rememberence" to be an example of the very best Herman Wouk and television has to offer and patiently waited until such time as we could make them both a part of our extensive collection of VCRs and DVDs. The work of this fine author is further enhanced by an outstanding cast of characters. It is too bad that all of the original actors seen in Winds of War could not be continued in War and Rememberence, but considering the superb job that was done by all in both series, and understanding the complexities of assembling such a cast over a long period of time, due to other contractual obligations, etc., once you settled in to watching the films themselves, the change was not in the least disturbing. Casting in both cases was simply excellent.
A little too much
2008-11-17 - This is quite a bit longer than Winds of War and it may not need to be. I skip over parts that deal with the trials and tribulations of people who, in Winds of War wandered around Europe not heeding good advice to get out while they could. Here, again, they are places where they should not be. I originally taped Winds of War and then made an edited copy I called "The Pug Henry Story". I have not done that with the DVD or with War and Remembrance, though I sense such an edit would be very desirable. In the meantime, get ready to fast forward or skip chapters to bring this down to a reasonable length.
war and remembernce vol 1 and 2
2008-10-30 - I now have the two sets 0f both war abd remebernace and winds of war they have given me many hours of quality viewing.
