Rating: 
Summary: Good new...bad news!
Review: The good news is that Kultur put this superb masterpiece out on DVD. The BAD news is that this epic film was NOT digitally restored. This is a pan-and-scan of a poor print. The original aspect ratio (2.40:1) of the 70mm Super Sovscope is gone, and so is much of the spectacle of the original film. They did manage to keep the 4 part original release sequence, although somewhat shorter. I'm waiting for a restored version that will do justice to the best film version of a timeless classic.
Rating: 
Summary: 5-Star Film But a 2-Star DVD
Review: The Kultur DVD version of Bondarchuk's "War and Peace" -- 3 discs -- is taken from an old scratchy, cloudy film print. I was extremely disappointed to see this magnificent film in such poor condition. MUCH better is the Ruscico / Image version (5 discs).!
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful...
Review: The movie is a great adaptaion of the book, way better than the Hollywood 56' version. At some parts it did seem a bit long, still never boring. Best to have in Russian.
Rating: 
Summary: A Towering Achievement
Review: The next-best thing to Tolstoy's novel, this film is NOT TO BE MISSED. Bondarchuk's treatment of the epic drama is truly symphonic - a brilliant conception in almost all respects! Only the limits of 1960's film technique leave something to be desired. Other than that, the acting ranges from quite good to very moving, with the modulation between the vast historical and intimate dramatic scenes finely handled. The Battle of Borodino will have you on the edge of your chair, the burning of Moscow is horrifying. See this, then curl up with the novel over the next few weeks; your horizons will never be the same.
Rating:
Summary: One of the movies you have to see
Review: The spring of 1968 was tumultuous to say the least. The Cold War raged between the United States and Soviet Union, even as the American people became bitterly and forever divided over the war in Vietnam. The Tet offensive only months earlier had shaken domestic confidence and college campuses were awash in protest. The President of the United States had suddenly withdrawn as a candidate for re-nomination, and Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in early April while leading a sanitation worker strike in Memphis. Race riots rocked American cities.Even Brezhnev and his Politburo in charge of the Soviet Union felt threatened by China and Mao in the East and a democratic movement in Czechoslovakia forever known as the Prague Spring. The world was tense and the threat of nuclear war lay within every crisis. In those days Soviet cultural exchange consisted of sending the Kirov Ballet and some dancing bears to perform on the Ed Sullivan Show and the Americans sending Louis Armstrong to Moscow in exchange. Yet almost overlooked that spring was the American debut of Sergei Bondarchuk's War and Peace, an eight hour subtitled masterpiece. Offered in two four hour sittings on separate days the film managed to be profoundly patriotic while being quite obviously subversive. This is a war film of such scope and breadth that the lessons of the intrinsic horror of war is delivered time and time again. Napoleon's invading army is a thinly guised Wehrmacht while the bumbling nobility are proxies for the neo-Stalinists in the Kremlin. Through it all it proclaims a great love of Mother Russia, its land and its people. If you listen carefully you can hear the artistic chains that entrapped producers, directors, and actors begin to break.
Rating:
Summary: "In a class by itself"
Review: This has to be the best book to film adaptation ever made, and certainly one of the most faithful to the source...but buyer beware ! The dubbed version is one to avoid. I find the musical sound of the Russian language adds to the enjoyment of this magnificent film, and the subtitles are a beautiful translation of Tolstoy's massive tale of complex charaters, caught up in the tragic events of their time. 6 hours and 43 minutes long, it took over 5 years to make and at a huge cost (over 100 million in 1968 dollars). Writer/Director/Actor Sergei Bondarchuk tried, and I think succeeded, in bringing a taste of this era to the screen...the details in the sets, costumes, and monumental battle scenes, are simply astounding. The acting is superb, down to the smallest bit part. Bondarchuk is a magnificent Pierre, Ludmila Savelyeva luminous as Natasha, and Vyacheslav Tikhonov, with his perfect profile and lean looks is exactly as I pictured Prince Andrei when I read the book many years ago. This is the grandest of epics, and can't be compared to any other film in existence. Bondarchuk's poetic vision of Tolstoy's masterpiece is thought provoking, and very moving. It's well worth the many hours spent with it, and it gets better with repeated viewing !
Rating:
Summary: This is the one.
Review: This has to be the greatest film ever made. It's certainly the most expensive, but that doesn't tell the whole story. In the English-dubbed version, which is slightly abridged from the original Russian-language version, the film quality is a little ragged, the color looks a little washed-out for about the first third of the film, and the dubbing isn't perfectly done, but in spite of these drawbacks the greatness of it comes through (can we hope for a restoration in the near future?). The absolute fidelity to Tolstoy and the understanding of what makes a great film are a combination unequaled. The battle of Borodino in this film is, as far as I know, the largest battle ever staged for a movie. One can only wonder how a director handles something of that size. Then there's the burning and looting of Moscow, there's the retreat of the French, rank after rank, through mud and snow... But the lives and personalities of the characters in the film really stand out. To repeat something said by another reviewer, you will fall in love with Natasha just as Pierre did. That'll happen about the time of the ball in Petersburg, where she dances with Prince Andrei, in what I'm convinced is the most romantic scene in any movie anywhere. Never before or since, in literature or in film, has there been so enchanting, so captivating a heroine. In the 1956 Hollywood version, Audrey Hepburn had the role, but she was mainly playing Audrey Hepburn. (Incidentally, Henry Fonda, though likeable, was badly miscast as Pierre Bezukhov. He walks through that film like a cowboy wearin' fancy duds an' spectacles.) But Ludmila Savelyeva here IS Natasha. ...And, of course, there's the superb direction throughout by Sergei Bondarchuk (Pierre), there's the powerful and moving score by Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov...You should see both the English-dubbed version and the original Russian-with-subtitles. The latter is more complete, with gorgeous color, but the former has a more immediate emotional impact due to the lack of the extra step in reading a subtitle, and the voices chosen for the overdubbing are quite good, as is that of the narrator, Norman Rose. In a way, they're two different films, but two different films that are the greatest film ever made. It will truly stay with you. (BL, Tucker, GA)
Rating:
Summary: Bondarchuk's "War and Peace" released by RUSCICO
Review: This is an excellent movie. The dubbing situation was strange, but that doesn't detract form the overall quality. And off course the book is better and more extensive then the movie. That said though. bondarchuk did do the ideal screen adaption. I only wish Nicholas would have been more prominently featured.
Rating:
Summary: Grand epic
Review: This is an excellent movie. The dubbing situation was strange, but that doesn't detract form the overall quality. And off course the book is better and more extensive then the movie. That said though. bondarchuk did do the ideal screen adaption. I only wish Nicholas would have been more prominently featured.
Rating:
Summary: This is a real classic piece of Literature and Cinema
Review: This is monumental movie with superb scenes. The dialogues are in many cases paragraphs from the original book by Tolstoi.Acting is marvelous. War an Peace takes the viewer to the heart of an era and the spiritual aspect of the Russian character. Very serious piece of art.
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