North & South: Book 3, Heaven & Hell

I've only just started watching the first episode of book three after going through a marathon of watching two episodes a night of books one and two. Didn't know there was a third until I got the DVD. Have read the book, but it was a while ago.

Inconsistencies avail in this series. Orry Jr. never seems to age. I noticed this at the end of book two. Orry tells George at the hospital he hasn't seen Madeline in two years. We he reunites with her, the baby looks like he's six months if that. He should be almost two years old!! In book three the time line is fuzzy at best. How soon after the war does the setting take place? Orry Jr. is still not that much older, but Gus, Charles' son, is five years old!! He was born after Orry Jr. who looks like he's maybe a year old.

George mentions kids, as in more than one, but no mention made at the end of book two that he has more than one.

Why would Madeline want to build a house in Mont Royal's front yard, when the slave quarters were not destroyed? I thought she was interested in rebuilding Mont Royal, yet she takes the time to build a school for freed slaves. Doesn't she have Justin's house she could sell or live in, or if that was burned down, the property could be sold to help refinance Mont Royal.

If Charles hated the war so much, why wouldn't he stay behind, raise his son, and help rebuild Mont Royal with Madeline.

Why bother replacing Ezra and Simi with Jane and Issac? Why not bring back the two freed slaves that stayed with them to the end of book 2? And the opening scene with the footage of Patrick Swayze making his way across to the front door. That is obviously Mont Royal, because when Madeline is meeting with Ashton at the friend's house in Charleston, from which the double for Patrick exits, the set up and lighting are way different inside.

Though I am a big fan of the first two, I would only recommend watching the third one out of curiosity. It doesn't have nearly the same quality all around. Thank God it was only three episodes instead of six.

This is such a poor follow up to the first 2 installments. Although you need to start the blame with book 2. Book two strayed so far from the novel that they even let Orry Main(Patrick Swayze) live! the 2nd mini series was well done even though it strayed from the book. The problem is that if part 2 strayed from the novel filming part 3 would not make sense.Cooper Main was not included in the screen adaptations of 1 and 2 so his presence in 3 makes no sense. also , not only is part 3 not consistent with 1 and 2, its not consistent with the novel Heaven and Hell either. A total waste of time and talent.

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

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.