I used to be a sucker for TV mini-series when I was younger. Not the epic love stories by Jacqueline Susan mind you, but the ones that actually had a good story. I remember being riveted to the screen the first time “Holocaust” was aired, and felt the same way about “The Winds of War.” I guess there’s just something about historical pieces that really capture my attention. Almost all of the best mini-series come from bestselling novels and “The Winds of War” is no different. Based on the book by Herman Wouk, it told the story of the beginnings of World War II as seen through the eye of the Henry family. Led by patriarch and career naval officer Victor “Pug” Henry (Robert Mitchum), the story of the family is interwoven with some of the most famous events of the war.

When “The Winds of War” originally aired back in the early 80s, the massive ‘event’ took audiences by storm. The cast was made up of an amazing group of A-list actors of the time, and went on to win three Emmy Awards, including one for Best Cinematography. The main cast, made up of Mitchum, Polly Bergen, Ali McGraw, Jan-Michael Vincent, John Houseman, Lisa Eilbacher, David Dukes, Topol, Peter Graves, Ben Murphy and Ralph Bellamy for the most part delivered terrific performances. The only possible exception to this was McGraw, but this might have been more because of how annoying her character was as opposed to any lack of acting skills.

The mastermind behind “The Winds of War” was producer and director Dan Curtis, whose biggest claim to fame was in creating the hit series “Dark Shadows.” Though he’s been a part of a huge list of television productions, this is probably the one he’s most identified with. Actually, until I sat down to watch “The Winds of War” on the new DVD release from Paramount, I had forgotten he was involved. Watching it again, I was blown away by the overall quality of the production considering the time period is was made in. I’d put it up against some of the better mini-series coming out today. I was reminded why it was so good, and am now actually looking forward to possibly seeing the sequel “War and Remembrance”, sometime in the near future.

The new DVD release has all 7 parts spread out over 6 discs, leaving room for a few extremely well produced extra features. All in all there are 4 featurettes, varying in length from 15 minutes up to over 20 minutes that focus on various parts of the productions. “Making the Winds of War”, “A Novel for Television”, “Cast and Characters” and “On Location” are all newly produced for this DVD set and feature interviews with many of the cast and crew as well as behind the scenes clips on the sets of the production. Some of the interviews are a little older, but most were done fairly recently, with anecdotes from Dan Curtis and author Herman Wouk being some of the most interesting.

The set has each DVD housed in a separate super-slim discholders. Each has its own individual artwork, as well as a brief synopsis on the back of the particular chapter. The extra features are all on the 4th disc. These are all housed in a handsome slipcase. The only minor nit I have is that the overall sound is in Dolby Digital Mono. I’m not sure what the limitations were that kept Paramount from going for an all-out 5.1 mix, but it would have been nice to have, especially during some of the intense battle sequences.

There are those who might take umbrage of the fact that a film like this would mix a bit soap opera with historical situations, but that is the bread and butter of Hollywood. Think of “Titanic”, which created characters that did not exist in order to tell the story of the disaster. That is no different than what was done here. Mini-series like these serve the purpose, I believe, to entertain as well as perhaps pique an interest in people to find out more about the real events. And anytime we can get people to take the time to educate themselves is time well spent.

Directed by: Dan Curtis
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen, Jan-Michael Vincent, Lisa Eilbacher, Ben Murphy, Ali McGraw, John Houseman, David Dukes, Victoria Tennant, Elke Sommer, Ralph Bellamy, Topol, Peter Graves
Extras: Making The Winds of War, A Novel For Television, Cast and Characters, On Location
Specifications: Full Screen, Dolby Digital English Mono
Studio: Paramount
Release Date: 5/25/2004
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give Winds of War a B+.