War and Peace (1967)
Country: USSR
Technical: col/scope 70 507m
Director: Sergei Bondarchuk
Cast: Sergei Bondarchuk, Lyudmila Savelyeva, Vyacheslav Tikhonov
Synopsis:
Tolstoy's monumental novel is presented as a four-part history of a nation with character asides. The most intimate portrait is reserved for Natasha.
Review:
As to be expected, Bondarchuk's faithful adaptation, which received generous state assistance, including large numbers of the standing army and uniform factories, is at times almost a paean to the character of the Russian people under attack, at one point all but alluding to the more recent Great Patriotic War. There is a voiceover commentary, which can be no more than a palimpsest of the novel's lengthy passages of philosophic reflection. What is impressive is that even on so broad a canvas - and the film does not skimp on spectacle - individual performances make their mark and lift the characters off the page. It is interesting to compare the treatments of Pierre and his encounter with the soldier who is shot on the retreat from Moscow, for example, with those of Vidor's film: where that strains for emotive effect, Bondarchuk lets events speak for themselves. One misgiving: after a splendid Borodino and a spectacular Moscow in flames, the film is resolved in a relatively perfunctory manner with Pierre's return (we even lose the French army crossing the river under fire, a felicitous sequence in Vidor's movie).
Country: USSR
Technical: col/scope 70 507m
Director: Sergei Bondarchuk
Cast: Sergei Bondarchuk, Lyudmila Savelyeva, Vyacheslav Tikhonov
Synopsis:
Tolstoy's monumental novel is presented as a four-part history of a nation with character asides. The most intimate portrait is reserved for Natasha.
Review:
As to be expected, Bondarchuk's faithful adaptation, which received generous state assistance, including large numbers of the standing army and uniform factories, is at times almost a paean to the character of the Russian people under attack, at one point all but alluding to the more recent Great Patriotic War. There is a voiceover commentary, which can be no more than a palimpsest of the novel's lengthy passages of philosophic reflection. What is impressive is that even on so broad a canvas - and the film does not skimp on spectacle - individual performances make their mark and lift the characters off the page. It is interesting to compare the treatments of Pierre and his encounter with the soldier who is shot on the retreat from Moscow, for example, with those of Vidor's film: where that strains for emotive effect, Bondarchuk lets events speak for themselves. One misgiving: after a splendid Borodino and a spectacular Moscow in flames, the film is resolved in a relatively perfunctory manner with Pierre's return (we even lose the French army crossing the river under fire, a felicitous sequence in Vidor's movie).
Country: USSR
Technical: col/scope 70 507m
Director: Sergei Bondarchuk
Cast: Sergei Bondarchuk, Lyudmila Savelyeva, Vyacheslav Tikhonov
Synopsis:
Tolstoy's monumental novel is presented as a four-part history of a nation with character asides. The most intimate portrait is reserved for Natasha.
Review:
As to be expected, Bondarchuk's faithful adaptation, which received generous state assistance, including large numbers of the standing army and uniform factories, is at times almost a paean to the character of the Russian people under attack, at one point all but alluding to the more recent Great Patriotic War. There is a voiceover commentary, which can be no more than a palimpsest of the novel's lengthy passages of philosophic reflection. What is impressive is that even on so broad a canvas - and the film does not skimp on spectacle - individual performances make their mark and lift the characters off the page. It is interesting to compare the treatments of Pierre and his encounter with the soldier who is shot on the retreat from Moscow, for example, with those of Vidor's film: where that strains for emotive effect, Bondarchuk lets events speak for themselves. One misgiving: after a splendid Borodino and a spectacular Moscow in flames, the film is resolved in a relatively perfunctory manner with Pierre's return (we even lose the French army crossing the river under fire, a felicitous sequence in Vidor's movie).