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The Winds of War (1983)
Rate:
7
Viewed:
7/25
7/25:
The most difficult part is what rating to give The Winds of War.
At first, it felt like '9'. The longer the show went on, the worse it got despite the remaining strong positive
elements, so '8' was out of the question. Losing my patience during the final three parts, I became glad it was all
over and had debated whether the miniseries deserved a '6' or a '7' before reluctantly settling on the latter.
Yes, the WWII narrative is historically accurate, and the cinematography is outstanding from start to finish,
thanks to the soft lighting, the buildings, the costumes (50,000 in total), and the hundreds of location shots
in six different countries. Yet it's so damned long with tons of fillers, lasting almost fifteen hours. The
remedy is simple: cut out all scenes involving Natalie Jastrow and Rhoda Henry. They contribute nothing of
significance to the grand scheme of things.
A lot of people have complained about Robert Mitchum for being too old to play Victor "Pug" Henry. I must say he
was perfect, very dignified and respectable, and thought highly of his credibility by starring
in various military pictures such as Story of G.I. Joe,
The Enemy Below,
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison,
The Hunters, and Anzio. The bottom line is
Robert Mitchum is the major selling point of the miniseries; had he not been the headliner, I wouldn't have
watched it in the first place.
By the way, has there been a person, real or fictional, other than Pug who had met all five important people
of WWII in his lifetime: Hitler, Churchill, FDR, Stalin, and Mussolini? It's an impressive accomplishment if
you think about it. Yet I don't understand how David Dukes' character, Leslie Slote, was able to be in the right
place all the time. Is his job function really that important?
It's hard for me to say who gave a better performance: Ralph Bellamy as FDR or
Günter Meisner as Hitler. They were neck to neck, and Bellamy ended up being recognized. Many thought
Günter Meisner's impersonation was cartoonish, but I found it extremely impressive. Of course, the same must
be said for others playing important people, right down to their likeness, and they even managed to get
an actress who could match Eleanor Roosevelt's protruding teeth.
All right, the negatives will have to be pointed out as they did the most damage to The Winds of War.
There have been times I thought it was unfocused. Some of the scenes go on and on for no reason. I blame Dan
Curtis for it by providing bad direction. At least 75% of the battles are disappointing. Obviously, that's done
to save money. Look at the toy models for ships. Oy vey!
The Pearl Harbor incident (were some shots pilfered from
Tora! Tora! Tora!?) is too brief when it should've gotten a lot of
coverage because I don't think the public understands how the United States and Japan had gotten to that point
to warrant a surprise attack. In fact, Wikipedia mentions it "was preceded by months of
negotiations between the U.S. and Japan over the future of the Pacific. Japanese demands included that the U.S.
end its sanctions against Japan, cease aiding China in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and allow Japan to access
the resources of the Dutch East Indies."
Now, we come to Ali MacGraw. Whooo...is there a worse actress than her at the time? I'm surprised she was able
to find work in a massive production that's partially backed by Paramount after cheating on Robert Evans with
Steve McQueen. Whenever it's her character's turn, the issues are endlessly the same. The passport...the
passport...the passport...she's stuck in Warsaw...she's stuck in Lisbon...she's stuck in Rome...but who the hell
cares?!?!?!? Natalie is so stupid that all of the problems are 100% her own doing. Why couldn't the Jewish
"princess" stay home and, more importantly, disappear forever? John Houseman as her uncle is equally useless.
Giving Ali MacGraw a stiff competition is Polly Bergen as Pug's wife. Rhoda is so airheaded that she
has no idea how important her husband's job is and will gleefully push him aside if it means coming into contact
with important people in exalted circles, having expensive stuff for free, and living in stately mansions with
dozens of servants at no cost, even at the expense of Jew victims. Ironically, after seeing her this way, it
does give a new meaning to Cape Fear when Robert Mitchum was Max Cady
terrorizing Sam Bowden's wife played by Polly Bergen.
Everybody is divided in his or her opinion when it comes to Jan-Michael Vincent. Never been a good actor all of
his life, he's rather passable as Byron Henry. It's just that he held his ground against Robert Mitchum
but got dragged down so much in order to meet Ali MacGraw's level, causing him to look emasculated and/or stupid
many times over. Incidentally, this miniseries came before Airwolf happened, and the rest was history.
Elsewhere, Jeremy Kemp is solid as usual. I've got to love the medal he sported which is obviously from
The Blue Max. On the other hand, the only female of the entire cast who made
out well is Victoria Tennant despite the egregious age difference of thirty-three years when compared to Robert
Mitchum. That's when I quipped, "Why couldn't they get more tolerable actresses like her?" Oddly, I think
Deborah Winters, as Janice Henry, was falling in love with her father-in-law as evidenced in the final part.
If that's the case, then it has to be the uniform that made Robert Mitchum a certified babe magnet.
All in all, if you ask me whether or not it's a good idea to watch The Winds of War for the first time,
I will politely say no and recommend that you read William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
which covers everything about WWII including what led to it and Hitler's origins.