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The Winds of War
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|  | | 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.
| | Shamefully limited DVD of a superlative series | |
| | | The one star refers to the DVD version only. The original Winds of War miniseries is superlative, the best miniseries I have ever seen on television. But this DVD is woefully, shamelessly and utterly disappointingly limited. NO extras. NO sound enhancement from the original, cramped TV monaural audio to enhanced stereo or surround sound. The DVD video quality is somewhat better than VHS. But absent better sound, the DVD's are not worth the price if one already has the VHS version. I'm glad I rented the first disk from Netflix in order to sample it before buying the set. I cannot overstate my dismay over the lack of sound improvement. The original musical soundtrack was superb in its own right, and battle scenes and other sonics also cried out to be stereo-ized and surround-ized. But the producers of this DVD evidently decided to go the cheapie route. Again, what a disappointment!
| | | ...for me, at least. I watched this miniseries when it aired way back when, and remember liking it a lot then. In addition, I am a big Robt. Mitchum fan. So, when this set became available at my local Costco, I snatched it up in anticipation of enjoying it all over again. Alas, this was not to be. After sitting through the first disc, my thought was "Well, maybe it takes time to get going". By the middle of the second disc, I shut it off, quite disappointed. In short, too much time was spent on the relationships of the characters and not nearly enough on the title topic. Now, in all fairness, I was a U.S. history major in college, so clearly that was my focus. Still, all the 'character development' felt, to me, like just so much fluff to fill in between the historical drama. I really wanted to like this series and to be able to say "Don't even think about it-just go buy it!", but sorry, no dice. Perhaps if I had watched the entire production, I would have come around, but there just wasn't enough there to hold me.
| | | I have been waiting years for The Winds Of War to come out on DVD, and am very happy that it is finally released. When I was younger (10 years old when it was first diffused on tv), I became hooked on it's story, it's accuracy and detail on the main events on the second world war, and the relations and hardships of the characters involved. This for me was as much a history lesson (normally history at school is boring, this however was enlightening and disturbing at times) as an adventure story.
The memeory of this film brought me eventually to reading the novel along with it's sequel, War and Rememberance. Like most well written books, the novel is even better than the films. I have, sadly, never seen the W&R mini-series.
When the The Winds of War was re-diffused a few years later on tv, I was again hooked, even though it was scheduled for 1am in the morning once a week.I have, for this moment not bought the DVD. Let me explain. I live in Europe, and although I have the capability to view the Zone 1 DVD with my computer, I would rather wait. I myself am English. But I live in France since 5 years, and I would really be happy if someone could let me know if both DVD Mini-series will soon be released in Europe, and if so, will they be available with the french translation. I would dearly love to show these pieces of excellences to my wife, who does not speak English, and also to my little girl when she is a bit older. PLEASE HELP SOMEONE, THESE DVD'S ARE NOT TO BE MISSED
The french for 'The Winds of War' is 'Le Souffle De La Guerre' phoebe8@wanadoo.fr
| | | The Winds Of War is very nicely packaged in six separate DVD holders held in a small box. It is certainly superior to the handsomely packaged but oversized boxes that were used for the War And Remembrance set and certainly a lot cheaper to buy.
Robert Mitchum is clearly the star of the show and the war stories where he meets with the world's leaders are great storytelling. The movie's accuracy to history,among the story,is a plus.
The disc also has four documetaries that tell the making of and are good watching for film buffs.
The down side is the overlong story between Ali McGraw's character and Jan Michael Vincent's character. They are a pretty charmless couple,but the rest of the series is great viewing.
I always remembered,for 23 years,the scene between Pug and Stalin and the war scenes are awesome. Well worth having.
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