The Winds of War

Polly Bergen plays unhappy wife Rhoda, who turns to A-bomb developer Palmer Kirby (Peter Graves) for comfort. Pug's 19-year-old daughter, Madeline (Lisa Eilbacher), defies her iron-willed dad's decision that she stay in school by taking a job for CBS radio in New York. Compliant son Warren (Ben Murphy) can't seem to get Pug's attention despite doing everything right (including becoming a Navy pilot, eventually present at the bombing of Pearl Harbor). By contrast, Pug spends more time fuming over black sheep son Byron (Jan-Michael Vincent), who is working in increasingly Fascist Italy as an assistant to an art historian (John Houseman) while trying hard to woo the latter's exasperating niece, Natalie (Ali MacGraw). The story of Byron and Natalie takes up much of The Winds of War as the pair traverse Poland during the shock of Hitler's 1939 assault, and Jewish Natalie later finds herself trapped inside Italy facing the threat of concentration camps. Before The Winds of War ends, each of these characters will end up in places and situations, and with historical figures (Churchill, Mussolini) as well as ordinary people, they would not have anticipated outside the pressures of war. The program's length and smart script allow for a lot of ideas and background detail that pull a viewer in--happily. --Tom Keogh

Casting for Winds of War was perfect when it came to matching Wouk's characters. Despite the age differences Ali McGraw and Jan-Michael Vincent were absolutely perfect as the independent and fickle Natali Jastrow and the bull-headed Byron Henry. Robert Mitchum is the glue that holds the story together in a flawless performance as Victor "Pug" Henry, the man that meets everyone that is anyone in his role as a Naval Attache stationed in Berlin in the pre-World War II years. One of the best ever ensemble casts include stand-outperformances by Polly Bergen as Pug Henry's hard-drinking wife Rhoda, not to mention Topol, David Dukes, Victoria Tennant and John Houseman.

Winds of War has become a semi-annual event for our family. It is simply so entertaining that it never grows tiresome. The historical value alone makes it worth having in your home library.


A great min-series that stays true to the book.   March 24, 2000
Archie Mercer (Yorba Linda, CA)
72 out of 74 found this review helpful

I first read The Winds of War by Herman Wouk back around 1972. The book just absolutely grabbed me. When I heard that ABC was filming a mini-series I was a little skeptical. Very few "made for TV" movies from books really capture the true feel of the original work. THIS ONE DOES! First of all it has a great cast. Robert Mitchum was just awsome as Comander Pug Henry. Both Jan Michael Vincent and Ali McGraw were credable as older actors playing young adults. Polly Bergen, John Houseman, and Peter Graves round out an exceptional cast. The fictional account of a family caught up within historical events continues to draw my attention, even though I have watch this many times since it originally came out. Some of the many highlights include the special effects of the bombing of London, the Japanesse attack on Pearl Harbor, and the wonderful re-creation of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Hitler by Ralph Bellamy and crew. In comparing this series to War and Remembrance, which was the sequal in both book and mini-series, I would have to give the nod to this as the better. If you're looking for an accurate and riviting account of the early years of WW II, then grab this up. Yes, the cost is high but it's well worth it.


Well done, Paramount   July 6, 2004
James Luckard (Los Angeles, CA)
41 out of 42 found this review helpful

Paramount deserves major congratulations for doing right by The Winds of War with their DVD release.

I was anxious to make sure this DVD measured up, so I watched it with my old VHS playing at the same time, and switched back and forth occasionally on the remote to see the difference. It's nothing less than astonishing. The old Winds videos look unwatchable when compared to the new image, which probably looks as close as possible to the way it was shot.

This is, of course, a TV miniseries from 1983, long before anyone imagined the resolution of DVD, so it's not going to look perfect. Still, almost every time I switched to the VHS, then back, I literally said "wow." Colors are distinct and deep, details are sharp and the variously-colored hazes that afflicted most of the VHS are gone. Having only seen the series this way, the DVDs were a revelation. These discs represent what is best about DVD and its success, bringing a long-quiet catalog title back to life.

Although Paramount usually mixes new 5.1 audio tracks for their old films, with 15 hours of film here, they can't be blamed for leaving the existing mono tracks, which are certainly decent and don't detract at all from viewing the film. (I can't understand the other reviewer who gave the DVD set one star, largely because of the audio. Doesn't he understand how prohibitively expensive a new sound mix of that length, for such a complex series, would have been? We're very lucky with what we've got.)

Paramount also fixed some framing mistakes on the VHS edition. Large portions of episodes 5, 6 and 7 were noticeably off-center when compared to the re-aligned DVDs. This had never caught my attention before, but when flipping back and forth, I could see that the tops of people's heads were actually lopped off quite frequently on the VHS.

I've read horror stories of missing scenes when TV shows find their way to DVD, so I was especially anxious to be sure that wasn't the case. Rest assured, every moment of the VHS version is here. The only difference is that the commercial break spots have now been lengthened to about five seconds, where they were almost instant cuts on the VHS. This gives more of a breather between acts, which I totally approve of. (As for the other reviewer who found scenes that were not on their old VHS, I can't imagine what they were watching, but it wasn't the official Paramount 7 VHS set, which was identical to this new DVD in film content.)

The extras are also pretty thorough for a title that's clearly not going to sell millions of units. There are a series of featurettes that actually run into a pretty comprehensive feature-length documentary. Almost all the surviving cast and crew are interviewed, with the standout being series producer/director Dan Curtis. Just what a labor of love the series was for him is quickly apparent, and he has wonderfully clear memories of the production, which he is given ample time to share.

Bravo, Paramount, for giving this landmark miniseries the careful treatment it deserved.


The first half of Herman Wouk's story of the Henry family   January 30, 2004
Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota)
22 out of 24 found this review helpful

Herman Wouk's "The Winds of War" is based on the conceit of the Henry family, who manage to be in most of the "right" places as the United States heads for Pearl Harbor and involvement in World War II. Rugged "Pug" Henry (Robert Mitchum) travels with his flighty wife Rhoda (Polly Bergen) to Berlin where he is assigned as the military attache to the American Embassy. Because of an acquaintance with Brigadier General Armin von Roon (Jeremy Kemp) of the Germany army, Pug has the opportunity to learn enough about what the Nazis are doing to make an official report predicting that Hitler is going to make a pact with the Soviet Union. Because he is right, Pug is summoned to Washington, D.C. to meet with Franklin Roosevelt (Ralph Bellamy), and becomes an unofficial envoy for the President. Meanwhile, son Byron (Jan-Michael Vincent) is in Europe working as an assistant to the scholar Aaron Jastrow (John Houseman), son Warren (Ben Murphy) is training as a naval aviator, and daughter Madeline (Lisa Eilbacher) ends up getting a job working on a radio show. With these relatively few pieces Wouk covers the invasion of Poland, the German attack on the Soviets, and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Wouk wrote the script for the 1983 mini-series, directed by Dan Curtis, and one of the major strengths of "The Winds of War" is that it takes its time in telling the story of the Henrys and the Second World War (this would be even more true in the sequel, "War and Remembrance," which it seemed every episode had a great set piece). For example, in the second episode there is an extended sequence in which several main characters are caught up with American embassy personnel fleeing Warsaw during the German invasion. They are brought by the Germans to a warehouse where they are fed, then lined up, and told to identify their Jews. Diplomat Leslie Slote (David Dukes) refuses and tells the SS they should consider all the Americans to be Jews because Americans do not make a distinction. One woman immediately complains that she is not a Jew, and the SS officer asks HER to identify the Jews in their party. The scene is very intense and works without explosions or special effects, just with the knowledge of what is going to happen to the people who are separated from the others.

The storyline goes back and forth between the soap opera lives of the Henry family and the start of the war in Europe. The defining plotline of this mini-series is Byron's involvement with Aaron and his niece, Natalie (Ali McGraw) in terms of getting the Jastrows, who are Jewish, out of harm's way, which is to say, out of Europe. Of course, Byron falls in love with Natalie and it is there relationship that will end up providing the final scene of the Wouk's massive saga in "War and Remembrance."

The other key soap opera element is the relationship between Pug and young Pamela Tudsbury (Victoria Tennant), the daughter of a renowned British radio commentator. As unlikely as it might seem, until you get sick and tired of Rhoda, Pug and Pamela become attracted to each other and fall in love, but if you think our hero is going to do anything about that when he is still married, then you have another thing coming. But fate is going to keep throwing these two together around the globe until something changes as Pug follows FDR's instructions and keeps finding the front seat of the war.

"The Winds of War" provides a sense of people living through the history. Despite the soap opera elements, Wouk provides a sense of history. Wouk's script ran 962 pages, contained 1785 scenes, shot in 267 locations, in six countries and on two continents, to end up with 15 hours of air-time. This is not to say that this mini-series is without its flaws. Mitchum has a commanding presence and you certainly buy the idea that he is a career naval officer, but his acting range is extremely limited and your ability to buy the romance between his character and Pamela is up to you. However, I do not think you can blame him for his interest.

However, the embarrassment in this cast is Ali McGraw. It is not that the actress was in her 40s when she played the part but just that she is such a bad actress. Add to that the fact that her character is either stupidly stubborn or stubbornly stupid, a trait inherited from her uncle's side of the family, and you spend most of this mini-series hoping that she gets killed so that Bryon can get home. However, the Jastrows are obviously fated to go to a concentration camp, and since Natalie and Byron drive by the Polish town once called Auschwitz by the Austrians in the first episode, you even know which one it is going to be.

All three of the main actors involved in the Jastrow plotline would be replaced in "War and Remembrance," and this last time watching "The Winds of War" I tried to think upon how things might have worked if Jane Seymour had been playing Natalie from the beginning. I have to say that it is McGraw's performance that is the problem and not the character as written. Seymour could play stubborn without seeming stupid. But in the end it is clear the Henrys and their acquaintances are just minor figures caught up in a war that is about to involve the entire world. No wonder that I think some of the best work ever done on television has come in the form of the mini-series.


The Winds of War Soar   September 29, 2006
!Edwin C. Pauzer (New York City)
21 out of 22 found this review helpful

Because I read the book years before this became a production, I waited with anticipation. This time the author Herman Wouk made sure that the book was faithfully recreated. I found the result and the theme music immensely pleasurable in spite of some critics who labelled it "World at Bore."

The story centers on one family just before the start of World War II when Victor "Pug" Henry is assigned as a naval attache to Berlin. The events of the world swallow up this navy family as the reader follows the other family members around the world at war. You learn about the people they meet, political and personal.

The acting and character roles are an excellent match from A to Z with the exception of the letters A and M for Ali McGraw. Although she fits the description of Natalie Jastrow, her acting requires someone behind the curtain with a very long cane. Truly, she pulls off one scene so poorly, it will give you the chills of embarrassment. Her redemption comes in the form of the other actors such as Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen, Victoria Tennant, and John Houseman. These actors play their characters superbly.

This story, book or DVD is an epic. For this one, you turn off the phone, turn down the lights, get the popcorn ready, and get set to be entertained. It would help if you have a healthy love and knowledge of history, particularly World War II.

Your only disappointment may be the realization that the end leaves you in mid plot, and you will have to get the sequel, "War and Remembrance" if you want to find out what happens to everyone.

This is a stunning sweep of history, time, people and events. The Winds of War Soar.