Heaven & Hell: North & South, Book III

After Books I & II, what a let-down! First--what's with no Orry in Book III? Hmm. . . too cheap to hire Patrick Swayze? And randomly inventing a brother (Cooper) for Orry that was not in the first 24 hours of the mini-series, but is apparently important enough for the final 6 hours? That's pathetic! Oh, and didn't Elkanah Bent (your favorite villain and mine) did in that huge barn explosion in Book II?

I grew up watching the first two books of "North & South", and I refuse to even recognize this third book as part of the mini-series.

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.

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.

Although this movie follows the book more closely, with a few exceptions (Bent miraculously surviving everything, Cooper Main appearing out of nowhere), it is not as bad as everyone states.

The production values and editing of certain scenes could have been up to par with the first two books. Not to mention that Patrick Swayze declined to reprise his role of Orry Main, which is probably why the producers decided he will be killed in this one. Also, I think that the storyline involving Ashton scheming to take Mont Royal for herself could have been expanded.

As for the other characters, I liked the original Charles Main (played by Lewis Smith), although Kyle Chandler delivered a satisfactory performance. And, to agree with everyone else, the appearance of Cooper Main makes no sense, especially since there is no mention of Cooper in the first two movies.

If the movie were twelve hours long like the previous ones, then more explanation for certain things would have made the movie a better piece.

6/10

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.