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.

but it's very, very different from the book.the sister an older girl? named Mary, not Moira? blonde, not brunette? they jump overboard? they end up in Winfield from the get-go? he says "that will not be buying any potatoes" without learning it from the Sister? working in a coal mine? Martinique? Friends with Katherine Hennessey? Mrs. Hennessey having a miscarriage? Wanting to adopt the boy first, rather than the girl? Joe almost getting robbed? Joe's actually driving a hot wagon? he returns to Mr. Squibs? and borrows money from him? Joe reveals his name to Ed Healey? A big huge virginity-losing scene? No anti-Irish sentiment by the military guy? Hamlet and not Chopin? the military guy is the one who gets shot? and doesn't get left behind? Healey has a daughter? Miss Emmy has a thing for Harry? Harry doesn't end up being in love with Liza? a big fight with Healey? Harry is in love with Emmy? Elizabeth makes a pass at Joseph? Healey dying after finding out about his nonexistent daughter's child? Bernadette being such a nice person? a big confrontation with Hennessey?

This is one of the best 'movies' I have ever seen. The depth and the detail of Taylor Caldwell's masterwork is likewise, masterfully translated to the screen, (small screen, in this case). But I still remember it as though I had seen it in a theater. A rich and detailed 'period piece', that never faltered or struck a false note in it's production. Ms. Caldwell's story is a primer for all who seek to find the truth behind the "Movers and Shakers" of our societies, (The Captains and the Kings). A nicely but thinly veiled tale of mankind's lusty greed for money, and hence, power. Or power and hence, money. Maybe it was me, but it never failed to hold my interest from the very first to the ending credits. I have seen it only once and that was its original airing back in 1976 as a TV mini-series, but it still holds a huge interest for me. (I just went on-line to find out about it!) I remember the actors and the acting being superb, with the casting flawless. I would love to see it again, but it seems to have disappeared from the marketplace! Could this be the work of some powerful family or group??

The comparison of the fictional Armaughs to the Kennedy clan can't be escaped. Still, this is a magnificent entertainment piece about an Irish immigrant who claws to the top of power and money (remindful of Joe Kennedy Sr.?)with the crown jewel being son Rory's bid to become the nation's first Irish Catholic president. "Captains and the Kings" is riveting from its beginning when a young Joseph Armaugh is left by his mother's death to care for two younger siblings and through the end where the elderly Joseph is left alone questioning the cost of his power and wealth. The late Richard Jordan is brilliant in presenting his Joseph as the scrapping improverished immigrant turned industrialist power broker but who, in the end, pays a horrible price. The mini-series also introduced us to Blair Brown as the daughter of Joseph's role model, and she manages to grab our empathy despite her being a mistress in Joseph's extra-marital pilferings. But, in a role that landed her a second Emmy, Patty Duke (Astin)is devastating as Joseph's wife in an arranged marriage who gradually is pushed by the price of power (and alcoholism) to insanity. There is a lesson in "Captains and the Kings," especially to those who hunger for more. As with all things, costs come, and the question is at what cost do we feed our hunger and our willingness to pay it.