This is an attempt to produce a big epic about World War II. Its strengths are the location shooting, with lots of variety of settings, costumes and background incidentals, a huge cast of extras to make city and crowd scenes effective, and a story that weaves the narratives of a number of individuals into the great events of World War II.
It does not, however, have much in the way of special effects or the kind of spectacle that we're generally used to seeing in big war movies. We see the bombing of Warsaw, for example, by watching two characters sitting on a couch with some plaster falling from the ceiling while the sound track plays booming noises. Completely inadequate.
The worst weaknesses are in the acting. (I do wonder, though, whether maybe the bad acting had something to do with weaknesses in the script, as Wouk was not exactly a Shakespeare.) In any case, two of the main females, Ali McGraw and Polly Bergen, are immensely irritating. While McGraw is the chief love interest, she does not manage to make herself in the least bit attractive. In order to make her character appear spoiled and willful, McGraw makes far too much of a very annoying self-satisfied smirk and a way of flouncing around that made me want to scream "Stop!" Polly Bergen plays an older woman, wife of the protagonist, Robert Mitchum, who in the middle of very serious political situations is concerned only with the surface of things. She could have made the character someone you felt a little sorry for because of her shallowness, her pathetic failure to grasp the world around her, but in Bergen's characterization she becomes someone for whom I felt only anger and contempt. Mitchum has always had more screen presence than acting ability; in The Winds of War he makes very little use of what acting ability he does have, most of the time merely looking like Robert Mitchum. Jan-Michael Vincent, playing one of McGraw's love interests, seems only capable of looking handsome and occasionally raising an eyebrow as a mark of insubordination. John Houseman's elderly scholar speaks. like. THIS. pronouncing. each. word. SEPARATELY. and. EMPHASIZING. about. every. THIRD. word. in. a. MOST. annoying. WAY. The director thought that the right way to depict David Dukes as a career diplomat who might not be quite as manly as the big, brave soldiers around him was to have him carry a pipe absolutely every second of his life. All this bad acting seriously undercuts the tone of the film.
As long as I am listing annoyances, I must mention the music whenever the U.S. president is about to come on stage, or even when Mitchum picks up a letter from the president. The music is heavenly, prayerful, worshipful in an offputting, even disgusting way--not so very different, in fact, from the kind of musical accompaniment you might get in a North Korean propaganda film about Great Leader Kim Il Sung. Horrid moments.
All in all, the movie is worth watching because it includes so much historical background and for the variety of scenes. For me, though, the enjoyment came at a significant cost.
It does not, however, have much in the way of special effects or the kind of spectacle that we're generally used to seeing in big war movies. We see the bombing of Warsaw, for example, by watching two characters sitting on a couch with some plaster falling from the ceiling while the sound track plays booming noises. Completely inadequate.
The worst weaknesses are in the acting. (I do wonder, though, whether maybe the bad acting had something to do with weaknesses in the script, as Wouk was not exactly a Shakespeare.) In any case, two of the main females, Ali McGraw and Polly Bergen, are immensely irritating. While McGraw is the chief love interest, she does not manage to make herself in the least bit attractive. In order to make her character appear spoiled and willful, McGraw makes far too much of a very annoying self-satisfied smirk and a way of flouncing around that made me want to scream "Stop!" Polly Bergen plays an older woman, wife of the protagonist, Robert Mitchum, who in the middle of very serious political situations is concerned only with the surface of things. She could have made the character someone you felt a little sorry for because of her shallowness, her pathetic failure to grasp the world around her, but in Bergen's characterization she becomes someone for whom I felt only anger and contempt. Mitchum has always had more screen presence than acting ability; in The Winds of War he makes very little use of what acting ability he does have, most of the time merely looking like Robert Mitchum. Jan-Michael Vincent, playing one of McGraw's love interests, seems only capable of looking handsome and occasionally raising an eyebrow as a mark of insubordination. John Houseman's elderly scholar speaks. like. THIS. pronouncing. each. word. SEPARATELY. and. EMPHASIZING. about. every. THIRD. word. in. a. MOST. annoying. WAY. The director thought that the right way to depict David Dukes as a career diplomat who might not be quite as manly as the big, brave soldiers around him was to have him carry a pipe absolutely every second of his life. All this bad acting seriously undercuts the tone of the film.
As long as I am listing annoyances, I must mention the music whenever the U.S. president is about to come on stage, or even when Mitchum picks up a letter from the president. The music is heavenly, prayerful, worshipful in an offputting, even disgusting way--not so very different, in fact, from the kind of musical accompaniment you might get in a North Korean propaganda film about Great Leader Kim Il Sung. Horrid moments.
All in all, the movie is worth watching because it includes so much historical background and for the variety of scenes. For me, though, the enjoyment came at a significant cost.