Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Clevercell Very disappointing...

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Mccadoo I watched this mini-series in my youth when it was first run and remembered it fondly. I recently purchased the DVD for my wife and I to watch and, not having seen it since it's original broadcast I wasn't sure what to expect. Some old TV shows age well...some don't. We had just finished watching QBVII and that had held up very well, other than the awful 70's musical soundtrack, so we had high hopes for Winds of War.We weren't disappointed, this was, and still is, one of the best mini-series ever produced for the small screen. It was filmed all over the world at great expense and it shows on the screen. The love stories tend to take up too much screen time (I thought so anyway) but overall it paints a very good picture of a world on the brink of the insanity of a world war. I highly recommend it for those who saw it back in the day and have fond memories, or those who have never seen it and are interested in that era of history. I'm not in any way saying that this film accurately portrays what was happening in the time leading up to the war, but it comes as close as you'll probably see on television. All that being said, a few pet peeves about the production (at this late date); I'm at a loss to understand how Ali McGraw kept getting roles back then, she has be to one of the worst actresses in the history of acting, truly. There were times while watching Winds that her acting was so horrific that it pulled you right out of the story. I can only assume that she was well connected, very well connected, in Hollywood, or she had some kind of dirt on someone high up in the industry. Nothing else can explain why she was hired for this, or any other role. The same goes for Jan Michael Vincent. The pensive, brooding, anger simmering just below the surface act got old by the third or fourth hour in. He would clench his jaw so much I kept expecting his head to just explode right on screen. I've read that he was dealing with a serious drinking problem during filming so that may explain it because I've seen him in other roles were he did better. Can't say the same about Ali McGraw!But if you can suffer through Ms. McGraw's horrific performance, and this film is well worth the effort, this is quality television from yesteryear that is as good, if not better than a lot of what is being broadcast today. Highly recommended.

racheline1 I'm watching Winds of War for the second time and it didn't take long for me to remember how irritating both Ali McGraw and Polly Bergen are. Are there really self absorbed irritating people like those two. I sincerely wish that Jayne Seymour and the actor who replace Jan M Vincent in War and Remembrance had also been in Winds of War. They're both excellent credible actors. I don't know what actress could have replaced Polly Bergen. She was absolutely insufferable and air headed. Not aware in the least of the gravity of the world's situation. Someone like Annette Benning could have done a much better job. Although robert Mitchum is an excellent actor...he was just too old as was McGraw. I'd like to believe that someone like S. Spielberg is thinking of remaking this movie. He would do a brilliant job and the casting would be superb.

Charles Reinderhoff I call this TV production a film. That is not the case of course. Its a series of films. Seven to be exact. The Winds of War is a collection of seven mini-movies rolled up in what is now called a 'mini-serie'. I have read both books and the films are a tribute to them. In every way possible the 'WoW' is a must-see for anybody who is a WW2 history buff. I myself rate both series (WoW and it's follow up 'War and Remembrance') as unsurpassed classics in the genre. The story which unfolds is of epic magnitude. The effort made to be exact and precise is stupendous. There is nothing like it and must rate as probably as one of the best films ever made for television, probably only matched by 'Band of Brothers'. On one thing it is surely the record holder: the costs! This epic production was the most expensive ever made. At the time a whopping 40 million dollars, which converted in present day dollars, would still make it extremely dear. Reading the books is looking at a film and vice versa. There is nothing quite like it. The research on facts and history is almost unbelievable. Writer Herman Wouk put years and years in to this effort. It's a life's work. Not only writing the books, but later also co-writing this epic story for television. It must be one of the high points in the history of television. The only thing one yearns for after viewing the 'WoW' is the follow-up!The casting of the actors is almost perfect. Robert Mitchum IS Pug Henry. The same goes for Jan-Michael Vincent. He IS Byron Henry. And on and on you can go down the line. The whole cast is absolutely fantastic, delivering some of the best performances these actors ever gave. Many actors have later agreed on this. The filming of this enormous production was nothing short of an adventure.Winds of War is everything rolled in to one. Drama, suspense, angst, comedy, humor, terror, love, hope en all other things that makes life such a roller coaster ride. And everything is covered by the sweeping musical score which binds the story together and delivers a listening experience unparalleled in film land.

bkoganbing The Winds Of War, part history part soap opera offers a Zelig like view of America's entrance into World War II in the years from 1939 to early 1942. Our protagonist Zelig is Robert Mitchum as Victor 'Pug' Henry a naval captain who has had a succession of shore assignments and yearns to get back to a ship. He knows war is coming and the promotions will come for those with battle command experience.In the meantime Mitchum is assigned as the naval liaison to the Berlin embassy where he sees and observes what is going on at the highest levels of government. He writes a report predicting the Hitler-Stalin pact which impresses one Franklin D. Roosevelt. They have history going back to the first World War when Mitchum was just a lieutenant. FDR himself asks for Mitchum to write him privately.That part of history is absolutely the case. Roosevelt distrusted official diplomatic channels in the State Department and always relied on a variety of sources for information. Returning as FDR after his critical and popular success in Sunrise At Campobello is Ralph Bellamy. He's just as good here.The history part one can read in all the books, but author Herman Wouk gave us soap opera as well. Mitchum is married to Polly Bergen and has three kids in descending order, Ben Murphy, Jan-Michael Vincent, and Lisa Eilbacher. All of them have their stories as well, mostly Vincent and his involvement and marriage to an older and Jewish woman Ali McGraw. That's a good part of the story, McGraw meets up with Vincent in Italy where he's leading a Bohemian type life and she is visiting her scholarly uncle John Houseman. McGraw and Vincent marry and have a child. But time and circumstances leave McGraw, Houseman, and the baby behind enemy lines while Vincent activates his naval reserve status and goes to war. A big part of the plot is his efforts to get back to his new family.Mitchum and Bergen are coming apart. Bergen had the best role in the series in my opinion. She was bored with her life and something of an airhead. She drifts into an affair with scientist Peter Graves. And Mitchum starts falling for Victoria Tennant, the daughter of a British diplomat.According to Lee Server's insightful biography or Mitchum, the original thought was to cast Ed Asner in the lead because in the novel Pug Henry is given that name because he has a bulldog like appearance. But some box office was needed so Mitchum who I guess is closest to being bulldog like of classic Hollywood leading men was hired. He carried the role well of a man who thinks life might just be passing him by in the career he has chosen.Wouk did his research well and the mini-series was just the format to present all the subtleties of his epic novel. The Henry family stories are nicely integrated into the real story of America going into World War II.This is epic television of the best kind.