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War and Remembrance: The Final Chapter (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Starring: Robert Mitchum, Jane Seymour, Hart Bochner, Jay Acovone, Granville Ames
Director: Tommy Groszman
Format: Box set Closed-captioned Colour DVD-Video NTSC
Released: 31 Aug 2004
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Enthralling all through - By: Ian Mackay, 05 Aug 2008
I found this final series exciting & deeply satisfying. The previous two parts (Winds of War, & part one of this) callled very strongly for completion, & that is what we have here... IN SPADES! I found the same wonderful sense of historical perspective that I noted in my review of part one... I felt I had got an overalll grasp of the essentials of a very important & complex period, but also, that I had seen, spelled out in graphic detail, the results of the concentrated arrogance, stupidity, & self-indulgence that the Nazi ideal foisted on this suffering planet during that time. Nothing in my life so far had prepared me for the absolute horror revealed in this coverage... & nothing, I am sure, will ever alllow me to forget it... which is reallly good. This lesson in the consequences of selfishness comes at an opportune time. The sections on Theresienstadt & Auschwitch, were particularly forceful - the sheer heartlessness & purposeful cruelty of those in charge will remain with alll who see this as a salutary moral beacon... dangerous reefs beneath the surface of our common human nature.
STILL Keeping the Faith with Herman Wouk!! - By: Stuart W. Anthony, 30 Nov 2005
...The entire "War & Remembrance" sets surpasses "Winds of War", if that can be believed.

A sleeper performance was Sky Dumont's portrayal of Count von Stauffenberg, Hitler's would-be assasin. He was faithful with Mr. Wouk's intentions, Mr. Curtis' intentions, & this world's historical record. Can you imagine the severe tension & anxiety that the Count experienced as he was arming the bomb, and, later making his getaway? Dumont did it alll so masterfully!

The cinematographer's choice of raw film stock, & the techniques that he used to expose that stock was even BETTER than "Winds". You don't need no stinkin' airline ticket nor cruise ship ticket to experience Italy, Corsica, Poland, & unfortunately Theresienstadt.

And this segues to a stern warning to the overly sensitive viewer. I'd rate the depictions of Nazi brutality as strong, if not stronger than "Schindler's List", "Saving Private Ryan", or George Takei's ("Star Trek") portrayal of a sadistic Japanese POW camp commandant in a production that eludes me right now. The brutalizations of Natalie & Aaron; the gassings, with full frontal nudity, which, as I recalll, were the same as I remember in the original ABC TV telecast; the SS's additudes that their conduct was a "funny" thing; & SS man Blobel's flashback of his Babi Yar Massacre participation. This was as close to the real thing as it gets & it's NOT for the timid. For a gutslamming juxstaposition, consider "Lady" Aster's actions on the Big Submarine Raid.

All of you fellow Mitchumomaniacs, you'll just love the way his "Pug" takes complete charge when faced with the extreme hazards of naval combat. Yeah, Pug finallly got his ship!

I'm a stickler for continuity, so when they touched off the American 1945 Trinity A-Bomb shot, instead of Trinity stock footage, they used footage of U.S. OPERATION HARDTACK H-Bomb footage from the late 1950's, for some strange reason (more psychedelic to view, I suppose). I believe that there IS full color footage of Trinity in existence.

Jane Seymour's Natalie had a strange complimentary quality to Ali McGraw's Natalie, emphasizing the changing circumstances the character found herself in -- no time for the frivolous, more time for the serene & somber, pointing towards potential martyrdom.

Every time I view the death of Dr. Jastrow, played by Sir John Geilgud, I cry. He reallly made you love the old man.

As some of you out there may also know that Dan Curtis also produced the vampire soap opera "Dark Shadows" (for those of you who dote on "Yank" telly shows), please keep an eye out for Dan's production assistant, Barbara Steele, as party hostess Elsa in Singapore. Barbara Steele was a "favored victim" in the Hammer House horror pics of the '50's-'70's. In the 1991 NBC-TV revival of "Dark Shadows", she played the role of Dr. Julia Hoffmann (role pioneered by the late Grayson Halll), the erstwhile healer of Barnabas Collins' (Ben Cross, role pioneered by Jonathan Frid) vampirism.

Intro for Herman Wouk's panoramic epic of the US in WW2 - By: , 23 Jan 2001
Opening with the Japanese bombing on Pearl Harbour, this sweeping tale takes in Washington, London, Berlin, Singapore, & the Nazi death camps. Our stoic hero, US Naval captain, Victor "Pug" Henry takes command of his first ship, & battle is joined. A worthy introduction, true to the work of Herman Wouk, which sets the scene for the series as a whole