First viewed : 21 September 1981
This one's come around a bit earlier than I was expecting. I only saw a brief part of the second episode of this epic mini-series first time round . It was repeated in the summer of 1985 and although coming in at more or less the same point I watched it through to the end. That was when I fell in love with Karen Allen.
The series was an adaptation of John Steinbeck's epic novel, re-telling the Cain and Abel story over two generations of the Trask family from the American Civil War to World War One . It was dramatised in three lengthy episodes, its scale allowing it to be much more faithful to the book than the 1955 James Dean film. Production values were high and it was largely well cast. I say largely because unfortunately the leading role of high-minded Adam Trask went to Timothy Bottoms who seems to think looking down your nose with a solemn expression constitutes acting.
Adam is one of the two sons of tyrannical hypocrite Cyrus Trask ( Warren Oates ). He is the favoured one despite being placid and easy-going in contrast to hotheaded workaholic Charles ( Bruce Boxleitner ) . The brothers have a fearsome fight before Adam is dragooned into the Army by his father. Finding the strength to defy the old man, Adam becomes a wanderer before returning to the family farm after Cyrus's death for reconciliation with Charles. Their father's corruption has made them both rich.
After a brief period of harmony, they are finally pulled apart by the appearance of Cathy ( Jane Seymour ) who Adam takes in after being found beaten close to death. We have already seen that she is a liar, whore and murderess whose assailant Edwards ( Howard Duff ) was her whoremaster . Charles can see her for what she is but Adam falls in love with her, gets married and moves to California leaving Charles behind for good.
After failing to abort her pregnancy , Cathy deserts Adam after giving birth to twins Caleb ( Sam Bottoms, a better actor than his brother ) and Aron ( Hart Bochner ) and , through another murder, becomes a brothel madam. Adam is destroyed but his friends kick him into some sort of shape . However he becomes just as guilty of favouring one son over the other as his father and the destructive cycle begins again. Karen Allen plays Abra , Aron's virginal girlfriend.
Seymour won a Golden Globe for her stunning portrayal of the irredeemably evil Cathy making her a hot property in the US. Her performance contributes to the dark tragedy of the story and although we'll be covering some quite terrible US mini-series over the next few years this one is worth catching.
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