Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Console best movie i've ever seen.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

kingsgo4th One of the first major TV movie events (1974) concerned a case of libel in which a best-selling book "The Holocaust" named a knighted doctor as a concentration camp monster, Dr. Adam Kelno. A Polish Christian doctor who was in a camp as a prisoner (under the scrutiny of Nazi staff) Kelno claimed he was responsible for saving and sparing Jews who might have been butchered or gassed otherwise. But as 25+ years have passed, Kelno has led a modest, unselfish life and now, the author of the book, Abe Cady, needs to find living witnesses who can prove Kelno was no saint. My only beef with this (I didn't read QB VII) is my surprise that Cady, a street-smart writer and his sharp publisher (Dan O'Herlihy) would name a real, living person as an inhuman butcher and then worry about being sued and then, try finding living and written proof. Ben Gazzara as Cady, Anthony Hopkins as Kelno and Leslie Caron as his wife are superb in their roles. The story (running just over 5 hrs), is more of a saga including the lives of Cady and Kelno's family for a quarter century before converging at the titular QB VII (Queen's Bench, Courtroom 7) for a jury trial. While the story periodically dips into the strained family relations of both men, the heart of the story is engrossing, enhanced by on-location filming (including England, Europe and Israel) and a moving score by the late and great Jerry Goldsmith. Robert Stephens and Anthony Quayle are more than convincing as attorneys and Juliet Mills as Cady's wife and Joseph Wiseman as Cady's father both shine. I am not of the Jewish faith, but the film still packs a punch to the heart and is still profoundly moving.

A_Different_Drummer Ground rules first. This masterpiece (won a half dozen Emmys) is not merely a lost miniseries from the 70s, but rather it is the first miniseries of its kind, the template from which all later efforts came. And what an effort it was! Adapted from an international bestseller about a non-Jewish physician who ends up getting special treatment in a concentration camp by "assisting" with medical procedures. When the camp is liberated, said doctor becomes prominent in England, and he (and his family) enjoy the benefits and respect that brings. Until his reputation -- what he may or may not have actually done in that camp -- is challenged in England by an upstart American who is convinced that atrocities were committed. OMG what a cast. Here we have, in a performance of astonishing depth, Anthony Hopkins long before he became knighted, long before Hannibal. And Ben Gazarra giving the performance of his life in counterpoint to the doctor that Hopkins was portraying, as the American upstart. The story engages from the start and just gets better. And better. And better. Today it seems clichéd to have the finale take place in a courtroom but as I said this was the FIRST miniseries, and such criticisms have no substance. I recently saw this beginning to end for the first time in over 30 years, and was again stunned by the quality and the nuances. Like many of the productions that I focus on here on IMDb, it is a one of kind, something so special that to compare it is to misunderstand it. See it.

jjnxn-1 Excellent performances from Anthony Hopkins and Leslie Caron only go so far to help this miniseries overcome both over-length and the despicable character portrayed by Ben Gazzara. Are we suppose to applaud this jerk who forces someone to relive the horrors of the Holocast to serve his own ends and allows him to be blackmailed with the threat of the loss of his family even it he feels it is in the course of justice. Where is that man's justice? Not saying that what the other character is accused of isn't reprehensible too. Lee Remick is listed as a star of this but her appearance here is strictly window dressing added for marquee value. The production values are high and this is a good example of when great care was taken with network miniseries and they ruled the airwaves.

Poseidon-3 The lives of two men, vastly different in their beliefs and in their lifestyles, come head to head in this sprawling mini-series, the first, in fact, of the "television events" that had their heyday in the 1970's and early 1980's. This one was based on a novel by (and real life event in the life of) Leon Uris. Hopkins plays a doctor and former concentration camp prisoner who, while in captivity, was compelled to aid the Nazis in operations related to their horrific human experiments. He is briefly charged with willing compliance in war atrocities, but is found innocent. He then takes his wife (Caron) and baby boy to Kuwait where he works tirelessly to make a difference in the world of the less fortunate. Eventually, he is knighted for his efforts. Meanwhile, Gazzara plays an American Jew who volunteers in the RAF and is gunned down. He courts his nurse (Mills), eventually marrying her, and becomes a celebrated writer. Before long, he is a jaded, wealthy hack who cheats on Mills and lives at odds with his heritage. Eventually, though, he finds that he is compelled to write about the Holocaust and when he does, his reference to Hopkins in the book sparks a libel suit from the now-decorated doctor. The climax of the film is a tense and agonizing court trial at Queen's Bench Seven (hence, the title) as Gazzara tries to prove that Hopkins is guilty while Hopkins strives to keep his name clean. This film set the pace for all mini-series to come (until budgets and tastes changed in the 1990's) and contains many of the characteristics which would mark the format (episodic story arcs, endless star cameos, dubious age make-up, etc...) The story takes a looonnng time to pick up speed with sporadically interesting periods done in by the common (at the time) practice of setting each scene with excruciating shots of buildings, cars pulling up, characters walking to buildings, etc... while Jerry Goldsmith's "Exodus"-flavored score blares and a hopelessly campy narrator butts in. There is, however, some good location work throughout. Fortunately, once the pre-history of the men is finally established, the courtroom scenes make up for the tedium and soapiness of the early sections. Hopkins is wonderful. He invests the character with a wealth of expression and mystery, especially as the case wears on. Gazzara is often wooden, but comes across nicely several times. Caron gets very little to do except fret under layers of age make-up and a grey wig. Mills won an Emmy for her sensitive, appealing work. The film gets a huge shot of class and talent from the excellent Remick (though her role peters out as the film continues) and from the appearances of several renowned British character actors, notably Quayle and Evans. It's a memorable mini-series due to the striking nature of the case, it's place in TV history and the work of Hopkins and a few others. Some of the sequences alluded to and shown are just as unsettling and horrifying in today's "seen-it-all" world as they must have been in 1974, with the tour of the actual camp and the visit to a Holocaust memorial particularly vivid (even if the same cheesy narrator of the mini-series is used, with an accent, to narrate the memorial's documentary!!) Many viewers will be put off by the pace of the scenes in the mid-section, but those who stick with it will find value in the courtroom climax.