North and South, Book I (1985)

People are voting emotionally.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I had to watch a civil war themed movie for class, and I am glad I chose this one. The movie was really good, and appeared very realistic. It was a good representation of how the tensions between North and South were running high before the war. George and Orry were from different backgrounds, but got along and agreed because they knew everyone had different views and respected that. But not all characters felt the same way, and it caused a few problems in the movie. Also, Madeline and Orry were in love, but the father of Madeline separated them so that Madeline would marry the man he had chosen for her. He wanted what was best for him and his plantation. This selfishness caused more problems in the movie, since Madeline and Orry were still in love, even though Madeline was now married. His selfishness was similar to that of many Southerners, which helped lead to the civil war.

The sweeping, epic, love/war story brings the events of the Civil War to life by telling the story of the war through the perspective of two families, one from the North and the other from the South. It highlights key features of both northern and southern society while developing intricacies of the time that we might not have considered. I do fast forward through scenes of cruelty to slaves and war battles, but those are inherent to the time frame and crucial to understanding the difficulties certain groups faced. My family recently visited the Boone Plantation in Charleston (Mont Royal) and the Avenue of Oaks is as beautiful in person as the movie portrayed when the men came home from war.

Her views on the slavery were right and undebatable. Although, until to the one period of her life, which made a less radical woman out of her - she was very loud and vulgar worker against slavery. She was a very proud woman who never talked or listened her protester - just for the cause. She has never discussed with them with any respect. Even, if it was a friend of the family or even a person who she loved. And I do not claim that she could talk with her family however, but I think she could treat her protesters with a little more respect, because it could be much better for the cause, for which she fought. Besides, she claimed that the war is a fine way and there is no other and blood must run. That was the sign that the life of another people wasn't so much valuable for her. And that is not a scale of sensibility I prefer , especially in such matters as making decisions about human life or death. She didn't realize how war can be frightening and horrible. But the worst is that she didn't even want to know that. She had her own rules and rights, that was great for her, but that's not so clear when she started to sell her body to help her in her own cause. The viewer can only guess that this kind of behavior was the consequence of hard war's experiences. It was her way to survive until she has murdered her false friend and lover as well.She fought for other people against injustice towards them, she fought for others to kill another. As far as she was unpredictable, she seemed to be sick.In all that cases, I can reasonably claim, she has lost her purpose from her eyes and became a loser for the cause and for herself as well. She was the main reason which led her not towards the good end, whatever it can mean.She only stayed true with her love feelings to her dead husband to the end of her life. That was only the thing which has never changed. That is the one thing that in Christianity can never change – it is the real love which is true itself forever, the most important thing forever.

I really enjoyed North and South very much. I think it is one of the best and most lavish television series I have ever seen. The calibre of the cast is amazing, you have actors from "the golden age of cinema", people like James Stewart, Gene Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons with other actors who were the new faces of the 80's like Patrick Swayze, James Read, Jonathan Frakes, Genie Francis, Philip Casnoff and Lesley-Anne Down.At the heart of the story is the friendship of two completely different men,there is Orry Main (Patrick Swayze) who is from the south and George Hazard (James Read) who is from the North. Throughout the series, their friendship is continually threatened with the differences in their backgrounds, particularly about the treatment of slaves in the South (especially at Orry's plantation) but when each needs the other, they will forget the arguments and go and help their friend. I really liked the chemistry between the two men and was really interested to see if their friendship could survive the war.I liked how the series showed what life was like before the war so the audience could see what were the factors that lead up to the war, what was going on at the time, then the devastation of a nation that was being torn apart and then the nation having to rebuild the country again. The war scenes were very well choreographed and very realistic to me.I think what is great about it, is it has so many elements running through it, romance, history, battles that would interest most of the audience, there is something for everyone. I particularly enjoyed the romance between Brett (Genie Francis) and Billy (Parker Stevenson/John Stockwell) especially when she stood up to her sister Ashton for the first time. The other romances were interesting as there were not all the same, each had something different to the others which kept me watching particularly the Madeline and Orry story strand to see if they would be together in the end.It is one of the best American mini series that I have watched, the story had the right balance of romance and the more serious history side that was happening in the country at the time but it is paced just right. The characters are very watchable and the locations are beautiful and the music particularly at the start and end of the episode is so toe-tapping good and works with the mood of the story.