The Thorn Birds 2 - The Missing Years
by Kevin James Dobson
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Amanda Donohoe, Julia Blake, Olivia Burnette, Paul Bertram, Richard ChamberlainDirector: Kevin James Dobson
Brand: Warner Brothers
Producer: Darryl Sheen
Producer: David L. Wolper
Producer: David Stevens
Writer: David Stevens
Producer: Jeffrey M. Hayes
Producer: Mark Wolper
Writer: Colleen McCullough
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 178 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-06-07
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of The Thorn Birds 2 - The Missing Years
Movie Review: DON'T LISTEN TO THE OTHER REVIEWS - they are reviewing the DVD, not the soundtrack CD
Summary: 5 Stars
It's a pity that most of the people who have taken the time to post reviews to this page, have decided to review the DVD of the mini-series, rather than the soundtrack CD in itself.
Yes, the television mini-series was a terrible missed opportunity and fans have a right to be angry at the way in which "The Missing Years" departs from both the novel and the first mini-series.
But despite the poor quality of the script, the soundtrack that was composed for the mini-series is a delight to listen to as a standalone piece of music.
Henry Mancini's original "Theme From The Thorn Birds" and "Meggie's Theme" reappear here in lush, full-bodied orchestral arrangements that are no less stirring than the original versions.
The original music by Garry MacDonald and Lawrence Stone is no less impressive. Especially haunting are the darker cues for the World War 2 sequences, such as "Prayers" and "Hiding The Jews". The motifs associated with the character of Luke are also very interesting, and I like the way in which they are intertwined with the themes for Ralph, Meggie and Dane for the scenes showing the interaction between these characters.
So yeah, the mini-series was awful... but the soundtrack is brilliant and makes for a superb album, either turned down to easy listening volume or blasted from the speakers of your stereo system.
So try and put the mini-series out of your mind and just enjoy the album as a piece of music - it's amazing that as of this writing (3 May 2009), you can still buy this album from Amazon. Snap it up before it goes out of print, it is truly a buried treasure.
Summary of The Thorn Birds 2 - The Missing Years
What happened to Father Ralph de Bricassart and Meggie Cleary O'Neill during the mystery years not covered in the original 1983 smash-hit miniseries? Now every fan can be in the know. "The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years" provides the spellbinding answer. The time is World War II. De Bricassart heroically rescues refugees in Rome, then is sent by the Vatican to the sprawling Australian sheep ranch he though he had left behind forever. There, a fateful reunion with Meggie leads to new temptations and a profound crisis: Meggie may lose custody of the beloved son concieved during the season of forbidden love she shared years earlier with de Bricassart.The phenomenally popular The Thorn Birds was one of TV's hardest acts to follow, so it's a surprise that The Missing Years turned out as well as it did. Produced 13 years after the original 1983 miniseries, this is not a sequel but an "in-betweener," filling part of the 19-year gap in The Thorn Birds and beginning in war-torn Rome in 1942, where Father Ralph de Bricassart (Richard Chamberlain) is struggling to rescue Italian refugees after the latest wave of bombing. He is sent back to Australia to investigate the potential for refugee relocation there, and is reunited with his former lover Meggie Cleary (now played by Amanda Donohoe, replacing Rachel Ward), whose beloved farm Drogheda is in the grip of a two-year drought. Their still-powerful love must remain unspoken, however, because Meggie has reconciled with her estranged husband Luke (Simon Westaway, assuming Bryan Brown's role), and is about to be engaged in a heated custody battle for her son Dane, whose father is actually (and secretly) Father Ralph.
These family secrets, and the turbulent emotions of Meggie's teenaged daughter Justine, create enough familial tension to fill The Missing Years with the kind of ripe, involving melodrama that fueled the original miniseries. Accepted on its own merits, this is a respectable, above-average TV production, bolstered by the fine performances of Chamberlian and especially Donohoe, who intelligently plays Meggie with warmth, inner torment, and plucky tenacity, making the role fully her own. The sweeping wall-to-wall score is excessively manipulative in its attempt to elevate The Missing Years to Gone with the Wind proportions, and some viewers may question the integrity of a plot (bearing no relation to Colleen McCullough's bestselling novel) that forces a noble priest to solve his dilemma with a vengeful fistfight. Still, this is an eminently watchable TV romance that can stand on its own, without the long shadow of its much-beloved predecessor. --Jeff Shannon
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