Richard von Lust No words can describe the quality and importance of this masterpiece. Pacey and gripping throughout every minute of this six hour series, Captains and The Kings captures the essence of our political reality both in the past and today. "Chew on this and get it down: The world runs on money. Call it commerce, call it government, call it the will of the people but what it really is, what we really have all over this world is Government of the Money, by the Money and for the Money." There has never been a truer line given to any character in any drama and, at the pivotal moment when it is delivered, everything falls comprehensively into place. The plot tells the story of Joe Armagh, a 14 year old Irish immigrant arriving in America in 1857 to find himself orphaned and responsible for the care of his two younger siblings. He finds work and connections and gradually builds up a fortune only to discover that wealth and power have both privileges and costs. He is recruited to the super rich set who are able to control politics and even world events. And he persuades them to groom his son to be a President motivated to serve them. Of course there is a heavy price to pay and the curse of a Senator driven to suicide through his dealings with Joe plays out its inevitable path. The similarity of the plot to the fate of the Kennedy family 50 years later is neither an accident to the author nor the director. Indeed it can be argued that the whole drama is a brilliant analysis of the Kennedy assassinations of 1963 and 1968 indicating the powers that orchestrated them and the reasoning behind them.Joe is clearly paralleled with the patriarch of the Kennedy clan. One of his sons is killed in wartime action, a daughter is mentally handicapped, another son is clever at business whilst the son chosen to be President is plainly modeled on the philandering but noble thinking JFK with a death scene that copies almost entirely the shooting of Robert Kennedy in 1968. Even the camera angle of the dying man are almost a carbon copy of the stricken Senator in a Los Angeles hotel. The curse of the Kennedy's which has seen tragedy strike at the family over four generations is mirrored on the Armagh family. But the key element to the whole production is that the Super Elite is shown as manipulators of the US-Spanish War of 1898, the assassination of Mckinley in 1901, the Great War against Germany in 1914 and ultimately the assassination of both Kennedy brothers 50 years later. And the descendants of the group are still in power today.

trob226 Finally! Powerful and spectacular miniseries. Marvelous actors, led by the always brilliant Richard Jordan (may he rest in peace) who makes us adore Joseph Armagh before he takes him to a ruthless, power-hungry SOB we still somehow care about. Bit by bit he destroys his life while he thinks he's building it. Harvey Jason is terrific as the only friend who always believes in him. Other supporting actors are the likes of Henry Fonda (brief but absolutely mesmerizing), Vic Morrow, Ray Bolger, Patty Duke Astin, Jane Seymour and a score of others at the top of their craft. Our terrible loss is that so many of them are gone now, but boy, what they left behind. Having so many of them in one work is a genuine treat.

Hans C. Frederick Does anyone ever remember anything else that LordActon ever said?I must agree with one of the other reviewers,who commented on Taylor Caldwells' reactionary,ultra-right wing view of history,and the alleged conspiracies that a clique of powermad millionaires are using to control the fate of the world.I especially enjoyed his describing it as "John Birch",and lunatic.Caldwell also espoused a medieval,Catholic view of human nature,which interpreted life and all human motivation as being determined by the basest, rawest,and most vicious, mean-spirited factors imaginable.(Lest one think I am a bigot, please be aware that I am a Roman Catholic, and am aware of how our church doctrine has changed over the centuries.) She felt that, if any behavior of an unselfish sort happened, it was invariably caused by the most depraved and malevolent aspirations that could be construed. So, the characters in her novels inevitably act from positions of malice, corruption, and malevolence. Of such vicious cyclesis paranoia born.Given these assumptions, this series, rather wisely, attempts to tone down the grim, bitter, erspective, and has, indeed, sanitized and homogenized much of what was related in the original story. From a technical point of view, it's well-done. And it's nice tosee jane Seymour in her early career, establishing one of many portrayals as a noble, igh-minded, virtuous,and beautiful and sensous heroines.

Kim-68 I have just seen Captains And The Kings on video and I thought that was the best mini-series that I have ever seen. Richard Jordan was outstanding as Joseph Armagh. This was probably the best performance of his film career. He put his whole heart and soul into this role. And he certainly deserved the Golden Globe award that he won for this. He had me hooked from his first scene to the end, so much so that I just kept watching it until it was finished. I also thought that Perry King was also excellent as Rory Armagh and I think he should have received something for his performance. Patty Duke was terrific as Bernadette and I am glad that she did win the Emmy for her role, she certainly deserved it. I also thought that Blair Brown, Charles Durning and Jane Seymour were also excellent in this. So I highly recommend this mini-series to anybody that appreciates great talent and a great story and this was a classic with outstanding acting.