Voyna i mir (1967)

Director:

Sergei Bondarchuk

Writers:

Sergei Bondarchuk (writer)
Vasili Solovyov (writer)

Release Date:

28 April 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History | Romance | War

Plot:

War and Peace (1968) is an eight-hour epic film based on the eponymous book by Leo Tolstoy. Two main story-lines are complex and intertwined...

Plot Keywords:

Russia | Battle | Love | Russian Army | Peace

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Sergei Bondarchuk	...	Pierre Bezukhov
Lyudmila Savelyeva	...	Natasha Rostova
Vyacheslav Tikhonov	...	Prince Andrei Bolkonsky
Boris Zakhava	...	Field Marshal Kutuzov
Anatoli Ktorov	...	Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky
Anastasiya Vertinskaya	...	Pricess Lisa Bolkonskaya
Antonina Shuranova	...	Princess Maria Bolkonskaya
Oleg Tabakov	...	Nikolai Rostov
Viktor Stanitsyn	...	Ilya Andreyevich Rostov
Irina Skobtseva	...	Hélène Bezukhova
Boris Smirnov	...	Prince Vasili Kuragin
Vasili Lanovoy	...	Anatol Kuragin
Kira Golovko	...	Countess Rostova
Irina Gubanova	...	Sonia Rostova
Aleksandr Borisov	...	Uncle Rostov

Also Known As:

Война и мир (Soviet Union: Russian title)
War and Peace (USA)
Guerra e Paz (Brazil) [pt]
Harp ve sulh (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Krieg und Frieden (West Germany) [de]
Krig och fred (Sweden) [sv]
La guerra y la paz (Argentina) [es]
Natascia - L'incendio di Mosca (Italy) (recut version) [it]

Runtime:

UK:401 min (video version) | USA:414 min (4 parts) | Soviet Union:427 min | Italy:263 min (2 parts) | Argentina:453 min (4 parts)

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian | German | French

Color:

Color (Sovcolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Mono (RCA Sound System) (35 mm prints) | Dolby Digital (Restored version)

Certification:

Australia:G | Argentina:Atp | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Arkhangelskoe, Moscow, Russia

Company:

Mosfilm

Trivia:

The film premiered in its entirety on Mexico's Channel I and II in March 1981. It garnered a Guinness World Record for being the longest film to be broadcast on television.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When some of the characters are attending the opera, "L'incoronazione di Poppea" by Claudio Monteverdi is being performed. It premiered in Venice in 1642, but by the time that the story takes place (ca. 1807), it had been lost and all but forgotten. A score wasn't rediscovered until 1888, and the first modern performance was given in 1905. The anachronism is probably intentional since Monteverdi's tale of the destructiveness of erotic desire foreshadows the events immediately after that scene.

Quotes:

Narrator: A moral victory which compels the enemy to recognize the moral superiority of his opponent and his own impotence was won by the Russians at Borodino. The direct consequence of the Battle of Borodino was Napoleon's flight from Moscow, the destruction of the invading army of 500,000 men, and the destruction of Napoleonic France, on which was laid for the first time, at Borodino, the hand of an opponent stronger in spirit!

Movie Connections:

Version of War and Peace (1956)

Soundtrack:

Prologue

Collossus

War and Peace, to many, is synonymous with a colossus of a book. The ultimate door-stopper. It is among the most complex and epic works of literature ever written. In 19th century Moscow and St-Petersburg, youths grow, make their mistakes… hearts are bound and then broken… and then the great war against Napoleon tears all these lives apart. Leo Tolstoy created intimate portrayals, compelling characters and epic action, telling the story of an entire country and an entire era effortlessly and elegantly. So if books are often difficult to adapt, this one should be completely impossible (witness the shallow King Vidor adaptation).

This film is the stuff of legends. Reportedly one of the most expensive productions ever created, Sergei Bondarchuk's "War and Peace" benefited from the Red Army's involvement and the Soviet Government's financing, and clocks in at about 7 hours. It is as faithful to its source as could be imaginable. In fact, it almost transcends its source.

Admirably cast (the angelic Liudmila Savelieva is ideal as Natasha Rostova and the director was unbelievably wise in casting himself as Pierre Besukhov), elegantly transcribed into a witty screenplay and enacted with class and conviction by its immense cast, "War and Peace" is not just a good adaptation. Its merits as a film are colossal. The cinematography defies any other film, particularly during the battle scenes: rejecting the painterly staticism of Barry Lyndon and the simple charging and distant shots of older films, the violence in Sergei Bondarchuk's epic mirrors that of Kingdom of Heaven (2005!!!), as the camera flies over a never-ending battlefield at full speed, glides aver frantic canons and divisions, crashes into mêlées and follows haunting stampedes of riderless horsemen (a potent metaphor for how the great leaders of the time lost all control over the conflict's proportions). All this without a pixel of CGI in sight (and all the better for it as it presents shots that the eye would simply refuse to believe if generated by a computer) The epic battle of before the sack of Moscow is so colossal and devastating, that even Napoleon looks confused at how to feel before the ocean of corpses sprawled before him. This is the greatest display of cinematic warfare ever committed to the screen. That the calmer scenes manage to sustain that level of excellence is a testament to how grandiose an effort this film is. The display of repressed emotions and overt tenderness are heart-breaking and many episodic scenes stand out magnificently, such as the wolf hunt, the opening balls (easily rivaling anything in "Il Gattopardo") and the duel. This is a film to which the fantastic "Dr Zhivago" feels like a small appetizer… Bondarchuk's "War and Peace" reaches beyond the book and in doing so successfully is one of the greatest motion pictures of all time. It is cinematic poetry and entertainment of the highest order. And to sum things up in an overused – but never more appropriate than here – they'll never make'em like this again.