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War & Peace (1956)
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by Paramount
Sales Rank: 16774
Price: $14.95
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Despite its reputation as an oversimplified epic, King Vidor's <I>War and Peace</I> remains a stellar showcase of Hollywood prestige. While Cecil B. De Mille was reviving ancient Egypt for <I>The Ten Commandments</I>, Vidor was transforming Italian countryside into war-torn Russia, bringing massive resources to bear on this sumptuous, if ultimately misguided adaptation of Tolstoy's classic. Given the marquee casting of Audrey Hepburn as Natasha and then-husband Mel Ferrer as decorated battle hero Prince Andrei, this is a movie you watch for star value, not literary fidelity (for the latter, look to Sergei Bondarchuk's Russian version). Henry Fonda serves Tolstoy more effectively as Pierre, whose passive observation of Napoleon's invasion turns this grand moral tale into an intimate study of individual passions. The battle scenes (directed by Mario Soldati) remain impressive, as does the film's grand parade of pomp and circumstance. Slow, regal, and peppered with brilliance, this epic falls short of classic but it's still a visual feast. <I>--Jeff Shannon</I>
Viewer Reviews
If you are lazy like me and don't see even a remote chance of reading this thousand and something pages novel but in the meantime want to know the literature of Russia go for the movie!
In general with all due respect to Tolstoy, I generally do not like his way of getting too much into the detail to the point that 50 pages pass by and you feel that you are still reading the description of ONE room...!
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War & Peace (1956)
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