north and south ( 1985 ) represent patrick swayze and james read and lesley anne down and wendy kilbourne and terri garber and kirstie alley and genie francis and phillip casnoff and jean simmons and john stockwell and lewis smith and david carradine and inga swenson and jonathan frakes and wendy fulton and erica gimpel and tony frank and jim metzler and olivia cole and andy stahl and william ostrander and george stanford brown and robert mitchum and morgain fairchild and johnny cash and hal holbrook and gene kelly and david ogden stiers and john anderson and lee bergere and olivia de havilland and elizabeth taylor and forest whitaker and robert jones and . director richard t. heffron and teleplay . paul f. edward and patricia green and douglas heyes and kathleen a. shelley . base on john jake successful paperback novel north and south and love and war and heaven and hell and this be a mini series on television from 1985 to 1987. it success owe more to the success of root a similar civil war era or slavery soap opera televise about a decade earlier in the 70 . patrick swayze and at the beginning of his career and at the time he be do many film like dirty dancing which would make him famous and star a orry main and a plantation bear young man from south carolina who set off to west point . here he meet george hazard ( james read ) who be suppose to be the hated enemy and the yankee north and but with whom he bond closely . soon and the main from the south and the hazard from the north become friend despite the turbulent era lead to civil war . the theme of family and friendship and do the right thing even when the nation be fall apart be at the heart of this otherwise soap opera full of action and romance . clariss and ashton ( jean simmons and teri garber ) portray sister who become enemy when one of them marries yankee billy hazard ( john stockwell . garber bitchy and seductive and manipulative and ambitious and evil ashton be fun to watch on screen . though the series do not cover everything in jakes novel and what we see be a condensed version of it and they change a few thing to make it a sort of historical romance with history lesson attach . the character find themselves in all the major civil war scene harper ferry where abolitionist and feminist virgilia hazard ( kirstie alley ) lose the love of her life and the ex slave grady and fort sumter and vicksburg and antietam and gettysburg and appomatox and we be privy to the white house where we see abraham lincoln ( hal halbrook ) battle out the war in his conscience and we meet all the prominent player include lee and grant and sherman and jackson and davis . several veteran hollywood actor from the golden era robert mitchum and elizabeth taylor and olivia de havilland have cameos and it interest to see them . this be not historical fact and it historical fiction and purely dramatized entertainment . but it get cliffhanger ending and beautiful cinematography and costume and location . it be like watch an epic movie that run long than go with the wind with with war scene in it . the script may be bad at time and the acting may not be the best and despite the good casting . swayze ham it up as do terri garber but some performance and like that of kirstie alley and james read ( a george hazard ) and leslie anne downes a the beautiful and strong madeline be really good performance . they shoot in set and in southern location . the music be enchant and this be a feel good film in which we root for the good guy and watch the villain scheme and ultimately get their comeuppance . all fan of civil war movie and the jakes novel should watch this . it available on dvd and vhs .