Heaven & Hell: North & South, Book III

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.

In 1985 ABC TV debuted a tv mini series that garnered everyone's attention from all races creeds and colors. North and South made Patrick Swayze an overnight success as a leading male star. James Read was already a tv star wth NBC TV's Remington Steele. This mini series is the first in three mini series based on John Jakes's civil war novels. North and South ran one whole week as did the sequel North and South Book II, Love and War. Book III Heaven and Hell ran only 3 nights and was not that big a deal as the first two books in the series. It was as if though ABC TV wanted to wrap up all loose ends that went undone with the first two series. Time Warner Home Video has declined to transfer all 3 mini series to DVD format. It is always the same sorry excuse each and every time. There are currently no plans at this time to release this series on to DVD.

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.

Just like so many people before me I also am disappointed by the third part of North and South. In part the problem is that too many changes from the original story in books 1 and 2 had been made in the mini series. Therefore a lot of things didn't quite work out. In John Jakes' novels, Orry Main died in "Love and War", having been shot in the head by Elkanah Bent. So he wouldn't have been there anyway. But the biggest problem was the omission of Cooper Main in the first 2 mini series. For those who didn't know the book his sudden appearance must have been quite puzzling. Also, in the mini series part II Virgilia Hazard is executed, but not in the second novel. She shows up in the third novel! As to the murders mentioned in other comments, there are quite a few in the novel. And what I also don't like about part III is that so many actors were replaced. Was that necessary?

Where was cooper Main in the first two parts? Didn't Stanley and Isabel go to jail at the end of part 2? Why are they back as if nothing happened? Did Bent not get blown up in part 2? He looks good for a dead man. This is one of the worst follow-ups in history. Instead of following the concept that the first two mini-series follows, it decides to follow the book by John Jakes. It does do a pretty good job at following the book that it is based on, but unless you have read the books, you would be lost. A note to Hollywood: Do not make a movie that does not follow the book, than decide to make a sequel to it that does. It makes no sense as does this mess of a mini-series.