| The Winds Of War |
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PLOT INTRODUCTION The story revolves around a mixture of real and fictional characters, all connected in some way to the extended family of Victor "Pug" Henry, a middle-aged Naval Officer and confidant of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt . The story begins eight months before Germany 's Invasion Of Poland , which begins the war, and ends shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when the United States , and therefore, by extension, the Henrys, enters the war as well. PLOT SUMMARY As the story begins, Victor Henry is appointed naval Attaché in Berlin . During the boat trip to Europe , Victor befriends a British radio personality, Alastair "Talky" Tudsbury, and his daughter, Pamela. While in Germany, Victor meets a German military General , Armin von Roon, who later becomes the viewpoint character for the German side of the war, and witnesses the worsening of the German Government 's Discrimination Against The Jews . He also notices the intent of the Germans to invade Poland and realizing that this would mean war with the Soviet Union , he concludes the only way for Germany to safely invade is to agree not to go to war with the Soviets. Going over his supervisor's head, he submits a report predicting the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact before it takes place. The report draws President Roosevelt's attention on him, and persuades the President to ask Pug to be his unofficial eyes and ears in Europe. This assignment delays again his desired sea command, but later will give him the opportunity to travel to London , Rome and Moscow and meet historical figures like Winston Churchill , Mussolini and Stalin . His wife Rhoda, meanwhile, is forced to spend time away from her husband, at first in Berlin and then in Washington , and begins a relationship with a government engineer named Palmer Kirby, who later will be involved in the first phase of the Manhattan Project . For his part, Pug begins a platonic but very close and borderline romantic relationship with Pamela, but can't decide to leave his wife Rhoda for her. After having finally obtained the command of a battleship, the '' USS California '', he leaves for Pearl Harbor. Pug's three children have their own story lines. His older son, Warren, enrolls in the Navy Flight School in Florida. His daughter, Madeline, gets involved in American Radio . The one who gets the most story time devoted to him is middle child and younger son Byron, named after the English Poet . Though well-educated and Navy-commissioned , Byron is at loose ends for finding a job. In 1939 he accepts a job as a research assistant for an expatriate Jewish American author, Aaron Jastrow, who is best known for his book, ''A Jew's Jesus'' and lives in Siena , Italy . He also meets Jastrow's niece, Natalie, and her former boyfriend, Leslie Slote, whom she still loves and who works for the Department Of State . We'll discover later that Natalie is also a good friend of Pamela Tudsbury. As Byron and Natalie spend more time together - they're visiting her family's Polish native town, Oswiecim , when the war begins - they fall in love. She ends her romantic relationship with Slote, but he stays good friends with both of them. In 1941 , she marries Byron, who displayed unsuspected qualities during the Siege Of Warsaw , and devotes herself to getting her reluctant uncle out of Europe to escape the coming Holocaust , although she is now pregnant. All the storylines are left at a Cliffhanger as the war begins. Rhoda makes and then retracts a request for a divorce. With the ''California'' already out of action, Pug gets command of a cruiser. Byron, pressed by his father, has joined the Navy as a submarine officer, and his brother Warren graduated from Pensacola, married a Representative 's daughter, Janice Lacouture, and is assigned to '' USS Enterprise ''. Aaron, Natalie, and Natalie's infant son Louis are trapped in Europe as the war begins. These storylines continue through '' War And Remembrance ''. MINISERIES Author Herman Wouk was very negative and skeptical about a Motion Picture adaptation of his beloved and scrupuosly researched novel, since he was most displeased with several earlier adaptations of his novels. But in 1983, Winds of War eventually became a successful Mini-series on the ABC Television network directed by Dan Curtis . Herman Wouk himself wrote the Teleplay for the series and had considerable influence on the production itself, and gave detailed instructions on what and how many Commercials would be allowed. Wouk also has a Cameo as the Archbishop of Siena .The music with its famous main theme was composed by Bob Cobert , a composer often associated with Curtis. Nazi Concentration Camp -survivor Branko Lustig was an Associate Producer in the miniseries, and also on Schindler's List . The miniseries follows the book closely and depict events from March 1939 until the entry of the United States into World War II in December 1941. Just as in the book, in addition to the lives of the Henry and Jastrow-families, much time in the miniseries is devoted to the major global events of this period. Adolf Hitler and the German military staff with the fictious general von Roon as a major character is a prominent subplot of the miniseries. Winds of War also includes segments of documentary WW2-footage narrated by William Woodson to explain major events and important characters. This miniseries was followed by the sequel War And Remembrance in 1988. Major historical events covered
Major cast of characters Robert Mitchum - Victor Henry ("Pug") Curtis originally envisioned a man in his late 40s, early 50s in this part, but said that he couldn´t find anyone with the suitable authority and WW2-era quality until they found Mitchum. Ali MacGraw - Natalie Jastrow Curtis first thought Ali was too old for the part, but changed his mind after meeting MacGraw herself. Associate producer Barbara Steele described her as having the right independence for Natalie. She was however not rehired for the sequel "War and Remembrance" Jan-Michael Vincent - Byron Henry ("Briny") Vincent had according to Curtis a rumour of being a bit troublesome, and partied hard during the production and often came up unprepared, but Curtis said after some rehearsals he put up a great, natural performance. As with MacGraw, Vincent was also not rehired for the sequel. John Houseman - Aaron Jastrow Polly Bergen - Rhoda Henry Lisa Eilbacher - Madeline Henry David Dukes - Leslie Slote Topol - Berel Jastrow Chaim Topol is acting as the old man Berel Jastrow in the series, but was in his 40s during the production. Ben Murphy - Warren Henry Peter Graves - Palmer Kirby ("Fred") Jeremy Kemp - Brig. Gen. Armin Von Roon Ralph Bellamy - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt Victoria Tennant - Pamela Tudsbury This was one of the producers toughest casting choices, until they finally found Tennant. Curtis said after he saw her physical suitability for the role "God, let her be able to act!" Günter Meisner - Adolf Hitler Howard Lang - Winston Churchill Michael Logan - Alistair Tudsbury Reception According to the DVD-featurette "From Novel to Television" The Winds of War became a smashing television success, and a US national television event like never seen before. Trivia The series consists of 7 episodes, has a runtime of about 14 hours, and the script was almost a 1000 pages. The estimated budget was very large for its time, about $35 million. The series was shot in all over the world, but main shooting locations were Germany , USA , Italy , Croatia , UK , Yugoslavia and Austria . The Paramount production made use of battle scenes from other Paramount films during the attack scene on Pearl Harbor, including scenes from Tora! Tora! Tora! The footage of the attack on Pearl Harbor was shot on December 7th. The OpsRoom at RAF Uxbridge from which the Battle of Britain fighter defences were commanded, is only rarely made available to the public. Producers managed to get permission to film there. DVD-release Winds of War was finally released on DVD by Paramount on 25 May 2004. However, it is yet only available as Region 1. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS REFERENCES
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