just watch it!

Absolutely amazing

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

I remember when this dreadful mini-series first played. There was tons of controversy over it which immediately disappeared after the series aired (people saw how boring and pointless it was). The premise is a good one (Russia taking over America) but this was basically boring! It moved at a snails pace. I watched the whole thing hoping it would get better but it never did. The script and characters were hopeless--nonstop clichés that I've seen hundreds of times before. They had some great actors in this (like Christine Lahti) giving their worst performances. It's not available in any format for a good reason--who would buy it? Maybe the 16 or so people here who are giving it a good rating would purchase it but nobody else. This mini deserves the obscurity it has. A 1 all the way.

I can imagine President George IV sr sitting with his advisors following the colossal defeat in the 1992 election pleading with them to tell him one major accomplishment of the first bush regime. A timorous lackey stammered: in the Bush regime the US became the world's leading super-power. And what did I do to cause that? asks Bush the elder. Nothing came the reply; the USSR went bankrupt.By the time of the first Gulf War, the US and USSR were like two drunks staggering home from a bar after a night of carousing. It was only a question of which would stumble first.Amerika tells the story of the alternative history. What if it had been the other way around? There's a picture of much of the debasement and exploitation that accompanies subjugation. Good leaders end up in jail; adventurous people strike out and make a go at it elsewhere; the conquerer has no want of quislings willing to debase themselves at a price.Amerika is the story of two families: the Bradfords and the Milfords. The Milfords for the most part oppose the occupation. Kris Kristofferson plays Devin Milford the figure around which the opposition rallies. As the story opens he is being released from jail. While his wife has sold out to the occupier, his father and his boys are active in the resistance. The backdrop of the story is well constructed. The secret path by which the resistance moves people around is called THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD; they've adopted much of the counter-culture music of the 60s as songs of rebellion.In the quisling corner is Robert Urich as Peter Bradford an amiable sort trying to persuade himself that he is following the right course in building the quisling state of HEARTLAND out of the central midwestern states.Strangely the film did accurately predict what happened to our enemy inside the Soviet union when the Communists fell. It is worth revisiting.

I'm in the favorable camp here. I notice the reviews seem to be largely either/or; people looking for something Tom Clancy in nature have another film with Sam Neill playing a Russian they can view anytime on HBO. Neill, it seems to me, was the unsung hero of this; his character and Armin Mueller-Stahl's provided plenty of balance to the premise of the film itself. What a great cast! I hadn't caught Christine Lahti in anything since seeing Housekeeping 10 years ago, she deserved the awards they gave for this. The other big surprise was Dorian Harewood, I went nuts trying to figure out where I'd seen him before: He was Eightball in Full Metal Jacket. He really pulls out the stops here.Spoilers: A little bit more back story would've helped. The only hint of how the Soviets took over was through a breakdown in communications, according to the Sam Neill character. The book apparently explains this as a massive EMP attack, using high altitude nuclear blasts to destroy electronic equipment across the nation - including the wiring in nuclear silos, which are supposed to be immune from EMP. Or perhaps the president couldn't do the deed. Or couldn't get in touch with them anymore. That wouldn't effect the subs, though. Don Wrye I suppose wasn't interested in going into all these details, but it leaves you scratching your head a bit. Would lack of spine/character bring down a whole nation? As it happens, I did enjoy the very enigmatic ending, even though it might be a bit treacly or unrealistic. O'Neill's character we think will let America get back on its feet - what about those Party bosses back in Moscow who had to be convinced that it was better to just murder all of Congress rather than nuke three cities?

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."