The Worst Character + Actress - The Winds of War (1983) Discussion

[–] generalusgrant 10 years ago

What a joke to contrast the actress with the character she played. Polly Bergen was a fine actress. Rhoda being catty is extraneous from the actress playing her.

And what about Ali MacGraw? There is a WRETCHEDLY terrible actress!

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[–] waldenpond88 8 years ago

For me Jane Seymour was the biggest disappointment. She just was NOT Natalie Jastrow at all. She lacks charisma.
If Dan Curtis wouldn't have waited another 5 years to film the sequel "War and Remembrance", he could have used Ali MacGraw and Jan-Michael Vincent again.

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[–] generalusgrant 10 years ago

What a joke to contrast the actress with the character she played. Polly Bergen was a fine actress. Rhoda being catty is extraneous from the actress playing her.

And what about Ali MacGraw? There is a WRETCHEDLY terrible actress!

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[–] DrZaat 10 years ago

I thought Bergen was excellent in the role. Certainly, the character was irritating, but Bergen played her well.

I thought the worst character was Hitler. Somethin' about the guy--I just didn't like him.

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[–] Smerdyakoff 10 years ago

Face it, the movie was full of poorly casted actors and lame characters. Mitchum was like 15 years older than the role called for, ditto with Jan Michael Vincent. Hitler was poorly played too

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[–] DrZaat 10 years ago

I said "the worst character." I wasn't talking about the actor.

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[–] Smerdyakoff 10 years ago

Hitler was misunderstood, he was actually a nice guy, treated the help well, loved children and dogs too

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[–] DrZaat 10 years ago

All those things may be true, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that I thought he was pretty vile. Hope I don't anger all the Hitler fans out there.

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[–] Smerdyakoff 10 years ago

While what I said was true, of course he was a major POS. I heard that at first he didn't even really hate Jews until he met some really vile Thule Society types after WW l. But even in this turgid miniseries, the guy who played Hitler sucked too.

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[–] BertramWilberforceWooster 10 years ago

What about him do you think was bad? He certainly did a better job than Steven Berkhoff who just played a madman. Hitler, at least according to biographies, was a man who was charismatic and only went off the deep end the last year or so of the war. That is exactly how he was portrayed in this mini.

--
All your base are belong to us.

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[–] poetcomic1 9 years ago

Hitler had his heart set on being an artist in his youth and a Jewish professor told hims he had no real talent.

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[–] Smerdyakoff 9 years ago

Yeah, sure, blame the Jews, now I know the Holocaust, which never happened, was totally justified

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[–] poetcomic1 9 years ago

This is a true story and just show what a sick megalomaniac Hitler was.

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[–] waldenpond88 8 years ago

You've gotta be kidding!

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[–] waldenpond88 8 years ago

Sorry, I misinterpreted your first post. I don't know who was the worst character, but talking about the best characters I particularly liked the character that Topol was playing (Natalie's uncle from Poland).

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[–] justbobkc 10 years ago

Just started watching this on Netflix after reading the 2 books. The big problem for me in the Mitchum characterization is just that he is too tall. Pug Henry was 3 inches shorter than his wife (in the book) and was only like 5'6" tall - though heavyset and muscular fullback type body.

Otherwise Mitchum is doing OK - as an older and "ugly" (not handsome) man who never was ANY kind of womanizer.

OTOH, Wouk was almost misogynist in his many women's characterizarions as basically all "Eve" types - betrayers of their men in one way or another, often vain and shallow women always wishing for that impossible fantasy - to have their cake and eat it too. Even Natalie just made so many willful wrong decisions - sometimes with good motives - that had such terrible consequences for the males she loved, from Byron to her uncle and son - and herself, of course.

Within Catholic theology, I've recently learned, Mary is sometimes viewed as the "anti-Eve" - the most faithful woman who ever lived, given a choice to be "the Mother of God", accepting the burden fearfully but volitionally, and then remaining pure and devoted to God herself throughout the rest of her life.

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[–] waldenpond88 8 years ago

But then...who liked Hitler :)?

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[–] dhenderson-2 10 years ago

In total contrast, I found Polly Bergen to be engaging in the role. On the other hand, the most awful acting came from Ali McGraw - the first episode's acting from her was so bad I seriously considered not watching any more.

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[–] Smerdyakoff 10 years ago

Technically you are probably correct that McGraw was the worst actress, but that facet had been beaten to death ever since the series premiered. I guess there was so much wrong and so much bad acting in this series, that for some reason, Polly Bergen irritated me the most, even though Ali sucked too.

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[–] marbleann 10 years ago

IMO she was very good in this movie. Her character was not the most likable but she is a good actress, Ali McGraw has to be one of the worst actress's to hit the screen. And she does nothing in this movie to change that assessment of her. Polly Bergen is like Judi Dench compared to McGraw.

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[–] RussellDunn 9 years ago

As far as I'm concerned, Ali McGraw did a good job. Okay, there's the age issue with a few of the actors and actresses in the cast and maybe this mini should have been made in 1973 as opposed to 1983 but I thought they all did great.
And Ali McGraw, regardless of her age, looked STUNNING.
In fact, Pug Henry put it the best. "Those are eyes a man could drown in."

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[–] waldenpond88 8 years ago

I agree with RussellDunn. I've watched several MacGraw movies from the past decades, but she never looked more attractive AND young as she did in WOW. As a matter of fact some women become more attractive with age.
If you would watch "Steal a Pencil for me", a Holocaust love story/documentary about two Jewish survivors from Holland, you might agree. The young woman looked rather plain, the same woman in her seventies looked gorgeous and not only because of her hair-do!

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[–] dwbbld1026 8 years ago

Loved the book mini series was ok. Ali McGraw was horrible as Natalie. Had a hard time watching her scenes but she looked good acting horrible. Ian Jan Vincent was equally as bad as Byron. All in all the acting and casting was horrible, did not give Wouck his due to the great books he wrote

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[–] Smerdyakoff 8 years ago

I just posted this mainly because everyone always trashed Ali from the day it came out to now, which she deserved. I thought Polly's character and her delivery was really lame too.
Basically it was a poor adaptation period and the director brought out the worst in everyone

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