War and Peace [Blu-ray]

Director: King Vidor King Vidor

Overview

War and Peace is a commendable attempt to boil down Tolstoy's long, difficult novel into 208 minutes' screen time. In recreating the the social and personal upheavals attending Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia, $6 million was shelled out by coproducers Carlo Ponti, Dino de Laurentiis and Paramount Pictures. Some of the panoramic battle sequences are so expertly handled by second-unit director Mario Soldati that they appear to be Technicolor-and-Vistavision newsreel footage of the actual events. Still, the film falters dramatically, principally because of a lumpy script and King Vidor's surprisingly lustreless direction. In addition, the casting is wildly consistent: for example, while Audrey Hepburn is flawless as Natasha, Henry Fonda is far too "Yankeefied" as the introspective Pierre. Proving too long and unwieldy for most audiences, War and Peace died at the box office; far more successful was the epic, scrupulously faithful 1968 version, filmed in the Soviet Union.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/23/2017
UPC:	0032429274182
Original Release:	1956
Rating:	PG
Source:	Paramount
Language:	English
Time:	3:28:00

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Audrey Hepburn	Natasha Rostov
Henry Fonda	Piotr Biezuchow
Mel Ferrer	Ksi¿¿¿ Andriej Bo¿ko¿ski
Vittorio Gassman	Anatol
John Mills	Actor
Herbert Lom	Actor
Oscar Homolka	Actor,Gen. Kutuzov
Anita Ekberg	Actor
Helmut Dantine	Actor
Barry Jones	Actor
Maria Ferrero	Actor,Actor
Milly Vitale	Actor
Wilfred Lawson	Prince Nicholas Bolkonsky,Actor
Jeremy Brett	Actor
Lea Seidl	Actor
Sean Barrett	Actor,Actor
Tullio Carminati	Actor
May Britt	Actor
Tullio Carminatti	Kuragin
Patrick Crean	Actor
Gertrude Flynn	Actor
Teresa Pellati	Actor
Maria Zanoli	Actor
Alberto Carlo Lolli	Actor
Mario Addobbati	Actor
Gualtiero Tumiati	Actor
Clelia Matania	Actor
Gianni Luda	Actor
Eschilo Tarquini	Actor
Alex D'Alessio	Actor
Alfredo Rizzo	Actor
Mauro Lanciani	Actor
Ina Alexeiva	Actor
Andre Eszterhazy	Dolokhov's Second
Don Little	Actor
John Horne	Actor
Sdenka Kirchen	Actor
Nando Gallai	Actor
Michael Tor	Actor
Piero Pastore	Actor
Richard Macnamara	De Beausset
Vincent Barbi	Actor
John Douglas	Actor
Robert Stephens	Actor
Luciano Angelini	Actor
Charles Fawcett	Actor
Piero Palermini	Actor
Angelo Galassi	Actor
David Crowley	Actor
Michael Billingsley	Actor
Aldo Saporetti	Actor
Dimitriy Konstantinov	Actor
Robin White Cross	Actor
Lucio DeSantis	Actor
Bob Cunningham	Actor
Andre Esterhazy	Actor
Marianna Leibl	Actor
Marisa Allasio	Actor
Stephen Garrett	Actor
Micaela Giustiniani	Actor
Cesare Barbetti	Actor
Francis Foucaud	Actor
Savo Raskovitch	Actor
Georges Brehat	Actor
Gilberto Tofano	Actor
Umberto Sacripante	Actor
Paole Quagliero	Actor
Christopher Hofer	Actor
Carlo Delmi	Actor
Enrico Olivieri	Actor
Eric Oulton	Actor
Archie Lyall	Actor
John Stacey	Actor
Mino Doro	Actor
Alan Furlan	Actor
Joop Van Hulzen	Actor
Giovanni Rossi-Loti	Actor
Giacomo Rossi-Stuart	Actor
Guido Celano	Actor
Jerry Riggio	Actor
Geoffrey Copleston	Actor
Mimmo Palmara	Actor
Giorgio Constantini	Actor
Richard McNamara	Actor
Andrea Fantasia	Actor
Stephen Lang	Actor
Carlo Dale	Actor
Paul Davis	Actor

Technical Credits

Dino De Laurentiis	Producer
King Vidor	Director

Editorial Reviews

In spite of its three-hour length, this 1956 King Vidor film presents only a surface perusal of the panoramic, character-packed novel on which it is based, Russian writer Leo Tolstoy's two-inch-thick tome War and Peace. Nevertheless, the movie gives viewers just enough of the novel to allow them to browse Russian drawing rooms and battlefields and to eavesdrop on the lives and longings of people affected by the brutal war and social upheaval of 1805-1815. The acting is sometimes very good and sometimes very bad, while the cinematography and historical ambience are outstanding. The camera follows Pierre Bezuhov (Henry Fonda) as he wanders through a degenerate youth, a flawed marriage, and the turbulence of war, finally arriving at his true self: an idealist bent on helping others. Along the way, a dashing, sophisticated soldier, Prince Andrey Bolkonsky (Mel Ferrer) outcharms Bezuhoy for the hand of lovely Natasha Rostov (Audrey Hepburn). Fonda is good, Ferrer is mediocre, and Hepburn is excellent; however, modern audiences -- spoiled by the linguistic derring-do of such actors as Meryl Streep, Bob Hoskins, and Gwyneth Paltrow -- may balk at the hodgepodge of non-Russian accents. As the Russian characters go about their lives, the ominous advance of Napoleon and his army is ever on their minds. Herbert Lom (widely remembered as Peter Sellers' boss in the Pink Panther films) portrays the French despot with as much verve and panache as any actor who ever stepped into the role. On the other hand, buxom Swede Anita Ekberg is simply awful as Pierre Bezuhov's wife. Apparently, her presence in the film was a concession to prurience and box-office draw. All in all, though, Vidor's War and Peace is a decent production -- a keyhole that affords a glimpse into a gigantic novel and a world in turmoil.

All Movie Guide - Mike Cummings