Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

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

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Carolyn Downing Bill Conti creates an atmosphere of a top notch performance. A supreme combination was series #1.6 frame 13 entitled Ambush - the drum emphasis elevates the section to fever pitch. Absolutely the most appropriate addition to a more than excellent performance. Conti tied all portions of North & South to a momentous event. It is wonderful to see matching music, story, & casting explain the pain of Civil War History. This combination should be included in all American history classes. In the summary interviews filmed in 2005 Conti simply states "I think it delivers the goods" referring to the title. Yes it more than delivers the goods - the music so well matches the mood & message it ties the entire package with huge bow. My second most favorite use of sound is the special melodies & sounds attributed to individual characters, love it.

k-thomas North & South is the best ever Mini Series depicting the story of the American Civil War. Unlike Roots, which was also good, it showed the good and the bad of both sides and also the hypocrisy. It always annoys me when Lincoln is portrayed as a night in shining armor freeing the slaves. North & South shows how Lincoln was quite prepared to allow the South to keep their slaves. Another point was when James Read's character invites Patrick Swayze's character to visit his mill, Swayze notices the squalor the mill workers are living in and states that his Slaves live better than this. Read replies that they are free to leave if they want to. This was also a form of slavery and still happens today. Nice to see the stars of stage and screen of yesteryear in the program. James Stewart, Robert Mitchum, Elizabeth Taylor, Lloyd Bridges, Jean Simmons. The list is endless appearing with up and coming stars of today. Teri Garber, Forrest Whitaker. It is unbelievable. I wish that another series could be made like this about the American War Of Independence. Showing both the American side of the story and the British side. Also with top actors of past and present. I recommend you buy the DVD collection alongside with the sequel, Heaven And Hell, which is also very good.

beldasnoop-1 North and South is a miniseries from the "golden age" of television miniseries in the 1980s, which was a time for long, sweeping epics with high production values and lots of star cameos. It is, for the most part, excellent for what it is, although I personally prefer the less soap-opera like elements of the story and the overall sense of history.James Read and Patrick Swayze deliver excellent performances--especially Read, whose George Hazard serves as kind of an emotional anchor in the midst of the often melodramatic story. The series also contains top-notch work from Kirstie Alley, Wendy Kilbourne, Hal Holbrook, Lewis Smith, Genie Francis, Georg Stanford Brown and others. The costumes, filming, sets and music are all first-rate as well.Don't take it as a history lesson, but take it for what it is--a well-made, sweeping epic from a bygone era. Book 2, which followed a year later, is also excellent, but I would advise viewers to skip Book 3, which came out 8 years after Book 2 and was not nearly as good as the first two parts. Books 1 and 2 are classics, though, even with their soapier elements, and they are well worth watching.

hjmsia49 It felt like this series was longer than the Civil War. We got the DVD mainly to observe the progress of Georgina of Upstairs/Downstairs (Lesley-Anne Down). She didn't disappoint and proved to be the best thing about the series. The major problem lies in the fact that the plot strains credulity to such an extreme as to become laughable. The two leads Patrick Swayze and James Read are competent given the impossible tasks they are required to perform and the sappy dialogue they are too often burdened with. Who can accept the following plot lines: A South Carolinian and Pennsylvanian become buddies at West Point while confronting a demonic and sadistic upper-classman named Bent, played with irritating histrionics by Philip Casnoff. After they manage to get the monster dismissed from the academy, our two Lieutenants go to the Mexican War where their nemeses is now their Captain? This series features the greatest number of chance meetings of major characters, often in the midst of battle, than any series in television history. Orry Main (Swayze) is severely wounded in Mexico while George Hazard (Read) survives unscathed, a feat they would repeat in the Civil War where both are called to serve as generals on opposite sides? How these two lieutenants rate such promotions is never explained? Then we see the two generals riding alone at night confronting each other and withholding fire when recognizing each other in the dark and sitting down to chat about the war? Orry later frees George from a Richmond prison, puts him in a canoe alone in his Yankee uniform to paddle back to union lines where he miraculously arrives in time for Christmas Eve at home? Two Main and two Hazard family members meet in the turmoil of the bloody battle of Petersburg and all manage to survive while hundreds die all around them. At the end of the war they all arrive safely at Mount RoyalPlantation to apparently live happily ever after. Too bad it didn't end there. Unfortunately, Book 3 titled "Heaven and Hell" provided little heaven in a murderously hellish script. When I saw a DVD photo of George and Orry's wife Madaline (Down)in a affectionate embrace, I thought does George cheat on Constance, does Madaline cheat on Orry? The author preserves their honor by bringing the arch villain Bent back from the dead so he can sadistically murder Orry and George's wife in the first episode of book 3. For Orry to survive all his horrific battles and die at the hands of a lesser man will not endear many viewers. One should be suspicious of the final book when so many of the original players, including Swayze (you don't see his face in his final scene), failed to reprise their original roles. To have Bend kidnap Charles Main's (Kyle Chandler)son and then walk into a barn where the boy's father is sleeping is another in a long list of unlikely encounters. It goes downhill from there and George and Madeline should not feel comfortable in their final embrace since evil sister-in-law Ashton (Terry Garber), who made Scarlett O'Hara look like a Sunday school teacher, is still lurking in the wings. Too bad the author didn't hang her alongside Bent as she surely deserved the same fate as poor over-zealous abolishonist Virgilia (Kristie Alley). I suggest you enjoy the first two books and skip the third. It's a passable Civil War history if you ignore the totally implausible adventures of the leads. It was nice seeing old pros James Stewart and Robert Mitchum in cameos. Sadly, they both died on the same day after the series was made. Worth watching if only for the performances of Simmons, Down, Alley and Garber who act rings around the men. I felt that this Wolper production was not up to the standard of his previous "The Thorn Birds."