China Beach / Premiere Episode (1988) Review

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(More customer reviews)Superb. The entire series should be made available, but as yet, even this little gem is not available on DVD.
While I am also a big Dana fan, I was blown away by the level of realism and the sheer quality of the acting throughout this flawlessly executed epic series. A pre-Star Trek: Voyager Robert Picardo was one of the mainstays in a show that almost made MASH seem trivial by comparison - even given that MASH was a comedy.
This really is intense drama at its best, and the character depth and quality performances from Dana, Robert and an outrageously talented cast made this a classic series by any definition.
On following China Beach (the real location is now a leading Vietnamese tourist resort), you simply cannot help but be appalled that the Army nurses who risked and even gave their lives to save countless teenage soldiers, had to fight for Vet status for many years.
In a God-forsaken country in which every square inch was the front line, the courageous men and women at the Five and Dime showed how the human spirit can triumph in even the most overwhelming circumstances.
For me, Delaney and Picardo never topped these stunning performances, although I would watch literally anything that they appear in. This all-too-brief tape serves as a reminder of just how good television can be.
Haunting.

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This is the pilot episode for the popular TV series that made Dana Delany a star. Set at the 510th EVAC Hospital at China Beach, Vietnam, the movie presents the stories of the doctors, nurses, soldiers and USO entertainers who populated the base. Each character struggles to find their own way to deal with their personal problems and the war surrounding them.

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True Women (1997) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Hallmark Entertainment offers a sweeping drama about the three women living in the South, from the time of "Alamo" to the Civil War. I am afraid that your teacher of history cannot allow you to use this TV series as a text for American history, and that is simply because it is too melodramatic, in the fashion of that famous Margaret Michell's book. The story is too fast; the characters are too many; but the film never stops, and something happens every ten minutes -- war, lynch, dead bodies (including children), commentary about slavery, rights for women to vote, human rights for native Americans. In a sense, this is a modern version of "Gone with the Wind" with smaller scale.
Georgia and Euphemia are good friends, but the latter is forced to leave her in order to go to Texas (until then, it takes only ten minutes). The film traces the life of the two women separately until their reunion of many years later. Now Georgia and Euphemia (with her independent sister) are both grown up, after the happy and sad times, and as you will expect, their environments changed what they once were; though they know they are no longer the best friends who played together by the peaceful riverside, they come to understand each other after the many plights of life in time of war.
There are so many events that happen every five minutes (as the editorial review say rightly) that it is impossible for me to summerize the whole story. The film goes just like turning pages of paperbacks: now you see delightful scenes, and suddenly, a war or epidemic breaks out. Now you see Georgia meets a man, and next, you see their pledge of love. The film gives no time to think. But that is probably the point.
So, it would be best for us to see the actors. Angelina Jolie and Anabeth Gish are both good, and it is a bit surprise that their characters in childhood are played respectively by lovely Rachel Leigh Cook and Tina Majorino (who stole every scene from Kevin Costenr in "Waterworld." Male character players like Powers Boothe and Tony Todd appear, alongside with Micheal York, but their roles are smaller they should be. But it is a film about women, and female players all shine, of course, with Dana Delaney.
So, see this one as such, as a melodramatic rendition of the Southern history. It is a laudable attempt to spotlight the women's roles in the Western genre, but perhaps the film gives you an impression that there is another way of describing it. My honest feeling is that "True Women" works as a melodrama, and women's life of this time, which deserve our attention more, should be treated with deeper characters and a slower story. Still intriguing.

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SPANNING 5 DECADES FROM THE TEXAS REVOLUTION THROUGH THE CIVILWAR, RECONSTRUCTION AND BEYOND IS A STORY OF LOVE, FRIENDSHIP,SURVIVAL AND TRIUMPH.

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