When I was in high school, I discovered Herman Wouk’s great fictional two-volume saga of World War II, The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. Together, the books are a sweeping history of an American military family and Jewish Europeans during World War II. The first book begins around the time of Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939 and ends with Pearl Harbor; the second book begins shortly thereafter and goes until the end of the war. Both were turned into lengthy TV miniseries in the 1980s.
I was vaguely aware of the TV version of “The Winds of War” when I was a kid. Several years later, in the fall of 1988, my family moved to Tokyo. During the three years we lived there, our friends back home would occasionally send us videotapes of American TV shows. These were always a treat, because we never knew what we’d get; we’d just get a VCR tape in the mail containing six whole hours worth of unexpected entertainment. This was before the Web, of course; the only English-language TV we had in Tokyo was CNN International and several-years-old American programming on NHK. So these videotapes were a wonderful taste of home.
Among the shows we received on tape in the fall of 1988 were several installments of the 12-part miniseries “War and Remembrance.” We only got a few of the early episodes, but I’d always been interested in World War II, and I was completely drawn in, even by the graphic Holocaust scenes.
I decided to read the books. I managed to find a copy of “The Winds of War” in our high school library (I went to an American school), and I devoured all 900 pages. Shortly thereafter, I picked up “War and Remembrance” and began reading that one, but I only got about halfway through it; one day I put it down and never managed to pick it up again.
Occasionally I’d re-watch the limited videotapes we had of “War and Remembrance,” but I never saw any of the second half. Because I never read the second half of the book and never saw the second half of the miniseries, I never knew what became of these characters and how it ended. Did Natalie Jastrow, the American Jewish woman trapped in Europe with her Uncle Aaron and her baby, ever get out of Europe? Did they get caught by the Nazis? I never found out.
A couple of months ago, after reading a book about the Third Reich, I thought about “War and Remembrance” again. It turned out to be on DVD, so I made it my mission to finally watch the whole thing. I added all 12 discs to my Netflix queue. When it originally ran on TV, it was 30 hours long. Without commercials, it’s probably about 22 or 23 hours.
I just finished watching it tonight. Finally.
Wow. Just… wow. The last two episodes in particular.
I can’t believe it took me 18 years to get to the end.
It was totally worth it.
I loved the first series! I was in High School and was such a student of World War Two that I would quote lines from historical characters as they spoke them, I am sure my Mother was a little concerned.
Now you have sparked my memory and interest, like you I never finished the series…Now I need to go back and watch it!!
Thanks for the suggestion. I’ve updated my Netflix cue.
I just finished Fall of Eagles, a BBC series from 1974 about the decline and fall of the Habsburg, Hohenzollern, and Romanov dynasties. If you like historical drama, I highly recommend it. Barry Foster as Kaiser Wilhelm II gave an excellent performance, but the show was stolen IMO by Patrick Stewart as Lenin.
I liked War and Remembrance, the bits that I saw on TV, so I’m looking forward to seeing the whole thing. I, Claudius, however, will always hold the place in my heart reserved for Best Historical Miniseries Of All Time.
How funny that you brought this up now. My mom just lent me both series on DVD (I’d watched them at the time and read the books), and I finished the second disc of The Winds of War last night. Some of it is kind of clunky, but there’s a lot to enjoy. I can’t wait to get to War and Remembrance just to replace Ali MacGraw with Jane Seymour, who I remember as being a far superior Natalie.