Topic: North & South

[DJ Doena]

In the 80s the first two books of John Jakes' trilogy were put on celluloid. In the mid-90s the third book was made into a mini series.

I have never read the books but I am aware of most of the difference between the series and the books.

But I love the first to min series representing North & South and Love & War. I watched them on TV long before I learned to speak english.

In germany the show is called Fackeln im Sturm ("Torches in the Storm").

I loved the story about the friendship between the northern industrialist George Hazard and the southern plantation owner Orry Main and the growing conflict between the both parts of the United States.

The characters are very well drawn (as far as I can judge that as an non-american) and the shown conflicts seem to be very realistic in the context of their time.

And it has also a very nice soundtrack

Here a link to the first mini series' intro:

english: http://youtube.com/watch?v=v4T5FlRpgJc

german: http://youtube.com/watch?v=e72DfaTIPGQ

[Kathy]

I've read the books but never saw the films; I didn't even know they were made into movies!

[DJ Doena]

You should watch at least the first two.

Yes there are differences but the movies work very well.

The problem is the third book. The movies were made nearly ten years later than the first two and they had the problem to adapt the story to what happens in the third book and what they had done with the characters in the movies of the first two books.

(click to show/hide)

e.g. Orry dies in the second book but survives in the movies. Orry's never had a brother in the movies.

Thus Orry is killed at the beginning of the third mini series and suddenly his never before mentioned brother returns from south america.

For me the story has only two books - at least when it comes to the movies.


I use the words movies because the episodes of the mini series were 90 minutes each.

Here are the IMDb entries:

http://imdb.com/title/tt0088583/
http://imdb.com/title/tt0090490/
http://imdb.com/title/tt0108823/

[DJ Doena]

After I had opened this topic a few days ago, I decided to watch it again. So I watched the first book yesterday and today (does sound weird to "watch a book", doesn't it? ).

The Confederate States of America have just opened fire upon Ford Sumter and the Civil War has begun.

Over the following week I'll watch the second book.