War and Remembrance - Volume 1

Starring:Robert Mitchum, Jane Seymour, Hart Bochner, Victoria Tennant, Polly Bergen, David Dukes, Michael Woods, Sharon Stone, Robert Morley, Barry Bostwick, Sami Frey, Topol, John Rhys-Davies, Ian McShane, William Schallert, Bill Wallis, Jeremy Kemp, Steven Berkoff, E.G. Marshall, Robert Hardy
Director: Dan Curtis
Studio: Mpi Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
The ambitious TV event War and Remembrance was the final opus in the golden age of the maxi-miniseries. This six-disc set offers the first half (seven episodes) of ABC's mammoth 30-hour production of Herman Wouk's bestseller--itself a sequel to the landmark Winds of War--mixing fictional and real characters around the events of World War II. It starts a week after the attack on Pearl Harbor and abruptly stops in July 1943 with the fall of Mussolini. Only half of the first series' lead actors return, including Robert Mitchum as the patriarch Captain "Pug" Henry. Although Mitchum is too old and less dashing than he should be, his presence is exactly what the series needs as it wavers between pop entertainment and a graphic look at the atrocities of war. The series' multiple storylines branch from the Henry family tree, from his sons' naval battles to his daughter-in-law's (Jane Seymour) harrowing flight through Europe with her famous father (John Gielgud), witnessing firsthand the collapse of European Jewish life in the grip of Nazi power.

Amazon.com

The ambitious TV event War and Remembrance was the final opus in the golden age of the maxi-miniseries. This six-disc set offers the first half (seven episodes) of ABC's mammoth 30-hour production of Herman Wouk's bestseller--itself a sequel to the landmark Winds of War--mixing fictional and real characters around the events of World War II. It starts a week after the attack on Pearl Harbor and abruptly stops in July 1943 with the fall of Mussolini. Only half of the first series' lead actors return, including Robert Mitchum as the patriarch Captain "Pug" Henry. Although Mitchum is too old and less dashing than he should be, his presence is exactly what the series needs as it wavers between pop entertainment and a graphic look at the atrocities of war. The series' multiple storylines branch from the Henry family tree, from his sons' naval battles to his daughter-in-law's (Jane Seymour) harrowing flight through Europe with her famous father (John Gielgud), witnessing firsthand the collapse of European Jewish life in the grip of Nazi power.

Director Dan Curtis said that after The Winds of War, the opportunity to show the Jews' plight led him to take on another daunting production. He takes the viewer into Auschwitz with unflinching realism (producer and former internee Branko Lustig returned to the subject a decade later with Schindler's List) and is just as deft with a few massive battle sequences combining models with colorized footage. Sometimes the soap opera of the characters' affairs seems pretty sappy, especially with some uneven acting. The DVD set also contains two featurettes from 1988 and 2002. --Doug Thomas

Customer Reviews:

Imperfect - but compelling.......2007-06-25

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.

War & Remembrance.......2007-06-08

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.

Sequels.......2007-06-08

As with most sequels, this as well as parts 8 - 12 are not nearly as good as was the Winds of War. At the same time, if you like continuity in a story and want to see the heroes and the heroines as they make it through the hard times they were left in at the commencement of the war, you will want to see this too. There are character changes. Jane Seymour replaces Ali McGraw (Natalie), Hart Bochner replaces Jan Michael Vincent (Byron). Ben Murphy is replaced by Michael Woods (Warren). Lisa Eilbacher was replaced by Leslie Hope (Madeline Henry). John Gilgood replaced John Houseman (Aaron). Sharon Stone also replace Deborah Winters (Janice), Robert Morley replaced Michael Logan (Alistair Tudsbury) and the Hitler character became far more dramatic by Steven Berkoff replacing Günter Meisner. These replacements did not detract from the movie and perhaps helped in most instances but I did miss Lisa Eilbacher as Madeline and I preferred Deborah Winters in her role as Janice Henry.

THE SAGA CONTINUES.......2007-03-12

War and Remembrance' is the sequel to the highly successful book and the miniseries `Winds of war', by the bestselling American author Herman Wouk. The 1988 adaptation of the book picks up the story where its predecessor has left it off. Made during the 5-year period on location in 10 countries, `War and Remembrance' thusly remains one of the biggest achievements in the history of television. This 6-disc set encompasses the first part of the series; about 13 and a half out of 30 hours of film.

The basic plot continues with the aftermath after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Again we follow the American naval family Henry and their involvement in the various parts and phases of the war. The war story is roughly divided into two levels: Europe and the Pacific. The male part of the Henry family (the patriarch Victor Pug Henry and his sons Warren and Byron) are part of the great battles in the Pacific (Midway, Guadalcanal...), while the major focus has been put on the European stage and the tragedy of the holocaust, as seen and experienced through the eyes of Natalie (Byron's wife) and her uncle Aaron, who are both Jewish. This main plot has various personal subplots between the characters (the love between Pug and Pamela, the daughter of an old friend, for example) and just like in `Winds of war'; we see things from the perspective of the major historical characters (Hitler, Roosevelt, Churchill...). This part of the series ends in the ghetto Theresienstadt in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia, where Natalie, Aaron and her small son, after escapades across the Europe, end up, with an uncertain future.

The impeccable attention to period details make this DVDs a delight to watch. The casting for the most part also deserves praise. Robert Mitchum (Pug), Polly Bergen (his wife Rhoda) and Victoria Tennat (Pamela) reprise their role in best of ways. Despite the fact Mitchum was a bit too old at that time; he still has the power and charisma his character is made of. There are also some changes in the cast, some better than other. Jane Seymour replaced Ali McGraw as Natalie here and she gave more than a satisfying performance She is not as headstrong as McGraw was, but a more subtle incarnation of the character. Handsome-looking Hart Bochner replaced Jan-Michel Vincent as her husband Byron and he give a bit of an arrogant performance, without the boyish charm the character has in the book. John Houseman, who was too ill to reprise his role as professor Aaron Jastrow, was replaced by one of the greatest British actors of the last century, sir John Gielgud, who gave his usual outstanding and dignifying rendition.

But the greatest disappointment, as some of the other reviewers noted here, comes from the character of Hitler. In `Winds of war' Hitler was played by the late German actor Günter Meisner, who played this role a few times during his career. Although a bit too old for the role, he managed to keep things under control, so despite the fact his Führer was stiffed and not altogether perfect, he gave a hint of the evil personage Hitler was. Here, however, the role is taken by the British actor Steven Berkoff and he did an awful job out of it. According to the interview on the extra disc, the director Dan Curtis wanted Hitler to be overplayed. The reasons remain unknown, although one can guess that he wanted to downgrade the character more by doing this. Berkoff's Hitler is a mixture of a buffoon and a yelling maniac. He portrays these sides in such an overacted manner that the result is anything but believable. This makes the Hitler scenes really uninteresting to watch and the way he behaves with his inner circle has no trustworthiness at all. Therefore it is hard to believe such a person could put a spell on the entire nation, let alone be listened by his generals, most of whom are shown here as the observers who put up with him. The role of Hitler is a hard and yet manageable task for an actor who can make a character, as shown by Bruno Ganz in the recent movie `Downfall'.

It becomes obvious after watching the DVDs that the main task the authors put before them here was to show the holocaust in its most brutal and vivid form. And the way they do it remains unmatched in the TV history to this day. The story includes all the main points of `the final solution': the life in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp (this is the first TV crew that got the chance to shoot in the original camp); the extremely graphic and violent scene of gassing during Heinrich Himmler's visit there in 1942; `Aktion 1005', where the Nazis cover the tracks of mass killing by firing squads (so called 'Einsatzgruppen') by digging up the graves and burning the bodies and in the last episode of this part, Babi-Yar massacre, where the Kiev Jews were brought outside the town like cattle and shot by machineguns. All this is very disturbing to watch, so it is not suitable for small children. The most tragic scenes in this respect will, however follow, in the last part of the saga.

Having said all this, one has to mention the obvious slip ups. The most noticeable concern is the narrow scope used in reference to the holocaust, i.e. by showing it to be solely and exclusively a Jewish matter. There is no doubt that the Jews suffered far worse than any other nation, but the subject matter cannot be understood without mentioning all the other groups that suffered under the Nazis. Here there is no reference whatsoever as to all the others that perished in Auschwitz and other places: Slavs, Jehovah's witnesses, Gypsies, homosexuals, etc. This is something that should not have been done in the series of such importance and scale. The book and the movie `Sophie's choice' (where, incidentally, the same actor played Rudolf Höß, the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp) recognizes this problem by showing a Polish woman caught in the tragedy that is holocaust. Another evident thing is the fact that the authors tend to be too biased: the subtle message is all Americans are totally honest and good in each step of the way, while all the Germans are bad and vicious. A bit more of objectivity would be more than welcome.

Despite all this, the series remain more than plausible for anyone interested in World War II fiction. The bonus DVD includes two behind of scenes documentaries that show the way this epic was written, made and cast, through the interviews with the director/producer Dan Curtis, the author Herman Wouk and the cast. If you enjoyed `Winds of war' DVD set, be sure not to miss this.

Sequel, please...........2007-01-20

I've seen both Winds of War and War and Remembrance, and loved them both for different reasons, none of which I'm going to go into right now.

Nobody on this review page has mentioned a sequel to War and Remembrance, so I will. I'd love to see a sequel called "Beyond War and Remembrance". The stories would concentrate on the Henrys after WWII. Most intriguing to me would be a storyline that took up with Byron and Natalie and that brought Avram Rabinowitz back into the picture....What love he and Natalie felt for each other! It was so strong and pure....

Then I'd like to follow Pug and Pamela. Will he EVER give up running around for the President? Will he and Pam stay together?

Ah, love!

Average customer rating:

Imperfect - but compelling
War & Remembrance
Sequels
THE SAGA CONTINUES
Sequel, please....

War and Remembrance - Volume 1
Starring: Robert Mitchum , Jane Seymour , Hart Bochner , Victoria Tennant , and Polly Bergen
Director: Tommy Groszman , and Dan Curtis
Manufacturer: Mpi Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Military & War | Genres | DVD | Video

World War II | Military & War | Genres | DVD | Video

Miniseries | Television | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

( W ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B00006IZQO
Release Date: 2002-10-29

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Imperfect - but compelling.......2007-06-25

War & Remembrance.......2007-06-08

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.

Sequels.......2007-06-08

THE SAGA CONTINUES.......2007-03-12

Sequel, please...........2007-01-20

War and Remembrance - Volume 1 and 2 DVD Bundle

Average customer rating:

War and Remembrance - Volume 1 and 2 DVD Bundle

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

The Complete saga of War and Remembrance /// The saga of the Henry family, begun in "The Winds of War" continues as America is attacked by Japan and enters World War II. For Victor Henry, an upwardly mobile naval career sets him in command of a cruiser with sights on selection for the Admiralty. At the same time, however, Victor must struggle with a failing marriage as well as a love affair with the daughter of a prominent British radio news reporter. Victor's son Byron has equal success as a submarine officer, eventually selected to command his own ship, yet all the while must deal with the separation of his wife and son who are held in German custody as enemy alien Jews. Through other such characters as Professor Aaron Jastrow, Naval Pilot Warren Henry, and the noble German General Armin von Roon, "War and Remembrance" unfolds into an all encompassing and fascinating story of the Second World War.

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