The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years

To this day, I still read the book; it's a book you can't put down and it's a story you can't forget. An unattainable love true but SO deep and consuming! Richard Chamberlain is a versatile actor and though he was the only member of the original cast present; I was happy the whole time I watched this. Amanda's portrayal of Meggie is different from Rachel Ward's - cynical and harsher- but she had Meggie's vulnerability as well so I say Ms. Donahue's performance was good as well. And I loved the boy who played young Dane; I hope he's still acting presently- young Dane was just like adult Dane in the original mini-series; sensitive, loving and knowing what he wants. What I didn't like about the film; the Vittorio was completely different from the Vittorio in the original mini series. Christopher Plummer was an understanding, shrewd and compassionate man, this one was rather narrow minded and unsympathetic! Didn't he watch the original? And where on earth was Bob Cleary, We only saw Jack! But the biggest surprise was Fee- gossipy, talkative Fee! I love this film all the same.

I read the book and loved the original mini serie. And yes, 19 years were skipped in it.

But only one thing from the book is here in The missing years. The brothers who went to fight in ww 2. The rest is totally made up for this unnecessary flick.

Luke never came back to Meggie and abducted Dane. That storyline is utter rubbish. It makes these so called missing years a hidious deviation from the original story by Colleen McCullough.

Only Richard Chamberlain reprised his role as Ralph de Bricassart, the other characters are replaced with other actors. On top of that they act completely out of character. Complete waste of time, this thing.

Richard Chamberlain plays a perfect part it is a very moving Film which impressed me and my wife. the filming must have been very difficult and the conditions very warm but it was very well put together and acted by all.

This would of been great if this part of the story was in the original but it wasn't! So here it is 13 years later! Only Richard returns! We have a woman cast as Meggie that looks like she be more at home on the Womens P.G.A. TOUR! The story here is weak! It is still a little kick to see old friends but when your friends have had face-lifts they don't seem the same! If this is the only thing left at the video store one night READ a book in fact read the THORN BIRDS

My entire life I only heard bad things about "The Missing Years". I once even saw a copy at a local thrift store with "not good" written on the cover in sharpie. I ended up buying a DVD of each miniseries on DVD and I decided to watch both of them. While it is true that I do prefer the original (unusual for me as I generally prefer the sequels), I did not hate The Missing Years at all. Had the original cast returned I think people would be far more kind to this misunderstood midquel. It had a tall order following up the second highest-rated miniseries in history at the time, but I feel that they still did an admirable job. In studying the history of the production, it is clear that The Missing Years was a labor of love. Unlike the original, they actually filmed this miniseries in Australia. They had to painstakingly rebuild Drogheda from the ground up, and the set designs look AMAZING. The streets of Rome look far better than they do in the original. As a history enthusiast, I was even amazed to see that they went the extra mile to accurately show correct Italian and Japanese weapons for the time period. The Catholic Church also really did shelter Jews during the Holocaust, which was portrayed here as well. The filmmakers clearly did their homework (although there are of course historical errors here and there). Obviously, some of the shots don't hold up (namely the bombing raid on Rome which suffers from some painfully dated mid-1990s CGI) but overall this is a very well-shot, well-acted, well-written show. The Missing Years even explains a few things that never quite added up for me in the original. Why didn't Meggie's brothers ever have children of their own? Why were Meggie and Jussie so bitter at the world? How exactly did Ralph get promoted to cardinal? These questions are answered in this miniseries. Most of the recasts didn't even bother me. The only one that really stood out was Vittorio, and he was only even on screen for a few minutes. Nobody can replace Jean Simmons, but Julia Blake as Fee played the part very well. In my opinion, by far the stand-out performance was from Simon Westaway as Luke. He absolutely nailed the voice, accent and attitude of everyone's least favorite Aussie. They even appear to have put make-up on his forehead to imitate a scar on Bryan Brown's face in the original. While there are inconsistencies with the original (which seemed to imply that Ralph had never met Jussie or Dane before), they are all minor and easy to ignore. Many of the so-called inconsistencies are nothing-burgers. 19 years is a long time for people to change. Overall, I found The Missing Years to be a welcome addition to The Thorn Birds story. It is not perfect, but no work of art is. And if you watch it with an open mind, maybe you will see the miniseries that I saw: a flawed but underrated labor of love that deserves more appreciation for trying to tell a missing side of the story. Like I said earlier, 19 years is a lot of time for things to happen. And I appreciate the filmmakers for trying to show a small portion of the 19 years that went missing in the original.