Downton Abbey

Jim Carter as the butler leads the servant staff (L), while

Hugh Bonneville as the Earl heads the family (R)

Brian Percival and Brian Kelly, directed four episodes each; several others directed two episodes.

Season One: 2010 (10*)
Golden Globe and Emmy Awards, best tv mini-series or movie
During the reign of England’s King Edward, estates of the wealthy aristocrats grew to their ultimate in wealth and power. By the first decade of the 20th century, there were 100 estates that owned over half the land in England. Their wealth came from owning huge amounts of land, then collecting rents from all those who lived on, farmed, or hunted on their land. The patriarch of the estate was usually given the title of Duke, Earl, or Marquis, and the property was always passed on to eldest male heirs, and by law, never to women. If there was no male son, the nearest other male relative became the heir, often cousins.

However, as all things pass over time, this class structure was about to change forever. Cheaper shipping allowed the importation of less costly agricultural products from India and the Americas, and the great estates were in decline, along with the manors or castles of the aristocratic families. The upper class still tried to maintain their lifestyles for as long as possible, or at least the appearance of luxury, which required large staffs of servants. The head cook had her assistant and kitchen maids; the head housekeeper had a staff of housekeeping maids; while the butler was the overall head of the staff, and there were also valets, and the lowest of the male order inside the house, the footmen. Outside the manor were also the gamekeepers and wardens, garden staff, and stables of horses to maintain.

All this cost a lot of money, and without the income from the land, many aristocrats sought new wealth from America. The generally accepted practice was to get a wealthy American heiress, usually the daughter of industrialists or bankers, to marry a titled estate owner, and thus gain a title to provide some hitherto unavailable social status in America, while providing the money to keep the estate going.

This is the setting of the story of one such manor, called Downton Abbey, headed by Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham, in this work of fiction beginning in the year 1910, created and written by Julian Fellowes. Other works before have explored this system, notably the PBS series Upstairs, Downstairs and Brideshead Revisited, which actually starts after the era is past but whose story is told as a flashback to a time decades before. Upstairs failed to involve me, I found it boring and passionless.

Brideshead, from the novel by Evelyn Waugh, easily hooked me, largely with it’s terrific cast, which made an international star out of lead actor Jeremy Irons, and included Laurence Olivier, who won an Emmy for his performance as the patriarch, and Clare Bloom as his estranged wife, as well as excellent supporting performances from Julian Glover and the two actors who played the children of Olivier, Anthony Andrews and Diana Quick. This is a 'must-see' epic for fans of literature brought to the screen, and runs eleven hours overall.

Downton Abbey is worthy of all the praise and awards it’s receiving. Unlike the two previously mentioned mini-series, Downton is infused with a warmth unseen in previous stories. Fellowes has managed to capture the feel of Charles Dickens literature, with the wit and humor of Jane Austen. When the first telephone is being installed in the manor, the Dowager Countess (the granny of the family), brilliantly played by Oscar-winner Maggie Smith, remarks, “first electricity, now telephones; I feel as if I’m living in an H.G. Wells novel”.

The story begins with the news of the sinking of the Titanic, and the loss of the hand-picked heirs of Downton, both cousins of the Earl, who has only three daughters and thus no rightful heir of his own. Next in line is a third cousin, who is presently a lawyer in a mid-level corporate legal firm in Manchester – hardly an aristocrat, and someone not especially thrilled at the prospect of changing his lifestyle.

Veteran actor Hugh Bonneville, with

96 titles to his credit, has the role of

a lifetime as the Earl, Robert Crawley

We are swept into the life of the manor in the first five minutes, by following servants awakening and rushing off to their stations with some excellent camerawork that follows people from in front in unbroken shots until the camera turns to follow a different person. From then on you should be hooked on the story.

We see the arrival in the beginning of the new valet, Mr. Bates (brilliant, understated performance by Brendan Coyle) a man crippled from the Boer War, but who has been placed in his new position for being a friend of the earl from the war days, thus bypassing those inside the house who wanted to move up in rank. We are also introduced to the new heir, who meets a different form of disdain, seen as an outsider by the more traditional aristocrats, yet welcome by the younger set, represented by the earl’s three daughters, each single, with the elder two (Mary and Edith) competing as the first across the marriage line. The youngest (Sybil) is more political than social, interested in women getting the vote and finding careers, and uninterested in the traditional woman’s role of wife and socialite.

You know as you watch the dates progress toward 1914 that a world war is coming, so that adds an element of tension to the entire story, which is light on action, but deep in psychological complexity and subtle currents of social change.

British drama doesn’t get any better than this, it’s the ultimate Masterpiece Theater production, expertly filmed and acted. The cast is led by Brendan Coyle as the valet, Mr. Bates. The earl, Robert Crawley is played by Hugh Bonneville, who has a dignified sense of justice. His wife is an American, Elizabeth McGovern (one of the weaker actors), married for her money, needed to keep the estate going. Her money must remain with the estate, else Downton Abbey will not be able to continue.

The eldest daughter Mary, is played by a stern, almost cold-hearted Michelle Dockery. Her conniving, backstabbing younger sister Edith is portrayed as an envious wretch by Laura Carmichael. The youngest daughter, my favorite character, is played by the stunning Jessica Browne Findlay, a former ballerina, and the character with the most spunk.

The Earl's daughters, Ladies Edith, Mary, and Sybil

However, the acting kudos are being stolen by the veteran Maggie Smith, as the traditional and snobbish Dowager Countess, Violet Crawley, who is given the lion’s share of great lines. Dan Stevens is passable as the selected heir-to-be, Matthew Crawley, who has trouble fitting into the role of an aristocrat, largely because he’s never been trained to be an elitist, and would rather fend for himself and fulfill some useful career. Veteran actor Jim Carter also shines as the resolute and dignified butler, Mr. Carson, who feels responsible for maintaining a professional staff that can perpetuate this way of life as perhaps Britains contribution to civilization for as long as possible.

The first season has everyone’s appetite whetted for season two, currently airing on PBS, but I wait for the dvd release so I can view the entire season in one sitting. Season one is seven episodes, just shy of seven hours and worth every minute.

This has won 13 awards to date out of 45 nominations, including six Emmys and a Golden Globe, with seven of those awards going to creator and author Julian Fellowes. This has an extremely high rating of 9.0 by just 11,000 fans at IMDB; if it were a film, it would be tied with The Godfather at #2 there, only bettered by Shawshank Redemption's rating of 9.1. It is now one of just 40 perfect 10's I've given on this blog.

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Emma (Miniseries)

Jim O’Hanlon, 2009 (9.5*)
Masterpiece Theater version for BBC

There have been a veritable plethora of Jane Austen’s novels put to film, usually 3 to 5 per novel. In fact, this is the fourth version of Emma since 1972, beginning with another BBC miniseries, then a tv film with Kate Beckinsale, then the more famous film in 1996 with Gwyneth Paltrow (trying her best to affect a British accent, see our review here), then finally what I would call the definitive version – this one with the engaging Romola Garai. There was also the updated American adaptation, Clueless (1995), from Amy Heckerling, which retold the story with a spoiled Beverly Hills princess and a hilarious spoof of modern teens, starring a spunky 16-yr old newcomer Alicia Silverstone. (Ok, I confess, this over-the-top version is my favorite one to rewatch, but it bears few traces of Miss Austen.)

Romola Garai, whose name is the feminine version of Romulus, founder of Rome, comes from a Hungarian background, born in Hong Kong, and later relocated to England. Perhaps this outsider’s take on Austen gave her the necessary freshness and naivity that the role ultimately requires.

For the incogniscenti, Emma is born into aristocracy, and in this film Michael Gambon plays her doting and ultra-mindful father with loving humor – he frets about anyone even walking outside catching their death of something - in his mind it's best not to leave home at all. Emma’s mother died when she was “too young to remember her laugh”, and she’s remained by her father’s side ever since.

She’s grown up with a neighbor, a Mr. Knightly, who has been not only her brother-in-law, but like a brother, often scolding her like a parent for her insensitive improprieties. Jonny Lee Miller (yes, the one from the aborted Eli Stone tv show) turns in a remarkably effective and in tune performance as Emma’s longtime friend and confidante; one could argue that he’s the best cast male of any of Austen’s novels put to film.

Michael Gambon, Romola Garai, Jonny Lee Miller

Not being interested in romance, Emma fancies herself a matchmaking cupid after taking responsibility for getting her governess hitched to a wealthy widower nearby. Spurred on by this achievement, she spends the story trying to advise everyone in her sphere regarding romance, without any firsthand experience herself.

Most people either love Jane Austen or think she’s overblown and trivial; after all, most of her novels are about little more than whether a single woman will ever get married or not. However, primary plots aside, Austen’s forte was in painting a picture of both aristocracy and the common people within their spheres, society’s affect on individual happiness, usually influenced by idle gossip and speculation of outsiders.

This version of Emma was so wonderfully cast that it’s now easily my favorite Austen work put to film. A rather long work at around 270 minutes, it does give the novel ample coverage; it’s been described as Austen’s most complex plot with the most relationships. Emma grows from child to woman before our eyes, yet it’s her childish innocence that makes her so likable, even though Austen herself said of all her heroines, Emma is a person she wouldn’t like herself.

The outing to Box Hill

In this production, she is surrounded by a well-cast supporting group of characters. Blake Ritson was funny and dead on as the local preacher Mr. Elton. The chatty but well meaning Miss Bates was perfectly played by Tamsin Greig. Perhaps only Laura Pyper as Jane Fairfax was too tepid to exhibit even a brief glimpse of personality, dominated by her aunt, Miss Bates.

If you like Austen, you should love this; if you like the BBC’s Masterpiece Theater, this is another stalwart entry in that long-enduring and endearing series. It may not have the wonderful subtlety or complexity of Downton Abbey, but then it’s a novel from a century and a half ago, so in that regard it’s amazing, and a tribute to Austen, that it’s still able to enthrall audiences this far removed from her period in history. No film can capture the beauty and artistry of eloquent prose, but this mini-series in four parts comes as close to Austen as any other to date.

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The Railway Children

Lionel Jefferies, 1970 (9.0*)
Catherine Morshead, 2000 (miniseries) (9.2*)

Edith Nesbit's wonderful 1906 novel about one English family's children thankfully has two wonderful film adaptations to recommend. They are both faithful to the novel and provide lovable cinematic tributes to her popular work, which is touching and humane without pretension or sentimentality. [see note below about Nesbit herself]

The original is the 1970 film from character actor turned director Lionel Jefferies. A happy family in Victorian London has everything change one night when some strange men come to their home, argue with the father, then leave with him. As a result these new financial hardships, the mother takes the kids and relocates in the countryside, where she barely earns enough for food by writing stories for magazines.

There's not a lot of activity in their new neighborhood, so they take daily walks down the railroad tracks, waving to the train's passengers from a nearby hillside. This somehow seems like a appropriate method of maintaining contact with the outside world, now relegated to nothing but newspaper stories.Some of the passengers always wave back, and include one important railroad man. This unique method of friendly conversation stirs his interest in the children, and the relationship proves mutually beneficial.

Jenny Agutter is wonderful as the oldest child, Bobbie, a young teen, almost a surrogate parent to the other two, Sally and Gary being pre-teens; all are surprisingly independent and risilient. Dinah Sheridan plays the mother, not onscreen nearly as much as the children.

The trains and station are as alive here as human characters, and provide a valuable literary metaphor. In fact, everyone in town gets to know the children through the railroad itself, which is a lifeline to their village. For me, this novel and film said a lot about the passage of time sadly removing our relationships to trains and a gentler, more leisurely time, one without the modern rush of autos and planes, which has removed the social interaction of the bygone era of steam, when most travel was on trains and ships.

The second version is a tv miniseries from 2000, directed by Catherine Morshead. In this version, Richard Attenborough plays the railroad man, Mr. Perk, and Jenny Agutter (Bobbie in the original), plays the childrens' mother, while Jemima Rooper has her original role. I think I may prefer the length of this longer version more, but both are excellent adaptations and make wonderful G-rated family films.


Note: Edith Nesbit's was a British socialist who wanted conditions improved for the impoverished workers of her country, and wrote over 60 books, mostly for or about children (over 40), the ultimate victims of poverty, as due to malnourishment many don't reach adulthood. She and her husband co-founded the socialst organization The Fabian Society, the precursor to the modern Labour Party.

Nesbit wrote about children without writing down to them. They are treated as intelligent, caring, and almost adult in maturity when having to deal with harsh life circumstances. This is likely why her writings are still popular today. In fact, she's considered the first author for children in dealing with the real world and it's problems rather than a fantasy world.

her page at Wikipedia

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A Town Like Alice

David Stephens, 1980 (9.5*)
A group of British women are taken prisoner by the Japanese in Malaya during WW2, and, as it's against their honor to imprison them, they force them on an endless march to nowhere. Jean Paget, wonderfully played by Helen Morse, takes charge and provides the strength that keeps some alive, while many die as not all are fit enough for a forced march.

At one point, they meet a young Australian soldier, Joe Harman (Bryan Brown in a star-making performance), and the two become friends. He tries to help the women, and as a result they are separated by their brutal captors and the man is tortured for showing simple human compassion.

After the war, the two seek each other out to continue to explore the feelings they once had that were sparked during a time of crisis, which they were unable to explore due to the wartime situation. This time, they are separated by half the globe, as Jean is back in civilized England, and Joe is ranching in the middle of the Australian outback.

This is based on a popular best-seller by author Nevil Shute (On the Beach), and that novel was based on true events. This is a romance of epic proportions, beautifully filmed by the BBC (for Masterpiece Theater) in a five-hour mini-series in six parts, which gave the novel the proper amount of length and detail. This is much better seen in one sitting than broken up over weeks. Winner of 6 awards

For my money, this is a much better (and less soapy) romance than Gone With the Wind; this is about self-sacrifice for others, not self-centered gratification. The only other romantic epic that's even comparable is the BBC (Masterpiece Theater) miniseries Brideshead Revisited, from the Evelyn Waugh novel, ironically released the same year, winner of 11 awards, 28 nominations, seven BAFTAs. You should also enjoy the underrated epic romance Australia, from Baz Luhrmann, starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, a film so large that it's a western and a war film.

Note: The title refers to the desert oasis of Alice Springs , the only green spot in the middle of the huge Australian desert due to a natural spring. This has a rating of 8.1 at IMDB (good enough for the all-time top 250), but only has 452 user ratings - that's unreal for one of the best films ever made, and one of the best 10 miniseries ever made for tv.

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The Company

Mikhael Salomon, 2007 (8.6*)
A rare miniseries from TNT, and one almost well done enough to be from the BBC. The title of course refers to the CIA, and attempts to weave some fictional characters within the framework of about 40 years of CIA history and a few real life characters as well. That's the backdrop anyway, the actual story is about the search for an elusive double agent, codenamed Sasha, an American version of Britisher Adrian Kim Philby, also a character here and portrayed by Tom Hollander.

The period covered is from the start of the Cold War to the fall of the Soviet Union primarily follows three fictional Yale graduates from out of college (class of '54), to their recruitment and years within the CIA. Jack McCauliffe (Chris O'Donnell) and Leo Kritzky (Alessandro Nivola) are rowing partners, and their Russian friend is Yevgeny Tsipin (Rory Cochrane).

This is a very absorbing miniseries, with unfortunately uneven acting. Michael Keaton steals the kudos here (with some of his best dramatic work ever) as real life humanoind James Angleton, the chief of the CIA's counterintelligence unit, and was awarded with an acting nomination from the Screen Actors Guild. Usually excellent Alfred Molina is a little over the top here (as operations mgr Harvey Torriti), Chris O'Donnell is his traditionally bland self (and is in nearly every scene), while Alessandro Nivola as his rowing partner and friend Leo came off a little better. Rory Cochrane is pretty believable, thanks to excellent accent work, as the Russian emigre Yevgeny Tsipin. I always like Natascha McElhone (she's a beauty), but she's not as riveting here as in John Frankenheimer's Ronin (1998), where she was mysterious, intriguing, and militaristic as a possible IRA terrorist.

Those who like this should definitely watch Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd (2006), starring Matt Damon, based on true CIA events. It's realistic and riveting and proves that De Niro can direct also. And, of course, the excellent mini-series Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983) from the BBC, starring Sam Neill as the real life model for James Bond, Sydney Reilly, a Russian defector to Ireland who created his name and his persona.

This series, even though on TNT, did not go unnoticed - it won 6 awards out of 19 nominations, many for it's excellent cinematography by Ben Nott. Director Mikael Salomon was also given a directing nomination from the Directors Guild of America, while Jeff Beal's music won an Emmy.

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The Pacific

TV miniseries for HBO, 2010 (9.0*)
Directors: Tim Van Patten, Carl Franklin, Jeremy Podeswa, David Nutter, Tony To, Graham Yost

[Happy New Year! I felt this to be a fitting tribute to 2010 overall as this series is from this year]

A worthy successor to the Spielberg-Hanks produced Band of Brothers (2001), which was perhaps the finest series ever filmed, and which would be ranked #1 at Internet Movie Database if included in their top 250 film list. Rated 9.6, it would be well above #1 film The Shawshank Redemption at 9.2, and #2 The Godfather at 9.1. The Pacific is rated 8.4 with only 13k votes so far, which would definitely place it in the IMDB 250 with a rank around 150.

While Band followed one company from training for D-day until the end of the war in Europe, The Pacific is based on the memoirs of two different privates in to units, named Leckie and Sledge. As a result, the story is not as cohesive nor as gripping as Band of Brothers, but viewers certainly get a feel for the hellish nature of the island-hopping, shifting frontline of the war against Japan from the marine point of view.

Much of the action takes place on Guadalcanal, Peleliu, and Okinawa. Once again, various directors filmed the different one-hour parts, so there's a bit of inconsistency of style. Also, the story shifts from the island fighting to the civilian stories in Australia and the U.S. which lessens the intensity. Another plus for Band of Brothers is that the survivors of the fighting were for the most part still alive for interviews that added both veracity and insight to that series. Unfortunately, in this case the principals had all passed earlier than filming; ironically both Sledge and Leckie died in 2001 (when Band was released), but each did complete books that chronicled their experience, all available now from the HBO site (see below).

Although overall the acting is not as good as Band, the unknown lead actors James Badge Dale (Pfc. Leckie), Jon Seda (Sgt. Basilone), and especially Joe Mazzello (Pfc. Sledge) are certainly all believable as soldiers. William Sadler (as famed "Chesty" Puller) and Gary Sweet (as Sgt. "Gunny" Haney) are terrific as older veterans. Gunny was my favorite character, the wiley older vet who has survived because of his skills, and the type of soldier that keeps others alive.

My favorite episode was part five, called "Peleliu Landing" on the dvd (when shown, none was titled other than "Part x"), which was filmed by black director Carl Franklin. That begins inside a landing craft of marines about to go ashore in a harrowing sequence that recalls the beginning of Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. Another harrowing part is nine, following the marines for months in Okinawa, directed by Tim Van Patten. Each of these episodes were singled out for Emmy nominations. Van Patten, Podeswa, and Nutter received directing nominations, but none won.

The intensity and impact of the series is also lessened by intervals away from the war, such as r and r in Australia and the searching for romance there, and following Medal of Honor winner Joe Basilone back in the states on a tour to promote war bonds and stamps. However, the overall series is an important contribution to the library of great war films, and valuable homage to the price paid by these soldiers, and is a must-see for all fans of history and war.

Winner of 8 Emmy awards out of 24 nominations. It's also up for a Golden Globe, yet to be awarded.

The home page for the series at HBO

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Gormenghast

Andy Wilson, 2000, TV, 4 hrs (9.0*)

A BBC production for PBS

A deep, complex adventure fantasy, Gormenghast was a trilogy of novels by British author Mervyn Peake about a huge castle and the birth and life of a new heir to the throne, Titus Groan, which was the title of the first book. The mini-series covers the first two novels, which are quite lengthy.

Describing the plot is futile. Suffice to say there are many eccentric and interesting characters, romances, treachery and machinations over the throne and governing of the feudal castle-state, and enough to interest even jaded fans of science fiction and fantasy. Some truly original ideas are here, such as the castle being built around a huge tree and two sisters who prefer to live in the "room of roots", a maze of giant organic forms.

It's very "Dickensian" in style, yet so unique and rich that it's really incomparable. This is a must-see for fans of these genres, one of the best SF-fantasy series ever made.

Some interesting trivia associated with this
- it was a 19 year project of the producer
- Peake's granddaughters appeared as extras
- Lady Gertrude's white crow was the only known white crow in the world
- the castle miniatures were placed in vats of disinfectant then photographed
- author Peake was also noted for his artwork, he illustrated the books with his drawings

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The Buccaneers

Philip Saville, 1996, tv miniseries (8.2*)
In this lesser-known Edith Wharton novel, two wealthy St. George sisters (Carla Gugino and Alison Elliott) are known as new money in the U.S., and since their father made the money with a casino, are shunned by high society. So they head to London with two friends (Rya Kihlstedt and Mira Sorvino, who actually plays a Brazilian) to gain more prestige by hobknobbing with high society there.

There they actually are courted by dukes and lords, and seemingly by anyone eligible, as this four-hour Masterpiece Theater miniseries follows their stories as they "conquest and plunder" (two of the section titles) the mother country, hence the title. Apparently American women are so less reserved than their snobbish British counterparts that they are infinitely more appealing to the men.

If you enjoy the novels of Wharton and Jane Austen, or the lush historical dramas of the BBC, then this will be right up your alley. Perhaps a bit soapy compared to other Wharton novels, this still recalls the best of Austen, with much humor and fine acting sprinkled among the romance and the opulent settings.

Quote: "They're here for the London season." "Don't they have a season of their own?"

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Martin Chuzzlewit

Pedr James, 1994, 385 min. (8.7*)
Charles Dickens novels need the mini-series treatment, as it really takes about 6-8 hours of film to properly present the richness of his lengthy works, which are noted for a pantheon of eccentric British characters, usually with humorous surnames. This BBC production is six one-hour episodes.

This little-known, and never filmed novel is actually his first. He had not yet built an audience, but this is archetypal of his later works, presenting most of the elements we think of as Dickensian. An wealthy, octogenarian family patriarch, Martin Chuzzlewit, superbly played by Paul Schofield (in his best performance since his Oscar®-winning one in A Man For All Seasons) is failing in health, and stops in a small village near London to recover, while his family begins to gather, anticipating the end. He has disinherited his namesake grandson and hand-picked heir (Ben Walden, in one of the films weaker performances) due to an unapproved romance with his paid secretary-companion (sort of a 'hired surrogate daughter'), Mary (Pauline Turner), who is so kindly and graceful that all men fall for her.

Oscar®-winner Tom Wilkinson has a field day as a local baron of the village named Pecksniff, a widower who lives with and dotes on his two daughters, Mercy and Charity; he befriends the elderly Chuzzlewit during his illness and gains his trust as a family outsider. We get to read many of Pecksniff's inner thoughts and machinations in his expressions alone, as he is not exactly the saintly, selfless gent he presents to society.

This story is full of twists and turns, and even murder, as we follow the trials and triumphs of a plethora of characters. As usual, some minor characters nearly steal the show - in this case a young orphan boy named Bailey who's used as a butler at a rooming house, wonderfully played by Paul Francis; and an alcoholic nurse with a red bulbous nose, played by Elizabeth Spriggs. A third Oscar®-winner, John Mills, father of Hayley, has a small part as a loyal, now senile family clerk still being taken care of by them in his old age. The character of Tom Pinch (Philip Franks), who is liked by everyone but intimately involved with no one (other than as friend to young Martin), appears to be perhaps the personification of the author himself.

This has a much humor as any Dickens novel, with names like Seth Pecksniff, Pinch, Prig, Todgers, Chevy Slyme, Tigg Montague, Mr. Mould, and Mr. Spottletoe. Nominated for an Emmy for television mini-series, and also received several BAFTA nominations, including actor for Schofield, Wilkinson, and Peter Postelwaite.

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Longitude

Charles Sturridge, 2000 (9.1*)
Longitude is a tv miniseries dramatization of the life of British inventor John Harrison, a carpenter and amateur clockmaker, brilliantly portrayed by veteran actor Michael Gambon. In the early 1700's, ships at sea could not calculate their longitude due to the motion of ships which prevented pendulum clocks from operating accurately. Navigators estimated speed and current drift and estimated their positions on charts, and just one degree of error resulted in many shipwrecks and deaths. Queen Anne offered a prize of 20,000 lbs to anyone who could solve the problem, so in order to save lives, John Harrison, who made wooden clocks more accurate than metal ones, took up the challenge.

Juxtaposed with his story in perfect synchronicity is the modern story of Rupert Gould (Jeremy Irons), who is attempting to restore Harrison's clocks (to his neglected wife's frustration) and get them operative again so they can take their proper place in a museum of history. Director Charles Sturridge does a masterful job of not only integrating the two stories, but of also keeping us engrossed in a history lesson for nearly four hours. Only the British could pull this off, making what reads like a boring story of clock invention into a riveting drama upon which thousands of lives depend. Based upon the history book by Dava Sobel, one of the best history films ever made.

Quote: The watch beats five to the second, a slight recoil being perceptible at each beat, and goes for 30 hours. The plates are of brass, polished but not gilt. The pivot holes are jeweled as far as the third wheel, that is to say, those of the balance, staff, detente, contrate wheel, fly, fifth, fourth, and third wheels. The jewels are rubies, and the end stones diamonds. It is a masterpiece, weighing only slightly less than the brain that conceived it. (Irons, as Rupert Gould)

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The Memory Loss Tapes

Shari Cookson and Nick Doob, 2009, HBO (10*)

[Update: This just won an EMMY for "Exceptional Merit in Non-Fiction Programming" - congrats to all involved! updated 9.14.09]

The Memory Loss Tapes is the first part of the HBO series The Alzheimer’s Project, and it’s an extremely powerful documentary that touches on the most basic human emotions, those that flow naturally from love, caring, and mortality. The film was brilliantly constructed by producer-directors Shari Cookson and Nick Doob to slowly reveal the progressive stages of Alzheimer’s in seven different patients, and just as importantly, to show how the families of each have to cope with different aspects of the disease.

The first patient, Bessie, has only mild symptoms, so we get to see her as a lively, outgoing, and funny person. She knows what’s coming eventually but is still enjoying every day to its fullest. Another patient, Fannie, is losing her ability to drive her car, and with it her independence. Joe keeps a blog of his decline and can feel his mind slipping away. Yolanda thinks her reflection is a new best friend. Woody can’t remember his wife but can still remember song lyrics and sing with his old group.
Josephine’s daughter has had to fence in her property to keep her mom from wandering away. The patients shown exemplify the progression of the disease by revealing their everyday reality.

The most gripping part of this film deals with someone in the final stages of life, and the devastating effect it has on his family. In a heart wrenching revelation, the man’s wife admits feeling selfish for wanting to keep her husband with her as long as she can, despite the fact that he has "no life."

I don’t think I’ve ever seen mortality treated so realistically or with as much impact in any film. For parents, I would warn you to either pre-screen this for your children, especially those under ten, or counsel them before viewing. It’s something we’ll all face, but it may be distressing for young viewers to actually see in reality.

The saddest part of this illness to me is that it robs its victims of their memories at a stage in life when these are likely their most cherished possession. As a child, we would visit my great-grandmother in her nursing home, but she never remembered who we were, and she lived to be ninety-nine. I would have loved to have heard her stories that began around 1870, and just imagine the century she was able to witness.

Hopefully this film will instill a desire in many to become healers or medical researchers, and bring an understanding of the heavy cost of all terminal illnesses on the families and friends of the patients. We should all be aware now that new biotech research is necessary to cure this and similarly debilitating illnesses, and that money wasted on destructive goals is being diverted from these more humane purposes.

Many elderly patients don’t have any remaining family, as I found out when my mom was in a nursing home with Parkinson’s. Many eat alone and never have visitors, something we should never allow to happen. Visit as many of these people as you can, their smiles will be the best reward you’ll ever receive.

The Memory Loss Tapes should receive a handful of well-deserved Emmy nominations, and some awards. It's technically superb, emotionally powerful, and for me is one of the best TV documentaries ever made.

Producer-director Shari Cookson at IMDB
Producer-director Nick Doob at IMDB

[Though not yet on DVD, I'm reviewing this here in the hope that people will watch it on HBO or from their website: Click here for the HBO Link, and all episodes can be streamed from here as well.]

The Alzheimer's Organization is at http://www.alz.org/

Patients and families affected by Alzheimer’s can visit Icara Study to see if they might be eligible to enroll. [Thanks to Tracy for this]

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John Adams

Tom Hooper, 2008, 7 hrs (8.4*)

Emmy for Best Miniseries
This was my Memorial weekend film selection due to the historical tie-in, and I expected a boring seven-hour history lesson about our first VP and second president. I was pleasantly surprised by some action in the early episodes, and an absolutely incredible performance by Emmy-winner Paul Giamatti in the title role, his best performance by far. It begins with a literal bang with the Boston Massacre, when lawyer Adams defends the British, and also includes a well-done naval battle in part 2. This was produced by Tom Hanks, and won five major Emmys and a record 13 overall, so it's not a low-budget PBS series - it's a high budget HBO series!

Laura Linney, also an Emmy-winner, is good as wife Abigail, but she speaks as if giving speeches or elocution lessons, so I'm not sure about her Emmy. Veteran character actor Tom Wilkinson (Emmy-winner for supporting), always impeccable, was a standout as Benjamin Franklin at the royal palace in France; some of the locations in Europe are stunning. The series starts strong and gets a little slow in the Presidential years with some family dinners, and a cotton-chewing David Morse didn't do much as George Washington. However, to cover decades in a founding fathers life still must be done with only important episodes in that life, so that keeps the series moving. A must for history buffs, maybe too slow for the action-adventure, shoot em up crowd.

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Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

John Korty, 1973, tv (8.8*)Emmy, Outstanding SpecialOne of the best tv films ever, based on the novel by Ernest J. Gaines, this drama follows the life of an African-American woman, Jane Pittman, born into slavery in the South during the 1850s and who surives to become a 110-year-old who tells her story from her days as a slave all the way up to involvement in the civil rights movement in the early 1960’s, which makes this the perfect film for Martin Luther King’s birthday.

Winner of nine Emmy Awards out of 13 nominations, including Best Lead Actress for Cicely Tyson (formerly married to Miles Davis and used as a model on several album covers) in her best role, also Best Director for John Korty; others awarded for writing, makeup (they age Tyson 70 yrs or so), costume design, music. TV simply doesn't get any better than this, combining history and art to tell a universal tale of social injustice, growth, courage, and change.

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Citizen X

Chris Gerolmo, 1995 (8.7*)
Based on a true story of Russia’s worst serial killer, who killed over 50 young victims. Stephen Rea, always excellent, plays a forensics expert who spends years on the case, assisted and supervised by Soviet party bureaucrat Donald Sutherland, who won an Emmy and Golden Globe for supporting actor. After the case stalls with no leads, they resort to the FBI’s technique of psychological profiling (which had not been used in Russia), and bring in psychiatrist Max von Sydow. This may be a little slow, but is an excellent docudrama about criminal investigations, the case now being used in FBI training.

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The Civil War

Ken Burns, 1990, tv, 12 hrs (9.1*)
Ken Burns set a new style and standard for tv documentaries with this multi-part documentary based largely on still photographs, maps, and interviews with historians, authors, other experts. The series immediately becomes addictive for all history buffs, whether interested in the Civil War or not. Burns establishes a style he later used on a history of jazz music, another on baseball, finally one on World War II. Terrific stuff, not to be missed.

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Reilly: Ace of Spies

Martin Campbell, Jim Goddard, 1983, 11 hrs (9.0*)
This 12-part British miniseries tells the story of real life spy Sidney Reilly, who inspired Ian Fleming when he created James Bond. Reilly was the pseudonym of a Russian Jew named Georgi Rosenblum from Odessa who escaped Czarist repression by fleeing to Brazil, later Ireland, changing his name, and eventually becoming a British spy. Sam Neill, in the role that made him famous, turned Reilly into a smirking, self-confident, and suave gentleman who easily gained confidences where needed.

The series is based on the non-fiction account of the same title by Spider Lockhart, who served with Reilly in Russia, whose character is in several episodes. Part 1 begins with him in the Middle East in some subterfuge regarding oil rights for England; next in eastern Russia just preceding the Crimean War (David Souchet has a juicy role in this one); later we see him steal battleship plans from Germany before World War I, and various other endeavors, often battling his rival for information, an arms selling Russian industrialist played by Leo McKern, who didn't care whom he armed to make his fortunes. What really drove Reilly however, aside from a few beautiful women (married or otherwise), was a lifelong obsession with invading and freeing Russia from any totalitarian regime, so the latter episodes cover Reilly’s time spent there, with some interesting scenes involving Felix Derzhinsky, father of Russian intelligence and disinformation who kept Lenin in power in the precarious early days of the revolution. The entire series has a location look, very well designed and filmed, each part a mini-movie, highly recommended for fans of both espionage and history.
Note: Director Martin Campbell would later direct the 007 film Casino Royale in 2006.

Here's the Wikipedia page on Sidney Reilly

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Band of Brothers

2001, 10 Hours (10*)
Dirs: Tom Hanks, Philip Alden Robinson, Mikael Salomon, David Nutter, David Leyland, David Frankel, Tony To

Best Miniseries (Emmy, GG)

Based on the book by historian Stephen Ambrose, who worked with Ken Burns on The Civil War for PBS and who also co-produced, this immense achievement follows Easy Company from training in England, to their parachute drop the night before D-Day until the end of the war, and is interspersed with interviews of surviving participants.

Reportedly this cost producers Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg over 100 million, followed their collaboration on Saving Pvt Ryan, and is now perhaps the best docudrama of all-time. The D-Day parachute drop sequence alone is probably the best war footage yet produced - it combines the best CGI special effects with historical accuracy and exciting editing to create a nightmarish vision of war never seen before. This is no battle in space with imaginary deaths of aliens, this is the real thing and exactly what happened to thousands of allied soldiers.

Worthy of its length, each part is a different film with a different director, hence the overall consistency may appear uneven to the most discerning, but that's a triviality. I also think having an unknown cast was a stroke of genius, because it makes it seem like we're watching real soldiers, not some star pretending he is a real wartime participant.

This is an all-time top 10! 6 Emmys for 19 nominations

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The Inspector Morse Series

John Madden, various others, British tv, 33 films, 1987-1999 (8.8*)
The highly successful BBC series about a police homicide inspector is popular for one reason: actor John Thaw, always an underrated actor (Goodnight Mister Tom, Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of Four), and always exactly what he should be for the role, and he carries everything he's in on his shoulders; here he's a lonely bachelor who likes opera, beer, and solitude. His repartee with co-star Kevin Whately as Sgt. Lewis, a likeable family man, keeps the crimes from being all serious; he seems to barely tolerate Lewis' lack of experience, and treats him more like a servant than an equal, looks at him with the disgust of a disapproving father.

Each mystery is actually film length, usually two hours, and each is very well written; the first dozen or so are from novels by the original author Colin Dexter. Some latter years only saw one produced per year. The series begins with The Dead of Jericho and finishes with a 33rd, The Remorseful Day, filmed while actor Thaw was dying. The highest rated by users are 1-Remorseful Day (#33), 2-The Way Through the Woods (#29), 3-Deadly Slumber (#26), 4-The Wench is Dead (#32), 5-Dead on Time (#21). This is as good as British mystery gets.

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Siberiade

Dir: Andrei Konchalovsky, 1979, Russia, 6 hrs. (7.5*)
This massive 6-hr production looks like it was made for Russian tv, a mini-series in 4 parts about 90 minutes each; since the film was also fullscreen, I'm assuming it was made for tv rather than the cinema - too bad I wish it had been widescreen, for the star and subject of this film is Siberia. In particular, a small village on the Volga River, and about three generations of its inhabitants, some of whom leave Siberia, some of whom return. This epic (in time if not in numbers of people) covers nearly a century of this area, from Czarist Russia until Soviet industrial expansion into the area in the 1980's, searching for oil.

This may be a bit slow and unsophisticated for some western audiences, moving like spring ice melting on the tundra, but there are beautiful scenes of a culture we'll never see: a wind-driven ice sled skating over the frozen river and disappearing into the winter whiteout (how did they ever find their way anywhere and back?, fur-covered Siberian peasants with the weather etched in their faces, audacious swamplands when thawed (called the "Devil's Mane" by the locals), as one Russian official puts in from an airplane "a useless area three times the size of France; we might as well dam it up for hydropower and create the world's largest man-made reservoir". This is truly a Soviet-style, industrial strength epic film, unlike anything from the west.

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The Prisoner

Dir: Don Chaffery, 1967, 16 episodes, tv (8.9*)

Patrick McGoohan continued his "Secret Agent" (a.k.a. "Danger Man" in the U.K.) character for a one season epilogue that turned into the most thought-provoking mini-series of all time. It begins with McGoohan stormily resigning as an agent, then being whisked away to an unknown island where he remains a prisoner, known as Number Six. Each episode, a new Number Two (the best of which was Leo McKern, in two episodes, the only actor to repeat the role) attempts various psychological tricks to get Six to reveal any information – of course he refuses. The series blended science fiction, espionage, and psychology, something that hadn’t been attempted at the time. This has aged very well, and still appears both provocative and relevant. A must for SciFi and classic tv fans, and anyone who loves a good story about individual identity and freedom.

Try to view them in the following order, chronological within his story: Arrival, The Chimes of Big Ben, AB&C, Free for All, The Schizoid Man, The General, Many Happy Returns, Dance of the Dead, Checkmate, Hammer Into Anvil, It's Your Funeral, A Change of Mind, Do Not Foresake Me Oh My Darling, Living In Harmony, The Girl Who Was Death, Once Upon A Time, Fall Out.

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