The Winds of War (miniseries)
The Winds of War | |
---|---|
Genre | William Woodson |
Composer | Bob Cobert |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of episodes | 7 |
Production | |
Executive producer | Michael P. Schoenbrun |
Producers | Dan Curtis Associate: Barbara Steele Branko Lustig |
Production locations | Yugoslavia Austria Italy United Kingdom West Germany United States |
Cinematography | Charles Correll Stevan Larner |
Editors | John F. Burnett Bernard Gribble Jack Tucker Peter Zinner |
Running time | 883 minutes |
Production companies | Dan Curtis Productions Paramount Television Jadran Film |
Original release | |
Network | ABC |
Release | February 6 February 13, 1983 | –
Related | |
War and Remembrance |
The Winds of War is a 1983 American
The series was aired in seven installments between February 6 and February 13, 1983 on ABC. With 140 million viewers of part or all of Winds of War, it was the most-watched miniseries at that time.[1] It won three Primetime Emmy Awards (out of thirteen nominations[2]) and was nominated for four Golden Globe Awards,[3] including Best Miniseries or Television Film. The success of The Winds of War spawned a 1988 sequel miniseries, War and Remembrance, also based on a novel written by Wouk and also directed and produced by Curtis.[4]
Plot summary
The series follows the plot of Wouk's novel closely, depicting events from March 1939 until the entry of the United States into World War II in December 1941. It tells the story of Victor "Pug" Henry (played by Robert Mitchum), an American Naval attaché in Berlin and a confidant to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and his family, and their relationships with a mixture of real people and fictional characters. A significant subplot of the series follows the activities Adolf Hitler and the German General Staff, with the fictitious general Armin von Roon as a perspective character.
Cast
Starring
- Robert Mitchum as Victor "Pug" Henry
- Ali MacGraw as Natalie Jastrow
- Jan-Michael Vincent as Byron "Briny" Henry
- John Houseman as Aaron Jastrow
- Polly Bergen as Rhoda Henry
- Lisa Eilbacher as Madeline Henry
- David Dukes as Leslie Slote
- Topol as Berel Jastrow
- Ben Murphy as Warren Henry
- Peter Gravesas Palmer "Fred" Kirby
- Jeremy Kemp as Brig. Gen. Armin von Roon
- Special appearance by
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- Introducing
- Victoria Tennant as Pamela Tudsbury
Guest stars
- Günter Meisner as Adolf Hitler
- Walter von Brauchitsch
- Reinhard Kolldehoff as Hermann Göring
- Werner Kreindl as Col Gen Franz Halder
- Alexander Kerst as Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel
- Joachim Hansen as Field Marshal Alfred Jodl
- Anton Diffring as Joachim von Ribbentrop
- Howard Lang as Winston Churchill
- Joseph Hacker as Lt. Carter "Lady" Astor
- Michael Logan as Alistair Tudsbury
- Barry Morse as Wolf Stoller
- Deborah Winters as Janice Lacouture Henry
- Enzo G. Castellari as Benito Mussolini
- Count Ciano
- Edmund Purdom as Luigi Gianelli
- Lawrence Pressman as Bunky Thurston
- Scott Brady as Captain Red Tully
- Leo Gordon as General "Train" Anderson
- Ferdy Mayne as Ludwig Rosenthal
- Ernest King
- Andrew Duggan as Admiral Husband E. Kimmel
- Charles Lane as Admiral William Harrison Standley
- Logan Ramsey as Congressman Lacouture
- Patrick Allen as Air Marshal Hugh Dowding
- Hugh Gillin as Captain Jocko Larkin
- Ken Lynch as Rear Admiral Talbot Gray
- Bull Halsey
- Mickey Knox as Herb Rose
- Art Lund as Rear Admiral Moose Benton
- Allan Cuthbertson as Major General Tillet
- Barbara Steele as Frau Stoller
- George Murdock as Brigadier Gen. Fitzgerald
- William Berger as Phil Briggs
- Ben Piazza as Aloysius Whitman
- John Karlen as Ed
- Siegfried Rauch as Ernst Bayer
- Jacques Herlin as Paul Reynaud
Production
Development
Author
.I, Claudius screenwriter Jack Pulman was originally hired to adapt the novel. He and Wouk worked for months preparing an outline. After Pulman died suddenly in 1979, Wouk himself wrote the teleplay for the series.[6]
Casting
The casting of Lee Strasberg as Aaron Jastrow was publicly announced in February 1981.[7] Strasberg had to withdraw from the production before filming any scenes, due to ill health (he died in 1982). He was replaced by John Houseman.[8] Houseman later had to withdraw from the sequel miniseries, War and Remembrance, due to his own ill health (he died in 1988). He was replaced by John Gielgud.
Filming
Paramount produced the miniseries for $40 million ($122 million in 2023 dollars). ABC paid $32 million for the broadcast rights, then charged advertisers $175,000 for 30-second commercials and $350,000 for one-minute commercials. ABC expected simply to break even on the original broadcast and make any profits from later reruns and syndication.[9]
Principal photography began on December 1, 1980 aboard the
The series was shot at 404 locations in Europe, California and Washington state over 14 months.[6] The 962-page script contained 1,785 scenes and 285 speaking parts.[6] The production involved 4,000 camera setups and shot a million feet of exposed film. The production had a 206-day shooting schedule and came in four days ahead of schedule.
Principal locations were
The opening scene sub-titled "Berlin" was actually filmed in and around the Hofburg in Vienna. The OpsRoom at RAF Uxbridge, from which the Battle of Britain fighter defenses were commanded, is only rarely made available to the public. In the beginning of part 6, the train scenes were filmed at the Orange Empire Railway Museum with Ventura County 2-6-2 number 2.
Nazi
Music
The music was composed by Bob Cobert, a composer often associated with Curtis.
Use of stock footage
The production made use of battle scenes from other films during the attack scene on Pearl Harbor and during the German attacks on the Soviet Union, including scenes for both battles from Tora! Tora! Tora!
Episodes
The miniseries was shown by ABC in seven parts over seven evenings, between February 6 and February 13, 1983.[11] It had a runtime of 18 hours including commercials, or 14 hours 40 minutes excluding commercials. Parts One, Two, Six and Seven ran for three hours including commercials, while parts Three, Four and Five ran for two hours including commercials. It attracted an average of 80 million viewers per night.[12]
Part | Title | Original air date |
---|---|---|
1 | "The Winds Rise" | February 6, 1983 |
2 | "The Storm Breaks" | February 7, 1983 |
3 | "Cataclysm" | February 8, 1983 |
4 | "Defiance" | February 9, 1983 |
5 | "Of Love and War" | February 10, 1983 |
6 | "Changing of the Guard" | February 11, 1983 |
7 | "Into the Maelstrom" | February 13, 1983 |
Release
A premiere screening of the first episode was held in Washington D.C. at the
After running a massive year-long advertising campaign, which cost an additional $23 million,[14] ABC reported that the miniseries had 140 million viewers for all or part of its eighteen hours, making it the most-watched miniseries up to that time.[1]
Reception
Critical response
Columnist Tom Shales of The Washington Post called the miniseries "bulbous and bloated" and said "a first-year film-school student could edit three or four hours out of the thing without hurting the flow at all." Watching Winds of War, he said, "ecstatic superlatives like 'competent' and 'acceptable' come to mind." He ridiculed the performances, and described the actors as too old for their roles.[16]
The show was a success throughout the United States and received many accolades, including Golden Globe nominations and various Emmy wins and nominations.[17]
Awards and nominations
References
- ^ Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "The Winds of War". Television Academy. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
- ^ a b "Winds of War, The". Golden Globes. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
- ^ The Winds of War, DVD-featurette.
- ^ Wouk, Herman (June 14, 1981). "Herman Wouk: 'A Faithful Adaptation'". The New York Times.
- ^ a b c d "ABC-TV, Paramount Studio go with 'Winds of War'". The Town Talk from Alexandria, Louisiana. February 5, 1983. p. 30.
- ^ "Disney hows To Appear On CBS-TV Next Season". The New York Times. Associated Press. February 26, 1981.
- Observer-Reporter. Washington, Penna. Associated Press. February 3, 1983. Retrieved February 9, 2023 – via news.google.com.
- ^ Clarke, Gerald (February 7, 1983). "The $40 Million Gamble: ABC goes all out on its epic The Winds of War". Time.
- ^ "The Winds of War". DVD-featurette.
- ^ "The Winds of War - episode list". IMDb. Accessed 2013-08-27.
- ^ "Winds of War". DVD Talk. Accessed 2013-08-27.
- ^ Bumiller, Elisabeth (February 4, 1983). "Hollywood at 'War'". The Washington Post. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
- ^ Bedell, Sally (April 24, 1983). "For the TV Networks, the Key to Success is a Long Story". The New York Times.
- ^ O'Connor, John (February 6, 1983). "TV View; 'the Winds of War'-Open to Question, but Often Impressive". The New York Times. Retrieved 2019-12-26.
- ^ Shales, Tom (February 6, 1983). "The Winds of War". The Washington Post. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
- ^ "The Winds of War: Awards", IMDb, 1983-02-06, retrieved 2016-01-17
External links
- Winds of War at IMDb
- Winds of War at AllMovie
- The Winds of War opening titles on YouTube