Miniseries – The Winds of War

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John C @RT68651509 Nov 29 I have to start with the two actors who's performance most bothered me. If Polly Bergen was urged to play the role of Rhoda Henry as an annoying, selfish, vacuous, social climbing urchin, then she nailed it. To my mind she overplayed the part to the point that it took effort to watch the end of the series. As for Ali McGraw, I observed little nuance. While 14 years after "Love Story" she looked remarkably the same, the trouble is she ACTS nearly identically to her character as Jennifer Cavaleri! As the story unfolds it devolves into comedy. I almost wish she had uttered her telltale phrase "love means never having to say you're sorry." Another weakness, which likely is the book's author's fault, was putting Pug Henry in every crucial situation with every leading major player in the timeline. Simply unbelievable! And Robert Mitchum was two decades too old to play the part. This made his budding romance with the much younger, highly attractive British woman preposterous. The actor playing Hitler made him appear to be a foul puppet, frowning and spitting fire like an artificial sourpuss. No personage like that could have captivated Germany the way the real, much more complex Adolph did. What the series had going for it was a commitment to accurately chronicalling the events with an eye toward providing just enough context to put some story telling meat on the bones of a mere litany. See more Richard T @Richard746 02/09/2025 Wonderful book with a compelling story line, but watching Robert Mitchum at 65 playing a Navy Commander spoiled it for me. He was at least 20 years too old to play this part, and he looked it. Can't really understand this sort of casting mistake. See more Remo W @RT76372797 11/12/2024 I read the book as a young man about 25 years ago, and I'm glad it feels faithful to how I remember the book. It's probably not as gripping as the original "Shogun" mini-series (with Richard Chamberlain) - whose book I also read - but it's engaging enough. See more Read all reviews

The Winds of War — Miniseries

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