"Amerika" (1987) TV mini-series

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Donald Wrye

Writer:

Donald Wrye (writer)

Release Date:

15 February 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Fantasy

Tagline:

1997. The world is different. The dream is the same. Let freedom ring.

Plot:

America has been bloodlessly taken over by the Soviet Union, leading to slave-labor camps for some,...

Plot Keywords:

Intentionally Misspelled Title | Soviet Invasion | TV Mini-Series

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 4 nominations

Cast

Kris Kristofferson	...	Devin Milford
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Graham Beckel	...	Clayton Cullen
Wayne Best	...	Cliff
Richard Blackburn	...	KGB Agent
Pete Boughn	...	High School Principal
Lara Flynn Boyle	...	Jacqueline 'Jessie' Bradford
Richard Bradford	...	Ward Milford
Turner Stephen Bruton	...	Enos
Sheila Lynn Buckley	...	Modern Dance Judge
George Buza	...	Rick
Ivan Dixon	...	Dr. Alan Drummond
Steve Drury	...	Scott
Deanna Dunagan	...	Betty Milford
David Ferry	...	Laird
Dorian Harewood	...	Jeffrey Wyman
Mariel Hemingway	...	Kimberly Ballard
Hanna Hertelendy	...	Gerta
Marcel Hillaire	...	Dieter Heinlander
Wendy Hughes	...	Marion Andrews
Patricia Idlette	...	Melanie Blackstone
Christine Lahti	...	Alethea Milford
Piotr Lysak	...	Mikhail
Keram Malicki-Sánchez	...	Young Caleb
Joseph Moser	...	Puncher (as Joe Moser)
Armin Mueller-Stahl	...	General Petya Samanov
Sam Neill	...	Colonel Andrei Denisov
Cindy Pickett	...	Amanda Bradford
Ken Pogue	...	Sittman
Kelly Proctor	...	Billy Milford
Ford Rainey	...	Will Milford
Don Reilly	...	Justin Milford
Allan Royal	...	President (as Alan Royal)
Mag Ruffman	...	Sally, VFA
Reiner Schöne	...	Major Helmut Gurtman
Kurt Schweickhardt	...	Gary Milford
Peg Sheldrick	...	Dierdre's Mother
Timothy Skulish	...	Body Guard
Errol Slue	...	Reverend Blackstone
Sherry Smith	...	Louise
Sam Stone	...	Rebel
Toby Tarnow	...	Helen
Barbara Tirrell	...	Esther
John Towey	...	Herb Lister (as John Madden Towey)
Robert Urich	...	Peter Bradford
Vlasta Vrana	...	Sergei
Jason Wild	...	Youth Communist Leader

Runtime:

870 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-12

Filming Locations:

Cobourg, Ontario, Canada

Company:

ABC Circle Films

Trivia:

This was Lara Flynn Boyle's first major role. She had filmed a bit part for Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), but it was cut prior to the movie's release.

Quotes:

Peter Bradford: If you'd landed troops on the beaches, maybe it would have been different.
Colonel Andrei Denisov: What we did not expect was that, without communications, the United States would revert to a collection of separate peoples.
Peter Bradford: You just got the drop on us.
Colonel Andrei Denisov: [shaking off the suggestion] I don't believe it. It worked because you lost your country before we ever got here.

Excellent Reminder of the Bad Old Days

What a great relic of the Cold-War era! An excellent piece for classroom discussions of the American mentality during this period of recent history. If only it were more easily available at a more affordable price. It seems this set is not selling at the Wal-Mart bin-price for a mini-series that has received such poor reviews from the kind visitors of IMDb. Like "Red Dawn," "1984" and other "paranoia" films of the 1980s, this one lives up to its name. Yes, it's slow, but it wasn't supposed to be a Rambo-type flick. Try to appreciate it for what it represented when it came out. A very courageous project for its time, IMHO. I think that it's time for a re-make with a "different" kind of "scary" foreign-occupier (can you guess what I'm thinking?) It could easily be titled, "Ameriqa."