The end of an epoch...
...or at least it feels that way.
In January 2007, while volunteering at the Lower Southampton library during my unemployment, I borrowed their DVD copy of the 1983 miniseries The Winds of War. Why? Who knows. I'd exhausted their supply of Bond movies, Disney movies, and romantic comedies that I didn't already own, so I figured that it looked interesting. That, and it had that guy from Airwolf.
Fast-forward to May 2008... I fully expect to finish reading War and Remembrance, the second half of Herman Wouk's epic World War II duology, by the end of the week. Concurrently, I'm watching the 12-part War and Remembrance miniseries for the second time. 2,000 pages of print and 42 hours of TV later, what does it all add up to?
God damn, this is incredibly powerful writing and some of the most compelling television ever. Period.
Does it get soapy sometimes? Hoo boy.
Is it contrived that Pug Henry does all this globe-hopping and hobnobbing with FDR, Churchill, Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini? A bit.
Do the obstacles Aaron and Natalie seem to constantly encounter in their efforts to escape the clutches of the Nazis start to strain credulity? Perhaps.
Was Robert Mitchum too old to play Pug? Hell yeah, but I can't imagine anyone else in the role.
The historian in me loves these novels because they're so well-researched. Wouk uses his books to highlight a lot of the events, military campaigns, and persons that get glossed over in your high school U.S. History class. Just reading these novels has broadened my knowledge of World War II (which in itself should be a pretty damning statement about what they aren't teaching in the public schools).
Simultaneously, the combined story of Aaron, Berel, and Natalie Jastrow is Wouk’s extraordinary memorial to the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. Episode XI of War and Remembrance takes the viewer inside Auschwitz as we follow Aaron Jastrow (in an unforgettable performance by the late, great Sir John Gielgud) to his fate in the gas chambers. It’s this episode I was referring to when I used the phrase “some of the most compelling television ever” above. What I read and saw will be seared into my mind forever.
What makes these novels so great is how Wouk seamlessly weaves his history lesson into the narrative of the story. He alternates between the fictional characters (who also interact with real-life historical figures), his own omniscient third-person narrator’s commentary on the war, and - perhaps his most remarkable achievement - the German point of view, as expressed through a history of the war written by the fictional General Armin von Roon, with rebuttals written by his posthumous American translator, the now-retired Pug Henry. These sections are joined in War and Remembrance by entries in Aaron Jastrow’s diary A Jew’s Journey. Aaron’s transformation in the second book is simply amazing. Aaron annoyed me endlessly in Winds with his constant waffling and obstinacy. The change his character undergoes when he ends up in the so-called “Paradise Ghetto” of Theresienstadt is stunning to see, and makes him one of the most emotionally compelling characters of the whole saga.
I remember reading somewhere that The Winds of War and War and Remembrance are America’s War and Peace. Perhaps that’s just hyperbole from some book critic (or a gushing Amazon.com customer, for that matter), but these are truly two of the most awesome books I’ve ever read. The miniseries are a good representation of the novels, though the unique structure of his varying narrators couldn’t really translate from print to screen intact. Wouk’s hands-on involvement with the writing and production of both miniseries certainly helped make them as good as they are.
So that’s my book and DVD recommendations for the month. I need something light and fluffy to read now. Maybe The House at Pooh Corner?
In January 2007, while volunteering at the Lower Southampton library during my unemployment, I borrowed their DVD copy of the 1983 miniseries The Winds of War. Why? Who knows. I'd exhausted their supply of Bond movies, Disney movies, and romantic comedies that I didn't already own, so I figured that it looked interesting. That, and it had that guy from Airwolf.
Fast-forward to May 2008... I fully expect to finish reading War and Remembrance, the second half of Herman Wouk's epic World War II duology, by the end of the week. Concurrently, I'm watching the 12-part War and Remembrance miniseries for the second time. 2,000 pages of print and 42 hours of TV later, what does it all add up to?
God damn, this is incredibly powerful writing and some of the most compelling television ever. Period.
Does it get soapy sometimes? Hoo boy.
Is it contrived that Pug Henry does all this globe-hopping and hobnobbing with FDR, Churchill, Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini? A bit.
Do the obstacles Aaron and Natalie seem to constantly encounter in their efforts to escape the clutches of the Nazis start to strain credulity? Perhaps.
Was Robert Mitchum too old to play Pug? Hell yeah, but I can't imagine anyone else in the role.
The historian in me loves these novels because they're so well-researched. Wouk uses his books to highlight a lot of the events, military campaigns, and persons that get glossed over in your high school U.S. History class. Just reading these novels has broadened my knowledge of World War II (which in itself should be a pretty damning statement about what they aren't teaching in the public schools).
Simultaneously, the combined story of Aaron, Berel, and Natalie Jastrow is Wouk’s extraordinary memorial to the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. Episode XI of War and Remembrance takes the viewer inside Auschwitz as we follow Aaron Jastrow (in an unforgettable performance by the late, great Sir John Gielgud) to his fate in the gas chambers. It’s this episode I was referring to when I used the phrase “some of the most compelling television ever” above. What I read and saw will be seared into my mind forever.
What makes these novels so great is how Wouk seamlessly weaves his history lesson into the narrative of the story. He alternates between the fictional characters (who also interact with real-life historical figures), his own omniscient third-person narrator’s commentary on the war, and - perhaps his most remarkable achievement - the German point of view, as expressed through a history of the war written by the fictional General Armin von Roon, with rebuttals written by his posthumous American translator, the now-retired Pug Henry. These sections are joined in War and Remembrance by entries in Aaron Jastrow’s diary A Jew’s Journey. Aaron’s transformation in the second book is simply amazing. Aaron annoyed me endlessly in Winds with his constant waffling and obstinacy. The change his character undergoes when he ends up in the so-called “Paradise Ghetto” of Theresienstadt is stunning to see, and makes him one of the most emotionally compelling characters of the whole saga.
I remember reading somewhere that The Winds of War and War and Remembrance are America’s War and Peace. Perhaps that’s just hyperbole from some book critic (or a gushing Amazon.com customer, for that matter), but these are truly two of the most awesome books I’ve ever read. The miniseries are a good representation of the novels, though the unique structure of his varying narrators couldn’t really translate from print to screen intact. Wouk’s hands-on involvement with the writing and production of both miniseries certainly helped make them as good as they are.
So that’s my book and DVD recommendations for the month. I need something light and fluffy to read now. Maybe The House at Pooh Corner?