Caricature80

Has anyone seen the complete miniseries of War and Remembrance?

I recently bought Winds of War (the prequel) when it came out and luckily found good deals on the two (oversized) box sets of War and Remembrance so I bought them too. I've seen all of Winds of War so far and now am viewing War and Remembrance.

The complete movie with both miniseries is over 40 hours long! Talk about time commitment.

So far it's good. I've always liked the format of miniseries. I was just wondering if anyone had seen it before, and if so, what did you think of it?

Giles

I remember watching this when it first aired on TV and thought it was amazing. Notably the concentration camp massacre scenes really upset me and disturbed me (as it rightfully should). At some point I would like to rewatch the entire series.

I find it sad that the networks nowadays seem really cheap and just produce lesser expensive 'reality' shows and not undertake or resurrect the 'mini series' genre.

Caricature80

Giles, thanks for the reply. Yeah, I wish they'd go back to making such good miniseries like these again. A majority of the time, they were really great entertainment.

movielib

I saw both when they first were aired. Two of the best miniseries ever. I bought The Winds of War during the DDD sale but could not get myself to spring for the two parts of War and Remembrance because they were too pricey even with 20% off. Some day when the price is more reasonable I'll pick it up.

Caricature80

Movielib, you might try ebay. I noticed that they have imported versions of War and Remembrance on dvd. The completely same movie uncut (albeit with a few Japanese characters added on the cover), but the price is dramatically lower. Plus the packaging is more of a reasonable size.

movielib

I did check eBay out and I found those. I'm just a little bit skittish about those "Asian imports." Are they also sold on reputable sites?

Red Dog

I bought W&R off ebay earlier this month (paid $70 incl shipping for the complete W&R). They were the Asian imports. No problems whatsoever - just click off the subtitles and you are good to go. Plus the packaging is a standard size. You can find W&R on reputable sites, but they cost almost $200 total.

In the last month, I watched all of WoW and W&R. Definitely a marathon but well worth it.

movielib

Thanks, Red Dog. As long as the quality is the same, I'm game. I've got my eye on one. I'll let you know how it went after my snipe.

movielib

Well, I'm just getting frustrated. People are bidding these things up way too high now ($100-$120 shipped) and I keep cancelling esnipes. It looks like all of a sudden War and Remembrance is a hot item. I'll wait.

Caricature80

Yeah, those imported sets will sometimes go up really high on ebay. I kept checking for a while before I got the US versions. Once in a while you can see one end for both sets at around 50-60 bucks! I guess you'll just have to keep checking Movielib. I'm sure you'll find a good deal eventually.

movielib

One just sold for $45.99 plus $20.00 shipping but I'm not going to bid when the seller has 8 negatives in the last month. Sellers with bad feedback or none at all eliminate a lot of the sets for me. I need patience.

movielib

Well, I might have won this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...e=STRK:MEWA:IT

except that eSnipe messed up my bid (eBay connection problem).

movielib

I finally got it for $46.65 plus $20.00 shipping from a seller with 99.7% positive feedback. I passed on one just the other day from the same seller which went for almost $100.00 shipped.

Caricature80

Sounds good movielib. You got a great deal!!

Red Dog

That's good. Sounds like it may be from the same seller I bought from. I think I paid $50 + $20 s/h.

movielib

Did you buy yours from charonss? Seems like a good seller.

New question: does anyone know if the Star Trek: The Next Generation Asian DVDs are of good quality?

Red Dog

Yes. Fast shipper. Took only a week from China.

Caricature80

*SLIGHT SPOILER*

I just finished episode 2 of War and Remembrance. A good portion of it dealt with the concentration camps and even showed a mass gassing of nude jews, and later their bodies were dumped in piles of mass graves. I found it very moving and disturbing. I was really surprised that the ABC network would show so much nudity including frontal on tv. I'm sure the miniseries got some type of special pardon since it was trying to recreate historical accuracy. It was good that they let them do that instead of trying to water down the situation.

movielib

Well, after waiting 23 days, I emailed charonss that I hadn't received it (I emailed him about a week ago and he asked me to wait three weeks). He immediately gave me a refund (which I confirmed on PayPal) and asked that if I finally do receive it to pay him back the bid amount but not the shipping. Sounds OK to me but it would have been better to just have received it in a reasonable time.

He really does seem to be a good seller and his feedback reflects that. But I fear the package has been lost forever.

Caricature80

I'm sorry to hear about that Movielib. I wonder how it could have got lost in the mail like that. At least he's being nice and giving you your money back until the package arrives. Let us know if you get it! I just finished watching my copy of the first half of War and Remembrance (I've been nursing it now for several weeks a little at a time since I last posted on this thread). I bought the US releases but got pretty decent deals from superduperclub and deepdiscountdvd. Still, I'd rather have gotten these import copies since they were so much cheaper. I certainly hope yours arrives.

movielib

I never did receive that first order.

I did just receive my second try at an Asian W&R set and it is a disaster. The "Final Chapter" set had two copies of discs 3&4 and none of discs 1&2. Almost every disc was a floater and all scratched up. I emailed the seller and, fortunately, got an immediate refund. I am through with the Asian eBay DVD market.

Caricature80, you are lucky you got the U.S. versions. I should have ordered the sets from DDD during their 20% off sale. I will if they repeat the sale in December as many of us are hoping.

Caricature80

Actually, movielib, it might be a blessing in disguise that it worked out this way. It turns out MPI Home Video that make the War and Remembrance boxed sets, have decided to size down their over-sized packaging on the miniseries. I happened to come across it recently. The price for the US versions is now dramatically lower, and a search on amazon yielded the link I pasted into this thread. I'm not sure why they decided now to repackage them, and on amazon it has a August 24th release date. Perhaps it has to do with Winds of War being released back in May by Paramount. It looks like they are packaged more like the Asian versions (a much more reasonable size). I just thought I'd let you know. You might check out the MPI website. I think I also saw it on deepdiscountdvd as an upcoming release.



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/se...650393-8702502

http://www.mpihomevideo.com/cat.asp?cat=17&subcat=142

movielib

Caricature80:

Thank you very much. I looked around and many sites have these although DVD Price Search hasn't gotten it yet. It must have just happened. I'll bet you're right that it is a reaction to the release of The Winds of War at a reasonable price. Also, they may have seen all those sales on eBay of the Asian editions.

I decided to get them from Digital Eyes. With coupons I'm paying about $60 per set shipped. Plus I get frequent buyer points. Plus, if I'm lucky and they ship by August 25 I get double points.

So I'm paying less than twice as much as the Asian sets which were, for me, a big bust. But this is one purchase that really is cheap at twice the price.

Caricature80

Movielib, and anyone else interested, I came across the newly re-packaged and re-priced War and Remembrance sets on deepdiscountdvd.com:

http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/studi...mainStudioid=1

movielib

My sets shipped from Digital Eyes on Thursday.

The double frequent buyer point promotion was extended to 8/28 so I got 'em.