One of my all time favorites.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It's ten years after a mysterious event has left the US under Soviet control. They took over the UN too. Somehow the Warsaw Pact has the manpower to occupy a town of about 1500 with a full battalion of troops. Amerika follows three general story lines: An idealist former presidential candidate released from prison, a generally sympathetic Soviet corporal looking for a compromise solution to end the occupation with some humanity while keeping his career, and a local politician chosen from above who hopes to finally keep some of the American spirit.Good: -Plot is interesting, and fascinating details are thrown in. Notice the ads on the subway, for example, or the general atmosphere at the train station. -Does the perfect dramatic trick of starting somewhere different and following logically. The convention 3/4 of the way through is well done, and the general malaise and spirit is nice. -Ulric, Hughes, Neill, and Pickett are great in their roles. -Considering the age and it's TV series status, decent effects. -The general political storyline with Ulrich and Neill is very well thought out. The general conduct of the "Party" and the occupying bureaucracy is logical.Bad: -14 hours long, and not nearly enough of a plot to show for it. Some scenes really drag: one shot of a house burning down takes 7 minutes; one of the major "dramatic moments" near the end takes up about 30 minutes of time with simple expression(less) shots when 3-5 would have done. -For all the ideological complaining surrounding it, and all the speeches we have to listen to, it delivers no stirring moments. Even the "chosen" moments take way too long, and involve either endless repetition (if you watch, you'll know what scene I'm talking about), complete silence (ditto), or a speech about nothing. Just like romance, drama is either there or it isn't, and forcing it just makes it irritating. The only moments that come close are some of Bradford's rationalizations. -Kristofferson is brutal. He has presence, but his performance just screams weak writing (see above). Everybody tells me in the movie he's a danger and passionate, but he just doesn't show it, and he spouts endless platitudes and non sequiturs. The court scene was risible. -Except for one scene, the D plot with Bradford's daughter/"bad boy" on motorcycle is a waste. I'm in the minority here, but same with the E-plot with Alethea and the B-movie GDR general. Both of these suffer from being forgotten for hours at a time. -I'd rather have the UNSSU occupy my town than here "make love" used in another awkward way.Conclusion: Interesting premise that isn't worth the time commitment. If you do watch it, and you get a weird feeling you can fast forward at some moments without missing any important dialogue, go for it, you're probably right.

Having spent some years on the dark side of the Iron Curtain, I was amazed to see how well Donald Wrye has constructed his "What If?" tale. This is the way Russians behave on their good days. AMERIKA presents a sanitized version of the way Russia has, under csar and commissar, ruthlessly crushed other cultures and civilizations. For two centuries Russia expanded its control by the land size of a Belgium per year. It has never produced anything anyone wanted beyond raw materials, these from stolen lands. It has prospered by the ability of its army to take goods from other countries. It is instructive for Americans to see what might have been their fate had Russia dealt with them as they had with Poles, Estonians, Hungarians, Lithuanians, Tartars, Chechens, Khazhaks, Azeris, Armenians, Georgians, Chechs, Slovaks, Lativaks, Yakuts. Just watching AMERIKA gives one a feeling of gratitude to Reagan, JP II, Solidarity, the American people, and the others who brought the Evil Empire down.What a pity that, following our victory over the Soviets, the neocons and neoMarxists have now rushed in to seize power in the United States according to Antonio Gramsci's "indirect approach" of taking over the universities, media, and lumpen intelligentsia. They have brought us to a needless war with Islam. Americans today have little more power than the citizens of Amerika. Our treasure and the lives of our young soldiers are being drawn off to fight a war in Mesopotamia to serve dark and sinister forces unconcerned about the future of the United States.

We (my Dad and I) taped the AMERIKA miniseries on its premiere air dates and I'm so glad we did. I've read a couple reviews here at IMdB that claim this milestone is boring. I believe they are misinterpreting the decided communist slant of this production. The production seems off-kilter because of it is presented through "a weary and wintry Russian eye", which might be compared to the powerless angst of the Russian characters of the Dr. Zhivago film. The characters are all doomed to communism and it's fascinating to view their ways of coping. Kristofferson and Urich are both powerhouses in this vein. My favorite theme is the outlawing of sentimental media, my favorite scene when Mariel Hemingway attends the illegal performance of "The Fantasticks". Shades of George Orwell's "1984", about a communist state where things that are illegal for the masses are allowed (but not admittedly) for the elite party members. So I say "God Bless AMERIKA". I think I'll watch it again next week.

I came across a copy of this 12 hour epic at my local library and sat down and watched some of the slowest footage in television history. The idea was good, even if it was implausible in 1987. The film would have had much more credibility if the time setting had been more at the peak of the Cold War. So, if you cast all that aside the movie is pretty good. But there are other drawbacks. The film takes place in 1997, ten years after the coup. They should have focused a little more on how the coup actually takes place. All they tell us is that the Soviets backed certain political candidates and then it was final. No blood shed. It features too many musical montages that take away from the film, particularly after the squatter camp has been attacked. Some characters are forgotten about or lose too much screen time. We only see Devin's youngest son one time after he meets him. And finally the film could have easily been shortened from 12 hours to 6 and not lost a thing. I guess after I've ripped the movie apart I still found time to enjoy it though. I give it a 7 out of 10.