User reviews

My first thought watching this is that it was nowhere near as good as books one and two, but it wasn't the worst thing i have watched. The first episode was quite interesting, and the ending to that episode was really good. The only thing i didn't like was that it looked kind of... cheap. I hated the way the scenes were edited, and especially the painting effect used on the opening to each scene, because it was tedious and not so good. Overall though i thought it was okay, and may watch it again in the future. But if you want something exactly like the first 2 books, you might want to steer clear in order to avoid some disappointed, but if u are generally interested, take a look.

Eight years after Book II of North And South was released, a third volume of the Main and Hazard family saga was released. A whole lot of the cast returned and a whole lot of roles were also played by different actors. Among other things Patrick Swayze's character is murdered right at the beginning by Philip Casnoff whom we thought had been blown up in his warehouse filled with guns and explosives, blown up along with his plans to overthrow Jefferson Davis and establish a military dictatorship for the Confederacy. I'll say this for Casnoff's Elkannah Bent character the man dreamed big.

No way he should have survived, but they brought him back just like in the old movie serials you see someone who should have died, but back he comes for the next chapter. The second thing about Book III is that the whole saga is based on the enduring Damon and Pythias friendship between Orry Main and George Hazzard from South Carolina and Pennsylvania respectively. Although the friendship went through a lot of stress it endured as the country endured.

But now Yin has been eliminated from being in tandem with a Yang making Book III somewhat off balance. Bent kills Swayze and then kills Hazzard's wife allowing James Read and Lesley Anne Down to comfort each other.

But Casnoff is not finished with his villainy. He kidnaps the young son of Kyle Chandler who plays Main cousin Charles Main and takes him into the wild west and awaits Charles Main to attempt a rescue. That was always Casnoff's weakness in the first two books, he thought he was the smartest guy around and no one was shrewder. Helps when you also think your destined to be an American Napoleon Bonaparte.

In fact my favorite scene in the film is when Read tells Chandler that back at West Point he and Swayze actually saved Casnoff from drowning in an icy river. Goes to show no good deed goes unpunished.

Meanwhile back at the old Main plantation of Mont Royal Lesley Anne Down tries to bring the estate back to life with some mining as well as planting. But she's faced by a new character, an old brother we didn't know about Cooper Main played by Robert Wagner. He's fallen in with a lot of the poor white trash that have formed a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. He wants to get the property away from Down who is shunned by proper southern society because to use the language of the day she's an Octaroon, meaning she is one eighth black.

As for that noted southern belle and nymphomaniac Ashton Main, she's fallen so low that she's know working as a whore out west. But Terri Garber marries well to a husband who says he'll aid in her quest to get Mont Royal back. But things don't quite work out there either.

Book III isn't bad, but it's not up to the grand pageant standards of Books one and two.

What a brave move. This third series of North and South lies at the vanguard of television drama. Billiantly conceived, beautifully filmed, and the acting is absolutely top notch. And the dialog! Well what can I say? Fluent, beautiful and packed with memorable quotes. Every change made from the two previous installments is a stroke of genius, from the triumphant appearance of Cooper Main to the romance between Madeline and George Main. And what a fantastic creation Elkanah Bent is. Evil personified, but with so many layers and depth.

This is a landmark achievement. Truly inspirational.

I watch it weekly.

Oh, and how could I forget? My favorite part is where Orry is killed. How brave of Patrick Swayze to not show his face!

The more I learn about the history of this period, the better I like Book 3 of North & South. A lot of viewers dislike it because they feel it isn't up to the first two books. In a sense, they're right. And the reason is that the history of the prewar period, of the war itself and of the postwar period --known as "Reconstruction," a fairly gross misnomer--are very different things. The prewar and war had gallantry to go along with the conflict and the misery. Reconstruction, by contrast, has a dreadful history that nobody likes. The period is unpopular with the general public, and it's shunned by historians. It was a frankly awful time in which many sordid scores were settled; in which the country had to find its way through an ethical and political morass, with few happy endings. I haven't read Jakes's novel "Heaven and Hell," but I do feel that the film is true to the period it portrays. With all the difficulties, a lot of nobility comes out through the characters who exemplify ordinary decency; and those who are depraved--a large portion--are sharply and well defined. Other production values are good, with handsome cinematography and an excellent score. The major problem in the production is that casting issues are widespread, while a major character, Cooper, shows up rather implausibly as a "deus ex machina." For all that, I give the film a rating slightly lower than the highest possible. But don't worry. As long as you're not expecting to see a drama just like that of the buildup to the war and then the war itself--as long as you can get used to the idea that something new and not always easy is coming--you'll find a lot of satisfaction.

Although this movie follows the book more closely, with a few exceptions (Bent miraculously surviving everything, Cooper Main appearing out of nowhere), it is not as bad as everyone states.

The production values and editing of certain scenes could have been up to par with the first two books. Not to mention that Patrick Swayze declined to reprise his role of Orry Main, which is probably why the producers decided he will be killed in this one. Also, I think that the storyline involving Ashton scheming to take Mont Royal for herself could have been expanded.

As for the other characters, I liked the original Charles Main (played by Lewis Smith), although Kyle Chandler delivered a satisfactory performance. And, to agree with everyone else, the appearance of Cooper Main makes no sense, especially since there is no mention of Cooper in the first two movies.

If the movie were twelve hours long like the previous ones, then more explanation for certain things would have made the movie a better piece.

6/10

This third volume of the acclaimed North and South saga is a major disappointment, so much so that I was unable to sit through the whole thing. It tries to go back to the plot of the original book, but confusingly so, because characters from the books who were not in the first 2 movies suddenly appear with no good explanation, and most of the returning characters act so out-of-character as to be unrecognizable, from either the books or the first two movies. It seems that the producers just assumed viewers would welcome this edition with open arms regardless of how twisted and convoluted the plot is, and how disjointed this all seems. It's an insult to the intelligence of anyone who enjoyed the first two series.

Some very unpleasant things happen which make very little dramatic sense. To a certain degree, that is the same as the book, but the book handled things much more appropriately for the time period and the characters' sensibilities, where the filmed version doesn't seem to care about that. It seems as if the producers really wanted another steamy soap opera, and they didn't seem to care if the story ended up making no logical sense in how it got there. The love stories all seem very rushed and sometimes downright illogical. This film repeatedly portrays the major players acting against their characters as portrayed in the first two parts, and several major characters are either re-cast or missing from this edition. Also, most of the returning actors don't seem to have their hearts in it anymore. It's like they're sleepwalking through this lackluster, sad production.

This installment has none of the energy and vitality of the first two installments, and the production values are sloppy at best. It's like watching one long, protracted funeral. It's downright depressing. I would advise fans of the first two series to avoid this one at all costs. The DVD set is well worth purchasing for the first two installments and the extras, but I would recommend that viewers just skip Book 3. It's too much of a letdown.

I bought the box set and watched the first two books over the last couple of days. Today, I loaded the first disc of Heaven and Hell and gave up shortly thereafter.

In a word, awful. In four words, "Movie of the week".

The first two books reeked of quality. They were more along the lines of a motion picture, than something made-for-TV. This outing, however, appears to have been done solely for a buck, riding the coattails of books 1 and 2.

The first "uh oh..." moment came when Philip Casnoff's name was listed in the credits - a man who was blown to bits in Book 2. Then, there was no Patrick Swayze... And when they showed his character in shadow at the beginning, no face, well, that kind of said it all about Orry.

Elkanah Bent (played as a cartoon villain by Philip Casnoff) turns up again as a 19th century Snidely Whiplash (John Jakes' narration at the opening of the show tells us Bent died in an expolosion, then explains shortly thereafter that through a "quirk of fate, he survived"). Huh? As I'd just watched the episode where the explosion occurred, it was amazing to see Bent still walking around with his pretty face. Not even his eyebrows were burnt off! While he had some serious scarring on part of one shoulder, that wasn't bad for having been in the centre of a catastrophic explosion and huge fireball reminiscent of a mini-Hiroshima.

I'm assuming Bent's "resurrection" was only a plot device to deal with Orry and the absence of Patrick Swayze.

If this is supposed to follow on immediately after Book 2, then George must've done some serious pigging out in a few weeks, as his face appeared to be quite bloated.

Terri Garber (Ashton) did a great job with her character throughout. However, she looked "different" in this installement. I think this was made around the time when the pressure was beginning to be put on actresses to be stick-thin, and it showed in her face.

The Characters of Charles Main and Billy Hazard were played by different actors (this makes 3 Billys - was it that bad a part to play - or did Parker Stevenson wisely want no part of this stinker?).

The new Charles looks to be the same age as when he first came to Mont Royal. He didn't have the rakish charm of the original, nor did he wear the "life experience".

Again, I believe most strongly that this thing was thrown together for the money, and was not about continuity, or putting out a quality product.

Watch, if you're really bored with life in general. But you're better off to read the books.

After watching the first 2 books, this was a bad one. But book 2 totally strayed from the actual story. If Book 2 would not have strayed so far, this story would have made sense in conjunction with the others. I thought this story was well done. It showed a lot of the problems that existed with the Reconstruction era, and the problems associated with a Democratic president from the south, and the Radical Republicans in power in Congress, who were previously all abolitionists before the war. I do think it was weird for George Hazard and Madeline to marry after the death of their spouses. Also they used a different actor for Charles Main. After seeing the same actor for the 2 previous books, they should have tried to get the original guy back. In the whole trilogy, they also used 3 different women for Isabel Hazard, and also 3 different men for Billy Hazard. That's confusing for those who have seen this whole trilogy over and over.

Wish they had never made heaven and hell. It totally ruined a great series.

I've only just started watching the first episode of book three after going through a marathon of watching two episodes a night of books one and two. Didn't know there was a third until I got the DVD. Have read the book, but it was a while ago.

Inconsistencies avail in this series. Orry Jr. never seems to age. I noticed this at the end of book two. Orry tells George at the hospital he hasn't seen Madeline in two years. We he reunites with her, the baby looks like he's six months if that. He should be almost two years old!! In book three the time line is fuzzy at best. How soon after the war does the setting take place? Orry Jr. is still not that much older, but Gus, Charles' son, is five years old!! He was born after Orry Jr. who looks like he's maybe a year old.

George mentions kids, as in more than one, but no mention made at the end of book two that he has more than one.

Why would Madeline want to build a house in Mont Royal's front yard, when the slave quarters were not destroyed? I thought she was interested in rebuilding Mont Royal, yet she takes the time to build a school for freed slaves. Doesn't she have Justin's house she could sell or live in, or if that was burned down, the property could be sold to help refinance Mont Royal.

If Charles hated the war so much, why wouldn't he stay behind, raise his son, and help rebuild Mont Royal with Madeline.

Why bother replacing Ezra and Simi with Jane and Issac? Why not bring back the two freed slaves that stayed with them to the end of book 2? And the opening scene with the footage of Patrick Swayze making his way across to the front door. That is obviously Mont Royal, because when Madeline is meeting with Ashton at the friend's house in Charleston, from which the double for Patrick exits, the set up and lighting are way different inside.

Though I am a big fan of the first two, I would only recommend watching the third one out of curiosity. It doesn't have nearly the same quality all around. Thank God it was only three episodes instead of six.

The problem with adaptations of books is the fact that characters on film are often compilations of a number of characters in the books. Orry comes across as a combination of George (physically) and Cooper (socially/politically). If Cooper was a least seen in the earlier mini-series, his presence wouldn't have puzzled everyone. John Jakes's works for some reason always have events out of place when they hit the screen. Hollywood never seems to stop tampering with books that have been read by millions. Obviously, Hollywood thinks it can improve on bestsellers. Remember the Kent Family Chronicles? Characters in the books who never met in the first place are friends. Historical figures have their names changed, etc. Heaven and Hell was a mess, most definitely, but Hollywood should face the fact that people aren't quite as stupid as they think they are. Even if you never read the books, the first two installments were well made. However, the third is a mess. Period.

For fans of the North and South series, this should never have been produced. Never, never, never never!! (If you have seen the first two Books and enjoyed them as most do, don't even consider viewing the third, it will spoil the greatness of the previous work)

I first saw North and South back in 85-86 on the television, and later came across Heaven and Hell in a video store. The North and South I am seeing today just does not seem to be what I watched way back when, and when I watched Heaven and Hell it seem to fit with the other just fine. I enjoyed them both. Now I see there is a book 2 that I never even realized was out and I can not find Heaven and Hell any where. I still find the books North and South, Love and War and Heaven Hell to be the all time greatest, but I enjoy watching the movies with an open mine. No movie is ever as good as there books, but then again movies are based on what the producers think the people want and at that time it was Patrick Swayze. I would love to see this one done all over again from the begining maybe using some of todays actors/actresses and staying closer to the books. Why not they redo movies all the time now.(The Parent Trap, Sebrina,The man in the Iron Mask even Titanic) P.S. Does anyone know where I can get my hands on the copies of Heaven and Hell?

Watched North & South again this past weekend (after many years), in memory of Kirstie Alley (I bought the DVD collection 10 years ago but had watched the original TV miniseries as a teenager in the 80s). Kirstie Alley's performance in Books 1 & 2 is brilliant.

I reluctantly watched Book 3 again (obviously I had nothing else to do!), despite knowing Alley & most of the original big name cast aren't there, & it's a huge disappointment, second time around. Thought I'd leave a review here to warn others...DON'T BOTHER WITH BOOK 3!

My key gripes in addition to the mediocre production, lack lustre performances & far fetched plot:

1. Cooper Main. Ok, he is in the John Jake novels but seriously, why bother introducing him in Book 3 after ZERO mention of such a character in Books 1 & 2 and without a convincing back story in Book 3??

2. Same character, different actors. The change of actors for Billy Hazard's character from Books 1 to 2 was acceptable- yay for Parker Stevenson! (Btw, Billy's character is missing in Book 3 & no clear explanation as to why*facepalm*). But the actor who replaced Charlie Main isn't quite the same (sorry Kyle Chandler).

3. Ku Klux Klan origins. It doesn't matter how much they tried to show how evil this organisation was, its contrived portrayal seemed more of an afterthought in Book 3 & would never have passed the production test in today's politically sensitive world. Too serious an issue for a day time TV miniseries to tackle.

One must wonder why John Jakes approved the Book 3 production??

One star because of Bill Conti's original music score - because it reminded me of the much more enjoyable Books 1 & 2!