Review(s): DVD North and South - The Complete Collection
Gone With The Wind's counterpart
As a history major, I pruned and picked away at North and South looking for historical inaccuracies, and found little if any. This was a great series, with enough humor, drama, and juicy affairs to keep everyone interested. When it first aired, I was only interested in the Orrie - Madaline drama, as it was the stuff trashy books are based on. Of course, put any trashy drama in the middle of a bigger conflict (in this case, The Civil War) and you have a recipe for a great story that wrote itself.
The crux of the story is the relationship between Orrie and George, two who meet as young men at West Pointe to become lifelong friends and enemies as they will serve on the Northern and Southern sides of the Civil War. The mini series does a fantastic job combing the historical facts with the other socio economic and cultural factors that lead to the Civil War. It was not just about slavery, whose cause was overshadowed by zealous and inacurate history classes. We are able to watch every character as they progress from young people just starting out in the world to the opportunities, challenges and disappointments that the Civil War would bring upon us. And it makes you think we are still reeling from it all.
The juicy subplots are wonderful that keep us coming back for more. The Orry - Madeline saga is the crux of it all. How can you resist this? The handsome prince who loves the damsel in distress who is married to a terrible brute who abuses and beats her, and in Book II he even slays the dragon and rescues her from the evil fortress. How can you resist this? There are other characters as well who are wrapped up in their adulterous affairs, dirty business dealings, and causes to keep us panting for more. And the villans! Justin, the abusive master keeping the world, especially Madeline, as slaves. Virgilia, the over zealous abolitionist whose fever drives her to madness, murder and other radical causes. And Aston, the Southern Belle greedy for power and lust who is not above exposing dirty secrets and infidelity to get what she wants. It's all SOOOOO HOT.
The biggest complaint? Book III. It was so bad. I guess they felt a need to put a period on the sentance and wrap up any if all loose ends at the end of Book II. How about that beginning where Orrie is assasinated?!? Patrick Swayze didn't sign on to do it, so they had a guy with his back turned to the camera?! Oh, that was just so bad.
Still, enjoy Books I and II, they are great stories and historically as acurate as you could want on this side of Masterpiece Theater.
Great DVD set of a great miniseries
I bought this boxed set when it was first issued, and have been very very happy with it.
As to the reviewer who mentioned there was a scene missing near the end of Episode 6 of Book 1, I am not sure which scene he/she is referring to. I haven't compared the dvd to the VHS tape I have of the original ABC airing (which is almost worn out!), but I am pretty sure my DVD is complete with no cuts. The scene where Madeline flees Resolute and injures Justin is there, just as it was originally.
I have a fairly extensive DVD collection, and this is definitely a highlight in it for me.
Please help!
Before purchasing the North and South complete collection, I just have one question: is it true that some of the chapters are missing from this so called 'complete' collection? If this is true, do they sell a dvd/vhs version that has all the chapters?
Related DVD's North and South - The Complete Collection
Before Ken Burns, Glory, and Gettysburg, the Civil War proved an effective backdrop for this 1982 miniseries--available complete and uncut on this three-disc set--about two families divided by the War Between the States. John Hammond stars as John Geyser, a Southerner caught "betwixt and between" when he becomes a war correspondent for the Northern newspaper published by his uncle. Like a Civil War-era Forrest Gump, he finds himself "where history's in the making," from the Battle of Bull Run to the scene of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Stacy Keach costars as an Army scout who takes the "fresh off the farm" Geyser under his wing. Julia Duffy is the schoolmarm who loves Keach. The ham-handed dialogue is a guilty pleasure ("What's wrong with this land that... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Peck - Keach - Page - Stacy Keach DVD Release Date: Released the 06 November 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $27.95 Your Price: $25.16YOU SAVE $2.79!
Buy it
An engrossing, 1983 television miniseries based on a bestselling work of historical fiction by Herman Wouk, The Winds of War is an admirable production reminiscent of the era of Hollywood's epic features. At the center of the globe-trotting story is the Henry family, whose laconic but straight-shooting patriarch is United States Navy Commander Victor "Pug" Henry (Robert Mitchum), sent to Hitler's Berlin in the spring of 1939 as a naval attaché to the then-neutral American embassy. A keen observer, Pug deduces that Germany is not preparing for war on two fronts (western Europe on one side, Russia on the other) despite what the Nazis want the world to believe, meaning that Hitler must be working out a secret peace deal with Stalin. Pug's prescience makes him a favorite... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Robert Mitchum DVD Release Date: Released the 25 May 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $79.99 Your Price: $59.99YOU SAVE $20!
Buy it
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... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 31 August 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $89.98 Your Price: $71.98YOU SAVE $18!
Buy it
The second half of this massive miniseries covers events from the last two years of World War II with members of our fictitious family--the Henrys--scattered throughout the world. Pariah "Pug" Henry (Robert Mitchum) visits Russia and England as an advisor--and proposes to his much-younger lover, Pamela (Victoria Tennant)--before retuning to the Pacific theater to join his son Byron (Hart Bochner), a submariner, in battling the Japanese. Meanwhile, Byron's wife, Natalie (Jane Seymour), and her uncle (John Gielgud) continue their harrowing plight, starting in the "Paradise Ghetto" and leading to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
This half--11.5 hours--aired on ABC in May 1989, six months after the first half. Unfortunately there is no kinetic battle sequence like the first half's... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 31 August 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $89.98 Your Price: $67.49YOU SAVE $22.49!
Buy it
Since I've already reviewed and bought both of these as separate items, I'm not gonna repeat anything about each show (see individual reviews for that). I will just rehash what I have all along. Despite its missing pieces from the book, the Original is still 5 star material. The "in betweener" is only worth it's value because it is a disc copy (as opposed to a tape copy). My advice, buy the Original separately, and read the book to get the "real missing years". If you are building a library of "ALL Richard Chamberlain", then buy both or this combo. But be prepared to be disappointed in what the alleged "Missing Years" has to offer (again see separate review). More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Richard Chamberlain DVD Release Date: Released the 07 June 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $39.98 Your Price: $29.99YOU SAVE $9.99!
Buy it
