World War II - When Lions Roared (1994)

Enjoyable historical movie.

This mini-series was very enjoyable. Not really traditional Hollywood style though. Several of the shot compositions were a bit cheesy. Also, the main characters did a strange soap-operaesque pause while another character (in another location) was talking. The splicing didn't make sense to me.

The acting was fine and Michael Caine's accent was believable. I think he humanized the Stalin character enormously.

One character that I did miss was Truman. The movie basically stops with the death of FDR. While I understand that Truman was "out-of-the-loop" while VP, he was nevertheless a wartime president.

Overall, I would recommend this movie. Although, I would only purchase it on sale or rent it. June 27, 2008

Far better than the Amazon review would have you believe

It is perhaps the nature of the medium that on the internet we continually get reviews which complain that the product would be much better if only it were something completely different than it was intended to be. It is somehow more disappointing in an Amazon-sanctioned review which one hopes is based upon some sense of the purpose of the thing.

In this case, it ought to be understood that the whole raison d'etre of the film is to use only the actual words of the historical figures portrayed as dialogue for the film. Therefore, the "oddly cobbled-together" script to which the Amazon reviewer refers is not cobbled-together at all, but rather an adaptation of written correspondence into monologue or dialogue. It is a brilliant device and admirably executed. The "strange" split-screen scenes of which the reviewer complains are some of the cleverest in the film, turning correspondence that would have taken weeks of transport to travel back and forth in wartime into contemporaneous conversation.

All this with actual footage of the war, the results of the decisions of these men, played out behind them. It is unusual, perhaps, for television, but it is eminently theatrical and hardly "chummy" or "glib." The overall effect of the film is not the sort of jingoism implied by the Amazon reviewer, but a sense of the true complexity and difficulty of the dilemmas these men faced--and the different means each of them utilized in handling them. FDR, for example, hardly comes off well in his acquiescence to Stalin without consultation of Churchill.

Caine is good. Lithgow is not very good. Hoskins is pitch-perfect! The film is highly recommended for its originality, its historicity, and its thoughtful approach to a difficult subject. April 29, 2008

HIstory Comes To Life

This is by far the best docudrama I have ever seen. Once in a lifetime certain actors were born to play certain roles, and this is one of those times. John Lithgow, Bob Hoskins and Michael Caine were absolutely perfect and truly brought these historical characters to life. I have seen many great actors portray FDR, yet when I saw this portrayal I actually thought I was seeing FDR. Hoskins portrayal of Churchill was equally brilliant and believable. There are no words to adequately describe the performance of Michael Caine, except that this film shows that he definitely is among the greats. In short, this film brings history to life in a way that is informative as well as entertaining. July 17, 2007

A Docudrama that Entertains and Informs

It is good to see this 1994 television miniseries finally come out on DVD. Be prepared for a long evening (the running time for the two discs is three hours 23 minutes) but it is time well invested. WORLD WAR II: WHEN LIONS ROARED is a creative montage of actual film clips from the newsreels shown in theaters at that time together with contemporary filmed drama in script written by David W. Rintels and crafted and directed by Joseph Sargent. This film allows us to revisit history the way it was - with more behind the scenes activity among the great powers than most other films offer.

The roaring lions are very well portrayed by John Lithgow as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Bob Hoskins as Winston Churchill and Michael Caine as Stalin. Each actor steps wholly into his role without resorting to mimicry or simply stage makeup. It is fascinating to see how the USA was a non-intervener at first (a refreshingly different stance form the current aggressor role we have adopted) and how the needs of the planet required global cooperation in the face of Hitler et al. Ed Begley Jr. offers a lot of information about the important figure Harry Hopkins about whom we hear little as does Jan Triska as Vyacheslav Molotav, Stalin's key man.

The compilation of real footage with created footage including the split screen technique to allow the three leaders to interact from their different locations works well. This is one of those historic films that deserves repeated viewing. An excellent production. Grady Harp, March 07

March 21, 2007

when lions roared

This was a very good movie. It gave us a chance to see behind the scenes of policy making in World War II even if there was a little dramatic license taken. I recommend this movie highly to anyone interested in this time period in history March 20, 2007

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