Amerika

I am one of the many of thousands who viewed the mini series Amerika and loved it. It was one of the most moving and realistic mini series I have ever seen, actually making one "believe" that we could be invaded by one of our enemies and how vunerable we all are. Since the initial viewing, I have been puzzled as to why it was never shown again, why it is not available in video stores and why half the population has never seen it.

Although parts of it are still vivid in my mind, I live to see it again. Many movies have been made but not with the power that this one relayed. Fantastic acting, realistic plot, awesome ending. It should be made available again, each and every year as with other mini series. I think any and all who have seen it would agree. I know my life stopped each night it aired as I lived in the film. My children were moved as any viewer had to be. We all needed to know that our country was as great as we believe it to be and it was. As a novelist, I believe the writers, as well as the actors all deserved to be nominated for an academy award.

I was too young to have viewed this movie when it originally aired, but my parents taped it and for some reason kept it around for thirteen years. I finally decided to give it a whirl, thinking it would be an adaptation of the Franz Kafka story (I know, I know.....). This was my first mistake.

My second mistake was actually watching the thing at all. At 870 minutes, this makes the 10-hour "The 10th Kingdom" seem like a short subject by comparison, yet the whole thing could have easily been pared down by half without compromising the storyline. Why? Simple: the plot is pathetic. You would think that by 1987 people would have realized the Soviet Union was NEVER going to take over the U.S., but I guess someone forgot to tell writer-director Donald Wrye, since he insists on rehashing the tired old "communist subversion" schtick that went out -- and deservedly so -- in the mid-60s. The dialogue is corny and hackneyed and seems to begin repeating itself at the halfway mark, while the direction is uninspired (although pretty much average by TV movie standards). Sam Neill manages to maintain his dignity in this midst of all this nonsense, but everyone else comes out looking as silly as the film itself.

By itself, "Amerika" is harmless piffle that, if nothing else, would make a good double bill with "Dr. Strangelove," which so effectively manages to ridicule and ultimately destroy the reactionary plot. But the ideology behind the story, and the reactions it has inspired among some of my fellow IMDb reviewers, is completely idiotic, almost frightening. The series' ultimate and highly questionable message is that we should remain ever vigilant against the communist threat, and that it will take any guise need be to bring down our society from within -- latter-day McCarthyism if I ever heard it. Thank goodness this 870-pound turkey is scarcely remembered today.

We (my Dad and I) taped the AMERIKA miniseries on its premiere air dates and I'm so glad we did. I've read a couple reviews here at IMdB that claim this milestone is boring. I believe they are misinterpreting the decided communist slant of this production. The production seems off-kilter because of it is presented through "a weary and wintry Russian eye", which might be compared to the powerless angst of the Russian characters of the Dr. Zhivago film. The characters are all doomed to communism and it's fascinating to view their ways of coping. Kristofferson and Urich are both powerhouses in this vein. My favorite theme is the outlawing of sentimental media, my favorite scene when Mariel Hemingway attends the illegal performance of "The Fantasticks". Shades of George Orwell's "1984", about a communist state where things that are illegal for the masses are allowed (but not admittedly) for the elite party members. So I say "God Bless AMERIKA". I think I'll watch it again next week.

I taped this 17 years ago. Recently, I dusted off the tapes for a second look. This series is not an anti-Russian polemic as claimed by the critics of the time. Rather, it is an examination of what it is like to live in a defeated and occupied totalitarian country. I decided to watch it because what happened to us in this series is comparable to the experience of Iraq under US occupation. If anything, the Russians were much kinder to us in AMERIKA than we are to the Iraqis now.

Despondent as they were, the Americans of AMERIKA had a much greater appreciation for freedom than we do today. Today, we have lost much of our freedom, and we have done it to ourselves. For a glimpse of what is in store for us if we persist in our present course, watch AMERIKA.

Forgive me, but when this was first shown on TV, the reaction from the public was with a collective yawn. American audiences just weren't ready for a TWELVE HOUR movie, and the Nielsen ratings for the series were embarrassingly low (If I remember correctly, they were the lowest for any mini-series). There was a paperback book tie-in with the mini-series, which was released several days before the TV show began (Can you say "give away the plot"?). What little I saw of AMERIKA when it was originally broadcast was as exciting as watching paint dry, and the series was savaged in the press as being the work of paranoid imaginations.

What I took as being very odd is that the patriotic hero was played by Kris Kristofferson, a man who has championed many liberal-to-left political causes that the most patriotic fans of this mini-series would oppose.

It's been said that a work of genius is never fully appreciated when first released to the public. It's also been said that people will read their own interpretations into the most innocuous of things. Patriotic epic or paranoid raving? Make your own decision about this mini-series.