War and Remembrance Part 2 [VHS]

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, and this world's historical record. Can you imagine the severe tension and anxiety that the Count experienced as he was arming the bomb, and, later making his getaway? Dumont did it all so masterfully!

The cinematographer's choice of raw film stock, and 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, and 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 and Aaron; the gassings, with full frontal nudity, which, as I recall, were the same as I remember in the original ABC TV telecast; the SS's additudes that their conduct was a "funny" thing; and SS man Blobel's flashback of his Babi Yar Massacre participation. This was as close to the real thing as it gets and 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 finally 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 and somber, pointing towards potential martyrdom.

Every time I view the death of Dr. Jastrow, played by Sir John Geilgud, I cry. He really 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 Hall), the erstwhile healer of Barnabas Collins' (Ben Cross, role pioneered by Jonathan Frid) vampirism.