Varian's War (TV)

This chronicle of one man's determination to help persecuted Jewish intellectuals and artists escape from Vichy France at the beginning of WWII is the kind of true-life tale Hollywood loves to tell. It contains all the nobility of intention, the dramatic situations and the supposedly interesting characters required for a hearty liberal paean to America's self-proclaimed moral superiority. Despite its premise, however, the only remotely interesting aspect of Varian's War is its based-on-fact background, thanks largely to a conservative-in-the-extreme visual style.