Gripping story with well-crafted characters

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

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.

Like Gone With The Wind, Beulah Land is centered around the figure of a southern belle who turns out to have the right stuff to see her's and another family through the tribulations of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Lesley Ann Warren is the central character here. When we first meet her she's in the best fiddle-dee-dee tradition of Scarlett O'Hara. But she's married to Paul Rudd who is weak and self indulgent. Gradually she takes over as head of the family and doing the running of the plantation while Rudd pursues his vices along with neighbor Don Johnson who marries Rudd's sister.The prominent black role in Beulah Land is that of Dorian Harewood who is manumitted free and actually becomes the overseer of the plantation known as Beulah Land that Warren runs. Between the two of them they pull both the blacks and whites through a few crises.The Union Army is hardly seen as liberators. A great of emphasis is placed on General Sherman's war waged on the Southern aristocracy. In particular his 'Bummer's Brigades' whose mission was to rob and pillage and take their pleasures when they find them. Though it covers the same ground as Gone With The Wind and a great deal more before and after, Beulah Land when you come right down to it is more like a southern fried Peyton Place. Between the two families, the Kendricks and Davises there's a lot of sex going on for three generations plus the outsiders drawn in. No doubt the sex sold Beulah Land to the reading public.Besides those I've mentioned pay attention to Meredith Baxter who is Warren's sister who disgraces her class by going on stage and marrying an actor. She gets disowned, but comes back in Reconstruction to settle some scores. It's not Gone With The Wind, neither is it Roots. Beulah Land is good drama with more sex than history.

I have read all 3 volumes of the series by Lonnie Coleman numerous times. In fact I pretty much know the story word for word. I can assure you this series does not follow the books at all. Many major characters in the books have been reduced to minor parts or omitted completely. Many characters never mentioned in any of the books are added, for example who is the man named they call Rosoe Corlay? No place in any of the books. What happened to Roscoe Elk and Daniel Todd? Pretty major players in the books! So if you are looking at this series because you enjoyed the books you will be sadly disappointed. It is still entertaining and will be more enjoyable if you have never read the books.

I voted this movie a ten because I was in it. Been too long ago now to actually remember it. I found this site when looking up info on Eddie Albert's death, God rest his soul.Several students from Chamberlain Hunt Academy were hired as extras for this movie, I was included in this group. A friend (JJ Mitchell) and I were having lunch and the only table available at the time was where Mr. Albert was eating and talking to Burt Reynolds (not in the movie) we asked if we could sit there and they smiled and told us to have a seat. They went back to their discussion and we didn't bother them any further. We ate our lunch and when finished we left. Two young girls had seen us eating with these 2 famous actors and assumed we were famous or up and coming and asked for our autographs. We of course signed for them.Another story was a scene where the people were leaving the town and Meredith Baxter was coming into the town. I was supposed to run across the street between some horses and up the side that Ms. Baxter was coming down. One of the horses was coming a little faster than I thought and I had to make a dash to keep from getting hit. I ran smack into Ms. Baxter. I would have knocked her down had I not caught her (I was a big guy even then). She gave me a peck on the cheek, for not knocking her to the ground I suppose.I don't remember actually seeing myself in the movie but thought I'd pass these stories along.

This miniseries, based on a series of supermarket novels, concerns the lives and travails of a southern family from the antebellum days on up past the Civil War. A TV version of "Gone With The Wind", cast with many well-known actors(Hope Lang, Meredith Baxter, Lesley Anne Down), as well as up-and-comers(Jonathan Frakes, Madeleine Stowe). Recommended.