August 5, 2024 – This was the last of the epic miniseries to appear on network TV (ABC network) before cable TV began taking over such projects. Airing for one week in 1988 and another week in 1989 for 30 hours total in prime time, it was an epic sequel to 1983's “The Winds of War” which, like the sequel, is based on a novel by Herman Wouk.
This miniseries puts a human face on this massive conflict that involved almost the entire globe. It affected nearly everyone, but those affected the most were those caught up in the destruction directly, such as those fighting in the military conflicts, and those targeted by Nazi exterminations.
There have been many accounts of the Holocaust, but of those I have seen, I found this one to be the most powerful emotionally, partly because some of it was actually filmed at Auschwitz, featuring some actual survivors of that terrible place. This particular part of the story follows three members of the extended Henry family, Aaron Jastrow (played by John Gielgud, who replaced the late John Houseman who had played the role in “The Winds of War”) his niece, Natalie Henry (played by Jane Seymour, replacing Ali McGraw who played the same role in “The Winds of War”) and Natalie's young son Louis (played by Hunter Schlesinger and others).
Aaron Jastrow is a famous Jewish scholar and author who is somewhat vain. He fails to understand the danger he is in until it is too late. His fame helps to keep him, Natalie and Louis alive, and on the move all over Europe for years during the war. Their perilous journeys enable us to see what life is like for some Jewish refugees in Italy, France, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Poland and other places as the trio at first flees from the Nazis, and later, are shipped around occupied Europe by the Nazis.
The patriarch of the Henry family is Victor ‘Pug’ Henry (Robert Mitchum, reprising his role from “The Winds of War”). Henry, a Navy man, is a ship captain in a key battle of the war, the battle of Midway. Veteran actor G.D. Spradlin (“Apocalypse Now”) plays the role of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, in charge of U.S. Navy forces at Midway.
Henry's two sons, Byron Henry (Hart Bochner of “Die Hard” replacing Jan-Michael Vincent who played the same character in “The Winds of War”) a submarine commander, and Warren (played by Michael Woods, who replaced Ben Murphy, who played the same character in “The Winds of War”) a Navy pilot, take part in other naval battles. Warren plays an important role in the Battle of Midway, which deals a crushing blow to the Japanese fleet. The Battle of Midway gets the full war movie action treatment in “War and Remembrance,” while many other battles are bypassed.
Much of the movie is taken up with the troubled marriage of Victor Henry and his wife, Rhoda Henry (Polly Bergen of “Cape Fear”) and with Byron Henry's attempts to find and rescue his wife, Natalie and son, Louis who are trapped in Europe with Aaron Jastrow. There is also a budding romance between Victor Henry and war correspondent Pamela Tudsbury (Victoria Tennant of “L.A. Story”). These soap opera subplots are overdone.
The Germans have a big part in this story as well, not just the villains running the death camps, but the traditional elite Germans who tried to assassinate Adolph Hitler (played convincingly by Steven Berkoff of “Beverly Hills Cop”). Among them are “The Desert Fox” Erwin Rommel (Hardy Krüger of “A Bridge Too Far”) and Brigadier General Armin Von Roon (Jeremy Kemp of “The Blue Max”) who witnesses Hitler's rise and fall.
There are also characters who try to smuggle news out of the death camps about the enormity of the Nazi crimes there, including Aaron Jastrow's bother, Berel (Topol). Leslie Slote, a diplomat who tries to expose the death camps, is played by David Dukes of “Gods and Monsters.” Veteran actor Ralph Bellamy plays President Roosevelt, and Robert Hardy of “All Creatures Great and Small” plays Winston Churchill.
John Gielgud and Jane Seymour give excellent performances in this movie, as does Polly Bergen as the ditzy, unstable, constantly frazzled wife of Victor Henry. G.D. Spradlin gives perhaps the best performance of his long career as Navy Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, who admits sheer luck had a lot to do with his victory at the Battle of Midway. Steven Berkoff goes full hysterical scary as Hitler. Barry Bostwick gives a good performances as Carter Aster, a sailor with questionable morals. Sami Frey gives an impressive performance as a Jewish underground fighter. Bill Wallis is chillingly effective as Werner Beck, a charming former student of Aaron Jastrow, who becomes his Nazi nemesis. Unfortunately, the big star of the movie, veteran actor Robert Mitchum, gives a passive, uninteresting performance as Victor Henry.
Herman Wouk reportedly did a lot of research for his books, and he also had a hand writing the screenplays for both “The Winds of War” and “War and Remembrance.” Because of this, I learned things about World War II that I had not read about or seen before in other movies about the war, such as the Japanese Navy's very effective use of its secret Type 93 “Long Lance” torpedo in a key naval battle. This miniseries is an effective drama and it is informative, too. It is also less jingoistic than many war movies, depicting American servicemen as people, flaws and all. One American submarine commander is shown committing war crimes.
I watched this on a DVD set I bought recently, distributed by MPI Home Video, which includes bonus material and the complete soundtrack, conducted and composed by Bob Cobert. The main musical theme sounds similar to the main musical theme of “The Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy. The video quality of this (this DVD set seems to be the best available, unfortunately) is not very good. It looks like it was converted from VHS tapes. Some sources indicate this was originally shot on film, then converted to VHS. If the original film could be scanned in high definition and released on blu-ray, that would represent an enormous video quality improvement.
They literally don't make them like this anymore. At the time it was made, this was the most expensive, ambitious, film entertainment project in history (according to Wikipedia) and ABC, unfortunately, lost money on it. This Maxi-Series contains over 2,000 scenes, there are over 350 speaking roles and over 40,000 extras. Despite its flaws, it provides an unforgettable, haunting experience. This rates a B.
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