The Winds of War (TV miniseries)

The Winds of War is a 1983 miniseries that follows the book of the same name by Herman Wouk closely and depicts 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 fictitious general von Roon as a major character is a prominent subplot of the miniseries. Winds of War also includes segments of documentary footage narrated by William Woodson to explain major events and important characters.

According to the DVD-featurette "From Novel to Television," The Winds of War became a smashing television success, and a US national television event as never seen before. It was followed by a sequel War and Remembrance in 1988, also directed by Dan Curtis.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Reception 5 Home release 6 References 7 External links

Plot

Cast

• Robert Mitchum as Victor Henry ("Pug")
• Ali MacGraw as Natalie Jastrow
• Jan-Michael Vincent as Byron Henry ("Briny")
• John Houseman as Aaron Jastrow
• Polly Bergen as Rhoda Henry
• Lisa Eilbacher as Madeline Henry
• David Dukes as Leslie Slote
• Topol plays the 60-ish character of Berel Jastrow in the series, but was in his 40s during the production.
• Ben Murphy as Warren Henry
• Deborah Winters as Janice Lacouture Henry
• Peter Graves as Palmer Kirby ("Fred")
• Jeremy Kemp as Brig. Gen. Armin von Roon
• Ralph Bellamy as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Bellamy had previously played Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello.)
• Victoria Tennant as Pamela Tudsbury
• Günter Meisner as Adolf Hitler
• Howard Lang as Winston Churchill
• Michael Logan as Alistair Tudsbury
• Barry Morse as Wolf Stoller

Production

Author Herman Wouk was very negative and skeptical about a motion picture adaptation of his beloved and scrupulously 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 series consists of 7 episodes, has a runtime of about 14 hours, and the script was almost 1000 pages. The estimated budget was very large for its time, about $35 million.

• The series was shot all over the world, but main shooting locations were Germany, the United States, Italy, Croatia, UK, Yugoslavia and Austria. For example the opening scene sub-titled "Berlin" was actually filmed in and around the Hofburg in Vienna.

• The Paramount production made use of battle scenes from other films during the attack scene on Pearl Harbor, including scenes from Tora! Tora! Tora!

• 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.

• Logan Ramsey, who plays isolationist senator Ike Lacouture, is the son of Logan Ramsey, Sr. who sent one of the more famous radio messages in history, "Air Raid Pearl Harbor. This is no drill."

• Comedian Steve Martin (who, coincidentally, later married Victoria Tennant, who played Pamela Tudsbury in the TV Miniseries) created and starred in a television comedy special that aired the same night as the premiere whose title parodied the name as "The Winds of Whoopie".

Reception

Home release

The Winds of War was released on DVD by Paramount on 25 May 2004. It is also available as Region 2.

Disc 1	Part 1	The Winds Rise
Disc 2	Part 2	The Storm Breaks
Disc 3	Part 3	Cataclysm
	Part 4	Defiance
Disc 4	Part 5	Of Love and War
		Bonus Materials
Disc 5	Part 6	Changing of the Guard
Disc 6	Part 7	Into the Maelstrom

References

External links

• Winds of War at the Internet Movie Database
• Winds of War at AllRovi
• Winds of War at TV.com

Films directed by Dan Curtis 1970s House of Dark Shadows (1970) Night of Dark Shadows (1971) Dracula (1973) The Night Strangler (1973) Scream of the Wolf (1974) Trilogy of Terror (1975) Burnt Offerings (1976) When Every Day Was the Fourth of July (1978) 1980s The Long Days of Summer (1980) 1990s Intruders (1992) Me and the Kid (1993) Trilogy of Terror II (1996) The Love Letter (1998) 2000s Saving Milly (2005) Our Fathers (2005)