My wife and I finished watching Atlantic Crossing on PBS last night -- episode by episode, week after week, the old-fashioned non-streaming way. We both really enjoyed it, and, I have to say, it was one of the most fascinating, appealing, informative historical dramas I've ever seen.
The main story is the role Crown Princess Märtha and her husband Crown Prince Olav played in the Norwegian struggle to keep the country and concept of Norway alive during the Nazi onslaught and occupation of Norway in World War II. And the heart of that story, as beautifully portrayed in Atlantic Crossing, is how Märtha's relationship with American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt figured in her efforts to keep Norway afloat.
We're told at the beginning of each episode that the narrative on the screen, somewhere between Platonic, flirtatious, and deep romantic attraction, is based on "true events". But, of course, what events and how true remains unknown. In Atlantic Crossing, FDR takes Märtha on car rides. They kiss, not quite on the lips. When, in the next-to-last episode, FDR asks Märtha if all the affection and attention she has been giving him was all to coax him into giving Norway a battleship to fight the Germans, Märtha says yes, but FDR, with a twinkle in his eye, says he doesn't believe her.
Speaking of that twinkle, we all know Kyle MacLachlan from Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, but I found his portrayal of FDR charismatically original and exciting. Roosevelt died a few years before I was born, but my parents and grandparents spoke of him as they would a beloved member of our family. They said that when he died in 1945, they suddenly felt lost and without anchor in the world, even though the Nazis were already well beaten. As a media theorist, I always attributed FDR's relationship with the American people, in at least large part, to his fireside chats via radio, which literally brought Roosevelt into America's homes. I've listened to many of those radio addresses -- you can find them online -- so I've come to appreciate the power and impact of his voice. But as for the visual -- what Roosevelt looked like when he talked -- the faded newsclips do not offer very much.
Kyle MacLachlan thus had something of a blank slate to fill, and he did that with memorable sensitivity and panache. I've seen at least half a dozen portrayals of FDR over the years, but none compare to MacLachlan's, and I like thinking that was the man my parents and grandparents loved so much, who got them through the monstrous war literally and figuratively, in every way.*
I'm glad FDR helped save Norway, too, whatever his reasons and whatever Märtha's true role. The Vikings were the first Europeans to arrive in the New World -- as I explain in The Soft Edge, that contact had no effect on the world because there was no printing press to spread the news, as it did for Columbus -- but the Vikings and in turn the Norwegians have always had a very special place in the USA.
Atlantic Crossing is a celebration of that place, an astonishing and satisfying portrait of FDR, and Crown Princess Märtha (wonderfully played by Sofia Helin), created and written by Alexander Eik with moving music by Raymond Enoksen, and I'm glad and grateful to have seen it.
*I should mention that I found the portrayal of Eleanor Roosevelt, also a revered person in American history, somewhat problematic. The part was very well acted by Harriet Sansom Harris, but the Eleanor in Atlantic Crossing staunchly opposes FDR getting America involved in the war in the early days, which may be true, but was news to me, and disconcerting.
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