WAR MINISERIES: War and Remembrance (1988-89)

               “War and Remembrance” was the sequel to “Winds of War” (1983).  It continues the saga of the Henry family set in the chaos of WWII.  The mini-series was directed by Dan Curtis who also helped with the screenplay.  Author Herman Wouk was a cowriter as well.  The mini-series was a massive undertaking and at $110 million, the costliest mini-series up till then.  It was shot on location in numerous countries.  There were 2,070 scenes, 757 sets, and 358 speaking parts.  The mini-series ran 1620 minutes and was shown over two one-week spans.  It was a ratings success and got 15 Emmy nominations.  It won for Best Mini-Series.  John Gielgud, Jane Seymour, and Polly Bergen got acting nods.  Gielgud and Seymour did not originate their roles (replacing John Houseman and Ali McGraw).  Another significant acting change was Hart Bochner replacing Jan-Michael Vincent as Byron Henry.

               The mini-series opens the week after Pearl Harbor.  “Pug” Henry (Robert Mitchum) is now captain of the heavy cruiser Indianapolis.  He is still having troubles in his marriage with Rhoda (Bergen) as she is still seeing Palmer and Pug is playing footsie with Pamela (Victoria Tennant).  Natalie (Seymour) and Aaron (Gielgud) are still trying to get out of Europe to avoid the Holocaust.  Byron (Bochner) is a submariner in the Pacific and his brother Warren is a dive bomber pilot.  Let’s look at the three main arcs.

               Byron is the exec on a submarine skippered by the cigar (and scene) chewing Aster (Barry Bostwick).  These scenes are heavy with sub clichés starting with a command conflict as Byron believes in the rules of war and Aster doesn’t.  We get the obligatory depth charging scenes.  There are three set pieces and all have ridiculous aspects. 

               The Pug / Pamela / Rhoda arc continued from “Winds of War”.  It is still a small world with Pug and Pamela meeting in the unlikeliest of places.  Basically, Pug is still globe hopping (ex. Russia) and rubbing elbows  with the big boys (but not Hitler and Mussolini any more since the war has begun).  Pamela is still showing up wherever he goes.  I think she planted a homing device on him.  

               Meanwhile Natalie and Aaron continue their inevitable march to Auschwitz.  They are headed for Palestine when baby Louis develops a cold and Natalie panics (again).  They go from Italy to Elba and then Corsica.  Byron gets transferred to the Atlantic and masquerading as a diplomatic courier is reunited with Natalie.  He wants to go by train to Spain, but Natalie decides it’s too risky.  Would you believe this turns out to be a bad decision?  They both have run-ins with the malevolent unstable German commander, but as of episode 10 still have not made it to their final destination.  This changes with the train ride to Auschwitz.  Finally!  One of them dies there.

               Besides the three main character arcs, the miniseries concentrates on some major historical events.  The Battle of Midway is covered in episode 3.  Warren Henry participates in the dive bombing of a Japanese aircraft carrier.  The use of actual footage is problematical as some of it is from later battles (ex. there is some kamikaze footage) and some is from “Tora! Tora! Tora!”.  Raymond Spruance (J.D. Spradlin) and his decision making gets nice coverage.  He actually gets to defend himself against the historical criticisms of his lack of a killer instinct. 

               There are two threads that deserve mentioning.  The mini-series does an excellent job on the Hitler assassination conspiracy.  We are in from planning through execution to aftermath.  The other thread is the Holocaust.  The mini-series is a great tutorial.  One scene has Himmler visiting Auschwitz for a chilling “Special Action” where the commandant walks him through the process from the Nazi perspective.  Step by step.  Very efficient.  Aaron’s brother Berel (Topol) is in the camp so we get the Jewish perspective as well.    Aaron and Natalie’s train trip is not horrific enough, but you get the idea.  The gas chamber scene is the best I’ve seen and does not cop out like its equivalent in “Schindler’s List”.  For a TV movie, the mini-series is amazingly uncensored.  There is realistic nudity.  This is one of several powerful and emotional Holocaust scenes that take the series to a high level.

               Besides the drama of the fictional characters interwoven in the historical events, the show takes the viewers behind the scenes at the highest government levels.  Churchill (Robert Hardy), FDR (Ralph Bellamy), and Hitler (Steven Berkoff) are recurring characters.  Hitler’s descent into madness is well-chronicled.  In a similar vein, the storyline is bridged with footage and narration keeping us abreast of developments in the war.  The footage matches the transcript which is a great tutorial for the ignorant masses.

               “War and Remembrance” is a commendable accomplishment.  The effort invested is obvious and noteworthy.  You can see why it cost $110 million.  Dan Curtis was serious in making a blockbuster.  It is hard to imagine anyone duplicating the effort in the future.  In fact, W&R has been described as the last miniseries.  It brought a nice close to the heyday of these types of TV spectacles.  The location shooting was especially laudatory.  Curtis was the first to film on site at Auschwitz.  The foreign locales add authenticity to the story and give it a sightseeing aura.

               The cast changes are an upgrade from WoW.  As great as Houseman was as an actor, Gielgud does a better job depicting the naivete evolving into bravery of Aaron Jastrow.  Seymour is simply a better actress than McGraw which is important because Natalie goes through a gut-wrenching roller coaster ride.  Hardy and Berkoff (a Jew, by the way) are improvements over the earlier Churchill and Hitler.  Berkoff deserves recognition as one of the best Hitlers and Hardy has made a career of playing Churchill.

               As far as the acting in general, it is good.  The exceptions unfortunately are some key roles starting with Pug.  Mitchum definitely shows his age and sleep walks through the role.  He was almost seventy when the film was made.  His heart was not in it although he got to play out the fantasy of having a woman (Tennant) who was 33 years younger than him wanting to jump his tired old bones.  Tennant is weak as an actress although at least she manages not to look disgusted when pretending to be infatuated with the lackluster laconic lump of a career sailor.  Barry Bostwick jazzes things up as “Lady” Aster, the unstable sub captain who has an affair with Byron’s sister-in-law (Sharon Stone who appears at one point in a mini-skirt circa 1942).  The fact that Byron also jumps in the sack with Janice while pining for Natalie and his son Louis emphasizes the soap opera nature of the mini-series.  This, of course, pales in comparison to the Pug / Rhoda / Pamela goings on.  Naturally, in mini-series that clocks in at 1620 minutes, this love triangle gets tedious to go along with the creepy aspects of the May-December Pug and Pamela affair.

               The length of the mini-series also means that we have the interminable arc of the Jastrows’ path to the gas chambers.  It’s almost laughable the twists the screenwriters have to go through to prevent this arc from coming to a premature (but realistic end).  Two things have to come into play here.  Aaron has to be played as a hopeless optimist until they are completely trapped.  Although it is implicit, not explicit, Aaron’s behavior could be argued to accurately reflect the naivete that caused many Jews to disregard the omens.  As to Natalie, she has to  consistently wimp out when opportunities arise to save herself and her child.  I did not feel sorry for either one of them.

               A poor decision was made to make Byron Henry the action figure of the series.  The submarine scenes are the biggest whoppers in the series.  The interiors and operations are fine, but the tactics are abysmal.  Twice the sub surfaces for no logical reason.  The surface battle with the destroyer shows a complete ignorance of submarine warfare on the part of the writers.  (I do not know if Wouk staged it this way in the novel.)  That sub would not have survived that encounter in reality,  let alone left the destroyer crippled.

               In conclusion, it’s unfair to harp on some of the obvious weaknesses in W&W.  When you look at it in totality, it is a remarkable achievement.  While I found the romance interludes to be lame and repetitive, if you spend $110 million, you better bring in a female demographic.  The action loses out to the drama, but it is spaced out to keep people like me tuned in.  As a big fan of history, it’s fun to see the behind the scenes stuff like Hitler’s conflicts with his generals.  Most importantly, the Holocaust is covered in great detail through two story lines.  you certainly learn more about the event than you do from watching “Schindler’s List”.

GRADE = B

MINI-SERIES: The Winds of War

 

               “The Winds of War” is a mini-series that appeared on TV in 1983.  It was based on the novel by Herman Wouk and he wrote the teleplay.  Wouk was very hands on in bringing his work to the screen and even had a cameo in the series.  It was directed by Dan Curtis.  The series was very expensive and was filmed at numerous locations around the globe.  It was a big ratings success and got several Emmy nominations.  The story covers the period from March, 1939 through December, 1941.  It basically places career naval officer “Pug” Henry (Robert Mitchum) and his family in the midst of events leading up to the war.  The series mixes them in with historical characters including the major world leaders like Hitler, Mussolini, Roosevelt, and Churchill.

               The series is so sprawling it is impossible to summarize, but here are some of the basics.  Pug is available for globetrotting to wherever the political or military action is.  Meanwhile his family is being personally effected by the war.  Each of them gets a romance.  His wife Rhoda (Polly Bergen) loves high society and rubbing shoulders with world leaders (she certainly married the right man for that!).  Pug is gone a lot, what with being in the Navy plus having to be on the scene for any significant event, so she dallies with Fred Kirby (Peter Graves).  Two can play that game.  Pug has a British bird half his age named Pamela (Victoria Tennant) that has a crush on him.  This is creepy not just because of the age difference, but because Pamela is vivacious and Pug is as uncharismatic as a slug.  There is not enough chemistry here to get an ant high.  Speaking of which.  Their youngest son Byron (Jan Michael-Vincent) marries an older, feisty Jewish girl named Natalie Jastrow (Ali MacGraw) so we get a connection to the Holocaust.  One of the themes of the series is the naivete of most European Jews when it came to reading the omens.  A lot of time is spent on Natalie trying to get herself and her uncle (and her baby) off of the cliff.  They keep backing away and then running up to the edge.  It gets farcical after a while.  Idiots, why not just knock on the concentration camp door and get it over with!

               If you can put up with all the romantic shenanigans, the filler is quite good and informative. The series hits all the major events leading to war in Europe and then shifts toward getting the U.S. involved.  We go behind closed doors to the inner circles to see the politics.  It’s not quite “Game of Thrones”, but as close as the 20^th Century got to it.  The best acting is by the actors who portray the heavy weights like Hitler, Churchill, and Roosevelt (Ralph Bellamy).  There is a lot of verbatim speechifying.  If you don’t know how the world got in such a mess, you will have a pretty good idea after watching this.  The series effectively uses a narrator to lead into the higher level scenes and to bridge to the next event.  There is also effective use of archival footage.

               As unrealistic as it is, the series manages to put Pug in some situations that provide quite a bit of excitement to balance the smoochy stuff.  Besides being the only person in history to chat with Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Churchill, and FDR (sorry Hirohito, you’re not on his friends list), he also gets to see some action.  For instance, he suits up for the first RAF bombing mission to Berlin.  He’s on board an escort destroyer for convoy duty in the North Atlantic.  He witnesses the blitzkrieg in Russia.  He hops on a horse in Poland to join the lancers in a charge against German tanks.  Okay, I made that last one up (although the movie has a reference to that incident).  He is the Zelig of WWII.  All this without using his facial muscles or showing any emotion.

               The most impressive thing about the teleplay is the references to beyond WWII 001.  The series throws in details that bring nods from people who are well-versed on the war.  For instance, there is a scene where Churchill decides not to accede to French pleas of maximum RAF support to avoid conquest.  Churchill consults with the RAF chief and makes the harsh decision to save his squadrons for the next battle.  The infancy of radar is delved into.  It is accurately called RDF by the British.  There is a good scene where Pug visits an Operational Center (where Pamela coincidentally works) to see the vectoring of fighters to meet Luftwaffe bombers.

               The money spent on the series is most apparent in the location shooting.  The globe-trotting is truly impressive.  Curtis takes the time to throw in local color like some running of the horses spectacle in Italy.  Some of that money might have been better spent on the effects.  There is too much reliance on models for the air combat and naval scenes.  This miniseries could have really used CGI.  The use of actual footage helps and the series also makes use of shots from earlier war movies.  For instance, the Pearl Harbor attack inserts footage from
“Tora! Tora! Tora!” and I swear I recognized a carrier landing from the obscure “Dive Bomber” (which may have been borrowed itself).

               Some of the money could also have been put toward higher quality actors.  Robert Mitchum was a big star, but much too old for the role especially if you are going to pair him off with an actress 33 years younger.  Not only that but there must have been some thought that the series would go on to a sequel.  He was around age 70 when “War and Remembrance” was made!  The rest of the cast is B-list and it shows.  Polly Bergen does well as the scene chewing Mrs. Henry and John Houseman brings gravitas as the brilliant, but laughably naïve Aaron Jastrow.  The biggest problems are MacGraw and Michael-Vincent who have virtually no chemistry as the separated lovers.  Ben Murphy is not given enough to do as the other Henry boy.  As already mentioned the acting accolades go to the actors who portray the world leaders.  They are uniformly able.

GRADE =  B-

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (2023)

 

            “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial” is a film based on the play that Herman Wouk adapted from his novel of 1954.  It was directed by 88-year-old William Friedkin (“Rules of Engagement”).  It was his first movie since 2011.  Because of his age, the insurance company insisted that Guillermo Del Toro be on set as back-up director.  Del Toro was not needed.  Friedkin finished the picture one day early after 14 days.  Sadly, Friedkin died after the film was finished.  And Lance Reddick also passed away before the movie premiered.  The movie is set in the Persian Gulf War, instead of WWII.

            For those of you who have seen “The Caine Mutiny” starring Humphrey Bogart, this movie covers just the trial.  It doesn’t use flashbacks to cover the incidents mentioned in the trial.  Lt. Meryk (Jake Lacy) is on trial for mutiny.  His defense attorney is Lt. Greenwald (Jason Clarke).  He makes it quite clear from the start that he thinks Meryk is guilty.  But you’re stuck with me because nobody else wanted to defend you.  But like every good defense lawyer, Greenwald is willing to disregard his feelings and put up a stout defense.  This begins with the first witness -  Capt. Queeg (Kiefer Sutherland).  Sutherland plays Queeg the same as Bogart.  He comes off as a captain with low self esteem and paranoia (which are what the psychiatrist testifies to) and a person who is clearly in denial about command problems.  This is the impression we get, but we do not see the incidents acted out, so it is not clear whether he screwed up in the incidents that the 1954 movie covers.  Another witness is Lt. Keefer (Lewis Pullman).  Keefer does not back up his supposed friend’s justifications for taking over command of the ship in a cyclone.  An expert witness testifies that Queeg’s preferred heading for the ship in the storm was the correct one, but he is forced to admit that under the circumstances, Meryk might have been right.  Throughout the trial, the officer in charge of the trial, Capt. Blakely (Reddick), reins in Greenwald for the good of the Navy’s reputation and the reputation of Queeg.  Meryk testifies and goes over the various incidents including the Caine cutting its own cable, the “yellow stain” incident, and of course, the strawberries incident.  Queeg is called back to refute all of that.  He rolls his marbles as he gets uncomfortable with everyone’s realization that he is a bit unhinged.  The movie concludes similar to the 1954 film.

            I rewatched the 1954 film in preparation for this review.  I have to admit I have been a bit harsh with the film because of Greenwald’s treatment of Meryk.  The movie makes it quite clear that Queeg was a poor leader and Meryk’s removal of him saved the ship and all its crew.  I still think Meryk was right, but I can see Greenwald’s disgust at Meryk and the rest of the officers not showing empathy when the Queeg asked for help.  I still think Greenwald could have climbed down from his high horse.  This movie makes it less clear whether Meryk was justified.  And Keefer’s testimony is the only evidence that he was an asshole.  The earlier film makes a stronger case for Greenwald’s disgust with him.  In this movie, you wonder why Greenwald is over the top in the final scene.  Why is he so upset with a guy who lied to save his skin, if Greenwald does not think Meryk is guilty?  The movie makes his motivation clearer because it establishes Keefer’s role in the mutiny.  This movie also makes the odd decision not to mention Queeg asking the officer’s for help.       

            One has to wonder what was the point of making this movie.  Sure, it is interesting to see different actors in the iconic roles, but the dialogue is essentially the same.  By forgoing flashbacks (probably due to the movie basically being a play), we don’t get the true story of what happens.  We get a “he said, he said” situation.  Neither movie has Meryk on the stand defending his actions during the cyclone, but the earlier movie enacts the incident.  This movie also completely abandons the subplot of Keith’s love life.  Keith just appears briefly as a witness who backs up Meryk.  He is not used as a rookie officer having to deal with the Captain and the other officers who turn on Queeg.  The trade-off for more witness testimony and a meatier role for the prosecuting attorney and the judge does not make up for the loss of the enactments.

            The movie is entertaining mainly as an actor’s showcase.  All of the cast hold their own in comparison to the original cast.  Kiefer Sutherland is fine filling Bogart’s shoes and it took balls to take the role.  He does have the balls (in his hands), but he does not try to replicate Bogie’s performance.  Monica Raymund is excellent as Lt. Commander Challee and her character is much more searing than that of E.G. Marshall in the original movie.  It was a nice touch putting a female in that role.  Speaking of roles, Dale Dye is part of the court-martial panel, but he has no lines!

            If you have not seen the 1954 movie, I strongly recommend that you watch it before watching this movie.  This movie is a fine as an addition, but as a stand alone, it lacks the coverage of the 1954 film.  This is not its fault because it puts the play on film and apparently does not change the plot.  I put the blame on Wouk.  He had to agree to changes in the novel in order to get Navy cooperation to make the movie.  He did not have to cave to do the play.

GRADE  =  B-