Saga de Paixões

One of the previous posters wrote that this mini-series was based on a series of "supermarket novels." I would like to defend these books. I believe later editions printed in paperback were most likely designed with supermarket novel buyers in mind and at first glance would appear to be silly romances. Years ago I happened on an old paperback copy in a library with a caption reading, "Beulah Land. Where splendor mingled with shame and sex was as easy as laughing." This made ME LAUGH because I had just finished reading the series (in vintage hardback) and they're actually quite good and well-written. The miniseries is far too melodramatic compared to its source material. Sure, there are some historical inaccuracies in the books but all in all the characters are well-thought out. The characters of Sarah, Loretta and Annabelle are surprisingly real, in my opinion, and readers really get a chance to know them because they each remain fairly prominent throughout all three novels. Each remains entirely true to her character to the last.

Like Gone With The Wind, Beulah Land is centered around the figure of a southern belle who turns out to have the right stuff to see her's and another family through the tribulations of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Lesley Ann Warren is the central character here. When we first meet her she's in the best fiddle-dee-dee tradition of Scarlett O'Hara. But she's married to Paul Rudd who is weak and self indulgent. Gradually she takes over as head of the family and doing the running of the plantation while Rudd pursues his vices along with neighbor Don Johnson who marries Rudd's sister.

The prominent black role in Beulah Land is that of Dorian Harewood who is manumitted free and actually becomes the overseer of the plantation known as Beulah Land that Warren runs. Between the two of them they pull both the blacks and whites through a few crises.

The Union Army is hardly seen as liberators. A great of emphasis is placed on General Sherman's war waged on the Southern aristocracy. In particular his 'Bummer's Brigades' whose mission was to rob and pillage and take their pleasures when they find them.

Though it covers the same ground as Gone With The Wind and a great deal more before and after, Beulah Land when you come right down to it is more like a southern fried Peyton Place. Between the two families, the Kendricks and Davises there's a lot of sex going on for three generations plus the outsiders drawn in. No doubt the sex sold Beulah Land to the reading public.

Besides those I've mentioned pay attention to Meredith Baxter who is Warren's sister who disgraces her class by going on stage and marrying an actor. She gets disowned, but comes back in Reconstruction to settle some scores.

It's not Gone With The Wind, neither is it Roots. Beulah Land is good drama with more sex than history.

I voted this movie a ten because I was in it. Been too long ago now to actually remember it. I found this site when looking up info on Eddie Albert's death, God rest his soul.

Several students from Chamberlain Hunt Academy were hired as extras for this movie, I was included in this group. A friend (JJ Mitchell) and I were having lunch and the only table available at the time was where Mr. Albert was eating and talking to Burt Reynolds (not in the movie) we asked if we could sit there and they smiled and told us to have a seat. They went back to their discussion and we didn't bother them any further. We ate our lunch and when finished we left. Two young girls had seen us eating with these 2 famous actors and assumed we were famous or up and coming and asked for our autographs. We of course signed for them.

Another story was a scene where the people were leaving the town and Meredith Baxter was coming into the town. I was supposed to run across the street between some horses and up the side that Ms. Baxter was coming down. One of the horses was coming a little faster than I thought and I had to make a dash to keep from getting hit. I ran smack into Ms. Baxter. I would have knocked her down had I not caught her (I was a big guy even then). She gave me a peck on the cheek, for not knocking her to the ground I suppose.

I don't remember actually seeing myself in the movie but thought I'd pass these stories along.

These novels were not cheap paperbacks when they first came out. I read them years ago, and to call them Supermarket novels is to do them an injustice. But also, that same person who posted that said the movie starred Lesley Ann Downe-- he didn't even get Lesley Ann Warren's name right.

I loved this movie. I bought it from Amazon.com about a month ago. I had planned to watch it in three or four sittings, since it ran over 4 hours, but I became so engrossed that I watched it in two sessions. It is a two disc movie. There were a lot of similarities to Gone With The Wind in the movie, but not so many in the books. I've been to Natchez, and I was happy to see a shot of "The Delta Queen." I've ridden on the Delta Queen. It used to dock at Louisville.

This miniseries, based on a series of supermarket novels, concerns the lives and travails of a southern family from the antebellum days on up past the Civil War. A TV version of "Gone With The Wind", cast with many well-known actors(Hope Lang, Meredith Baxter, Lesley Anne Down), as well as up-and-comers(Jonathan Frakes, Madeleine Stowe). Recommended.