After 33 Years...

I'm finally revisiting CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS. In 1976 I looked forward to this mini-series with great anticipation, as at the time it was probably my favorite novel - I'd read it four times by the time this show appeared, and it had only been published four years earlier! (I re-read it almost three years ago for the first time since the early 1970s, and enjoyed it all over again.)

I'm mid-way through the first episode, and though I recall that there were some deviations from the novel, it's a pretty solid adaptation, though some of the acting is decidedly on a 1970s "TV" level (Vic Morrow should rest in peace, but he was terrible here). However, I really had forgotten just how good Richard Jordan was as Joseph.

I'll add comments from time to time as I continue watching - I usually take my time with these series.

Now it would be nice if they'd put the 1977 miniseries made from Caldwell's TESTIMONY OF TWO MEN on DVD, and we're still hoping for Irwin Shaw's RICH MAN, POOR MAN.

EDIT, 12-02-09: I finished watching it this morning - the final episode deviated most from the book - various characters throughout the series were either creations of the screenwriter (Martinique, and Joseph's third son, Brian), and other characters from the book were omitted but their characteristics or deeds assigned to another character (Joseph's brother, Sean, is quite different in the book, and meets a very different fate). Apparently the third son was probably insurance for a possible sequel or continuation as was, perhaps, leaving Joseph alive at the end. Harry Zieff certainly didn't go down with the Titanic in the novel - his character was dispatched long before that in quite a different way (this seemed to be a tip of the hat to UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS, which some years earlier earlier sent one of its major characters on that ill-fated voyage when the actress who played her wanted out of the show!). There have been improvements in screen makeup since 1976 - several characters age drastically in the last episode, usually depicted with visible greasepaint lines and shoe-polish in the hair - none of the actors was particularly convincing in this regard.

Interesting side-note about Perry King, who played Rory: He is the grandson of the famous editor Maxwell Perkins, who numbered Fitzgerald and Hemingway among his famous authors, and who edited author Taylor Caldwell's early novels at Scribner beginning with her first, DYNASTY OF DEATH (another dynastic family saga not unlike CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS).

"Remind me to tell you about the time I looked into the heart of an artichoke."