Word: mitchums
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...Worrell of the 18-hr. TV epic that is based on Herman Wouk's 1971 bestseller. "I caught Producer-Director Dan Curtis on the Paramount lot, working on the last Winds of War episode. I drove to Montecito, a suburb south of Santa Barbara, to talk with Robert Mitchum, a gifted storyteller who answers almost every question with an anecdote. I interviewed about 20 people connected with the program: Jan-Michael Vincent at his favorite Malibu hangout, Ali MacGraw at a Los Angeles hotel, John Houseman at a shooting of The Paper Chase...
...Pearl Harbor. Wouk, who wrote the screenplay from his 885-page novel, ingeniously invented a witness to these dramatic events, Victor ("Pug") Henry, a commander (later captain) in the U.S. Navy. Sent to Berlin as the American naval attache in the spring of 1939, Henry, played by Robert Mitchum, meets all the top Nazi leaders. Through his prescience, with just a little help from the author's hindsight, Henry alone anticipates the signing of the Soviet-German Nonaggression Pact, which enabled the Germans to launch the war. That prediction brings him to the attention of President Roosevelt, who thenceforth...
...junior high school principal, manages his former teammate's campaign, largely financed by Phil Ramono (Paul Sorvino), an Italian businessman whose strip-mining company thrives on city leases. Tom Daily (Martin Sheen), James's younger brother, returns from a mysterious absence to join the others and Coach Delaney (Robert Mitchum). "It's amazing." Tom comments, "nothing's really changed here. Nothing. "Of course, Tom's comment overlooks the closing of his old high school; the dark desertion of its gym parallels the changed and darker nature of his old friends...
...remains difficult to imagine anyone other than Robert Mitchum as Coach Delaney. With his half-closed eyes, his rugged face, his easygoing manner, he believably fashions a character who somehow understands his former players' emotions. And perhaps only Mitchum, who himself seems without a facade, could play a character who willfully overlooks layers of questions and doubts that have been accumulating on his former players for 24 years...
...surprising that the most isolated character (Martin Sheen's alcoholic) appears in the best light. His deflating cynicism scores even when it sails in from outside one of Miller's shots, as it sometimes peculiarly does. The coach is played hard by Robert Mitchum, whose wise and cynical presence just does not suit a man living on nostalgia and dead ideas. The rest of the solid cast includes Bruce Bern, Stacy Keach and Paul Sorvino, who have their moments. But these never add up to persuasive performances...