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## HEADING: RUSSIA ## LEFT COLUMN 69. PETER THE GREAT 2/2/86 2/3/86 2/4/86 2/5/86 In the week's choice of miniseries: NBC's Peter the Great, a four-part biography of the Tsar who first wrenched the Russian gaze westward to Europe, is a stunner on every count. For historical seriousness despite the lapses alluded to in this week's cover story), give it 9 out of 10. For casting, 10. For visual ravishment, 10. For music, 10. For budgetary extravagance vindicated by results, 10. For overall perfectionism in production, 10 plus a bonus of 5. Marvin J. Chomsky (Holocaust) is the producer of the epic, in which the brilliantly matched Jan Niklas and Maximilian Schell play the younger and the older Peter. Vanessa Redgrave is the Tsar's half sister, Sophia, whose thwarted political ambitions serve as a rallying point for disaffected churchmen and nobles. Omar Sharif, Laurence Olivier, Trevor Howard, Jrsula Andress and Lili Palmer are among the better-known faces in a huge, international supporting cast. But let's be quite clear about this: the indisputable star of Peter the Great is historic Russia itself, the location for most of Chomsky's filming, courtesy of the Soviet government. Her churches, palaces, monasteries and ancient cities, to say nothing of the countryside that provides a backdrop for many a splendid battle scene, are the shimmering icons that will command your early, rapt submission and will repay your faithfulness over eight memorable hours. w/Jan Niklas, Maximilian Schell, Omar Sharif, Vanessa Redgrave, Jeremy Kemp, Laurence Olivier, John Mills, Trevor Howard, Ursula Andress, Lili Palmer, Mel Ferrer, Elke Sommer & Helmut Griem. 69B. Amerika 2/15/87 w/Kriss Kristofferson & Robt. Urich. Sam Neill, Cindy Pickett, Mariel Hemingway, Christine Lahti 69c. Amerika (1987) w/Wendy Hughes, Richard Bradford, Ford Rainey & Lara Flynn Boyle. A CONTROVERSIAL, SEVEN-PART DRAMA Debut: At the outset of this miniseries, it's 1997, and the USSR has subjugated and occupied the U.S. in a bloodless takeover. How this happened is not clear, but its results are chilling. Freedom is an anachronism, and recalcitrants are punished. Grade schoolers learn revisionist history, while their mothers line up to buy scarce food. Americans hold public office, even the Presidency, but they're Communist puppets. There are pockets of resistance, but the citizenry is essentially a dispirited lot held in check by police forces of the UN—which the Soviet Union also controls. Interweaving the plots of the conquerors with the plights of the vanquished, "Amerika" centers on three characters: Devin Milford (Kris Kristofferson), a former activist released from a Texas gulag; Peter Bradford (Robert Urich), a pragmatic pragmatist administering a Midwestern farming county; and Col. Andrei Denisov (Sam Neill), a powerful KGB official who, in Part 1, plans to use Bradford to further America's pacification. Amanda: Cindy Pickett. Kimberly: Mariel Hemingway. Alethea: Christine Lahti. Marion: Wendy Hughes. Ward: Richard Bradford. Will: Ford Rainey. Samanov: Armin Mueller-Stahl. Dr. Drummond: Ivan Dixon. Justin: Don Reilly. Jacqueline: Lara Flynn Boyle. (2 hrs., 25 min.) ## RIGHT COLUMN 69D. Young Catherine (The Great) Mini-series Debut: 2/17/91 w/Julia Ormond, Vanessa Redgrave, Reece Dinsdale, Maximilian Schell, Christopher Plummer, Marthe Keller, Franco Nero, Mark Frankel, Katya Galizi (Filmed on location in Leningrad). Catherine THE GREAT (BW) 1934 w/Elizabeth Bergner, Gerald du Maur and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. 69E. Catherine THE GREAT. 12/3/200 w/Catherine Zeta-Jones. (7) RUSSIAN TRINITY. 8/14/2001 Soviet history. GORKY PARK. (1983) w/Wm. Hurt, Lee Marvin & Brian Dennehy. (HIS) IVAN THE TERRIBLE: (1997) MIGHT & MADNESS: Russia's first Tsar. (1530-84) 69F. Doctor Zhivago ****** (1965) Dir. David Lean w/Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness, Geraldine Chaplin, Ralph Richardson, Tom Courtenay & Rita Tushingham. Author: Boris Pasternak. Five Oscars. One of the most powerful movies ever. DR ZHIVAGO The Making of Russian... 69G. MASTERPIECE THEATRE: DR. ZHIVAGO, w/Keira Knightley, Hans Matheson & Sam Neill. 11/2/2003 Part 2. 11/9/2003