Customer Reviews

The Thorn Birds - The Missing Years [VHS]

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

The Missing years should have remained MISSING. The one part that really bothers me in the original, at the time of Dane's death Meggie says to Ralph, "Do you think I could ever go back to Luke or any other man after you." The meaning of course being that he should have known Dane was his. The missing years completely blows the whole meaning of the line, along with it the premise of the show. The acting was good, and all in all well done except for Julia Blake who played Fee Cleary. I don't think she did justice to the character created by Jean Simmons whose presence was sorely missed. Amanda Donohoe did a great job. She's a fine actor. Richard Chamberlain was his usual charming and talented actor he has always been. Simon Westaway, who played Luke, did a fine job as well. The story itself was lacking all the way around. The only decent part was when they made love. Yet, another inconsistency. When he goes back to her years later, Meggie says, and I paraphrase "It's not been that long just 20 years since I've seen you." There are just all sorts of inconsistencys through out the whole movie. Henry Mancini's music was also missed. All in all a BAD picture. I would have given this film a 1/2 a star or zero had they been available choices. If you liked or even loved the original you'll be greatly disappointed. Spend your money for the real deal and just imagine what might have been, instead of this very poor attempt to recapture the EXCELLENCE of the first one. Believe me anything you think up and will be far better than this movie. I'll say it again; except for Julia Blake who played the Fee character the acting was very good, including Olivia Burnette who played Justine O'Neill, another fine actor. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY!

I can sympathize with TV producers who wish to make "prequels" or "sequels" to Mini Series but not "in betweeners". In this film Ralph de Bricassart (played again by Richard Chamberlain) comes back to visit Meggie (now played by Amanda Donohoe) while Justine and Dane are growing up (something that never happened in the novel). She also gets a visit from Luke (who also never resurfaces in the book except in a letter) years after she told him off. Meggie and Ralph are as distant as they were before Matlock Island in it, making the first "19 years later scenes" irrelevant (even before Ralph helps Dane tell Meggie he wants to enter the priesthood). There is also a place where Justine discusses Ralph with Dane though they don't see him, and Justine hints that Meggie must have fancied him, and the like which again ruins the book text/sciptwriting from the forementioned "19 years later segment". Since the original series is hitting DVD next week, and they decided not to include this (being the DVD is gonna sell a lot less expensive than the VHS copy), you are much better off buying it (the DVD of the original that is). If you really wanna know what happened in the time between Dane's birth on Drogheda, and the "19 years later" segment that comes next in the Original, then read the book, there is more story there, none of which is covered by this very "brief" miniseries. If THIS in betweener ever hits DVD, I will debate ALL Pros and Cons before buying it.

This sequel departs from cannon of the original story so, one wonders if the creators actually viewed the original mini-series.
It was a shame to see Colleen McCullough's carefully detailed characters (some of them) bent to suit the plot of this contrived piece of work.
Oddly, Feonna Cleary (an a-vowed atheist in the original mini-series) has suddenly found faith and speaks about "God's greatests blessings" a multitude of times through out the film. To-wit, also, after years of running Drogheda, she is relagated in this sequel to knitting and a "cheery attitude".
Amanda Donahoe does a reasonable job of potraying Megan Cleary-O'Neil. Richard Chamberlain seems to work very hard at keeping the characterization of Fr. (now Arch Bishop) Ralph D'Brickesar authentic.
A portion of the original mini-series is totally ignored in respect to the character of Luke O'Neil (in respect to Meagan's ending her relationship with him) And Lastly, this is really the nineties (well now the millinium) Does anyone really sigh with relief when Luke O'Neil arrives on the scene because (as "Fee" puts it) "We need a man around the place"?
I say rent or own the original and leave the missing years missing in action!

Thorn Birds fans will have mixed feelings on this one. It sorely misses Rachel Ward, although Amanda Donohoe does a fine job of acting, it just doesn't seem like "Meggie". The chemistry isn't the same between Meggie and Ralph. It is interesting to see the fill-in for those missing years, but a couple of things don't add up (hmmmm....thought Meggie said she hadn't gone back to Luke after that month with Ralph). Overall, I would say it's an okay movie and parts of it will bring back that "Thorn Birds" feeling, but nothing like the original miniseries (but then, how can you match up to that?). If you've not seen it, you might want to rent it, but not sure if it's worth buying.

The original is something we can't get enough of. So naturally when I saw they had filmed a "MISSING YEARS", I got very excited. How disappointing!! The " Missing Years" had a completely different feel, went against most of what the original established, and possessed little or none of the love story we have grown to cherish. Richard Chamberlin is still a delight after all these years, but there is none of the electic chemistry between him and Donahoe that he and Ward pulled off. I would like to think that this movie never existed...

This is a distorted expansion of the Thorn Birds miniseries. Richard Chamberlain did bring back memories of the original movie, but the woman was different! She was just not Meggie. The new woman was lovely and did a good job, but Ralph is not the same without the original Meggie. It feels like he's cheating on her.

Fee has turned into a sort of stereotypic grandmother figure, very preachy and nosy and chatty, very concerned with people having children, since life is meaningless without them according to her... who IS this woman?

Meggie goes back to Luke, totally negating one of the most powerful lines in the original miniseries: "You didn't love me enough to see that I could NEVER go back to Luke or any other man after you!" The sense of tragic, undying love and passion between Ralph and Meggie isn't present in this movie as it was in the first. Surprisingly, though, it's more satisfying in a way than the original because the one thing that you're dying to hear actually gets spoken.

In spite of the inaccuracies, I did watch both parts of it. I love the story so much that even this mangled rendition of it was worth seeing one time.

One of the reasons I purchased this DVD was because I adored Richard Chamberlain so much in the original series, but was not too attatched to Rachel Ward who played Meggie. I was curious to see how a different actress could play Meggie's character. At least on that count, I was not dissapointed.

At first, this series wasn't too horrible. However, as it progressed, it deviated from the novel so much I was disgusted. Laying my disgust to the side, I attempted to watch this series as a separate film, ignoring the book and original series. Even then, this horrible continuation dissapointed.

PROS:
Seeing Richard Chamberlain as Father Ralph again was excellent. I enjoyed his triumphant performance.
Watching Amanda Donohoe play the role of Meggie was really wonderful. She does a much better job than Rachel Ward, who was so distant from her character in the DVD extras from the Original Thorn Birds DVD. Amanda makes the role of Meggie come alive, and you can really feel her passion for the character.
Enjoying a different version of this story that ignores the book and TV series can be enjoyable, if you like soap-opera drama.
Once again, seeing new actors and actresses play familiar characters such as Dane, Luke and Justine ONeil is pleasing. I also enjoyed the original actors in those roles, but its a new experience when your tired of watching the original series.
Seeing Amanda replay the famous scene when Father Ralph watches Meggie decend the stairs at Mary Carson's birthday party in the same costume Rachel Ward wore is excellent! This attention to detail made me smile.

CONS:
Story and plot takes a severe turn away from the novel and series to ignore the concept of Thorn Birds; eternal suffering.
Bad digital effects such as when Dane is with Father Ralph at the watering hole is totally unbeleiveable.
Acting and plot are rather...predictable and tedious.
Different set that was modeled from the original Thorn Birds set and NOT the book's lavish description.
Besides deviating from the original series and book, this story longs for its end hours before its finished.

I suppose if your still curious, rent this title before making a purchase. I'm glad that I bought because I know someday I will want to rewatch it and see Amanda and Richard's chemistry, which was much more powerful than Rachel Ward's chemistry with Richard Chamberlain, but that's probably due to the fact that in real life, Rachel was falling for her costar, Brian Brown! (Luke O'Neil)

I'm not going to get verbose like some, I'll just say that this should have never been done. I'm surprised that Richard Chamberlain would have stooped to acting out such bad writing! Father Ralph beating up Luke O'Neill in a fist fight? Come on!

The writing was bad, the acting was worse. If I could have given it negative stars I would have. I debated watching it until the end; but I endured every painful minute and it's in my circular file now.

As I previously stated in the review of this on VHS, this is NOT a sequel to the 1983 miniseries which I was happy to buy here at Amazon last year on DVD, but an "in betweener". It allegedly covers the time between when Meggie leaves Luke to go home to Drogheda (after the long awaited love scene with Ralph at the end of part 3, and the early segments of part 4 ending wih Dane's birth), and the next scene in part 4 which takes place "19 years later" when Ralph comes to Drogheda for Christmas as a Cardinal, and meets Dane and Justine for the first time (well Justine for the second, she wet on him the first time ;-)). "Allegedly" because, for example, according to the book, while World War II breaks out, Fee's 2 sons not covered in the original film go to war and eventually get killed (unless you say they were the sons she says that she buried in Part 1, maybe Hollywood made them die in World War I?), Ralph meets a young Rainer, the Vatican eventually learns of Musolini's downfall, etc. and THEN Ralph is made a Cardinal. In this film, however, a still Archbishop Ralph comes back to Drogheda to settle some old business, which he DOES NOT do in the book, we see Justine and Dane in middle childhood where she (Justine) hints to Dane maybe her mother had feelings for Ralph, again which does NOT happen, and Luke even comes back for a custody battle for Dane, which DEFINITIVELY DOES NOT HAPPEN, he writes her a brief letter in the book. If nothing else, this gives a "Hollywood idea" of the time in between Dane's birth and Ralph's "actual" return to Drogheda as McCullough wrote it. The only star from the orginal in this film is Richard Chamberlain as Ralph. Amanda Donohoe replaces Rachel Ward as Meggie which I think was a mistake, Rachel Ward was Meggie exactly as Colleen McCullough wrote her. I did not care for this film when it first aired on tv, but I bought (update to when I originally wrote this review) this disc because it IS a disc, and will fit nicely in my Richard Chamberlain collection. As I stated in my review of the tape, if you really want to know "the missing years" that the original film doesn't cover, read the book. Buy this ONLY if you enjoy Richard Chamberlain no matter what he does.

It's COMPLETELY inconsistent with both the original miniseries and the same time period in the book, and at glaring times too. For example:

In the original, Meggie blasts Ralph for thinking she could have reconciled with Luke after being with him, but in this one, he finds her attempting to do exactly that.

In the original, Meggie is devastated by Dane's desire to be a priest, when in TMY, he expresses his desire from when he was a boy.

In the original, Ralph clearly meets Justine and Dane for the first time when they're practically grown, but in this one, he spends a good deal of time with them as children.

Plus, these aren't even the complete "missing years", it picks up about ten years after Dane's birth and only covers about 6-12 months (if that much), before its conclusion.

Good points? Amanda Donohoe is fine and lovely as Meggie, Richard Chamberlain is as good as ever, and though the circumstances are utterly contrived, the storyline and acting aren't half-bad.

But this is far more of a distant cousin rather than a companion to the original.