War and Peace

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Blu B I've never read the novel so this is my first exposure to this epic material and it's not bad. It's half decently made all around. It's defintely trying to be a epic drama and war film that reminds me a lot of Doctor Zhivago but not as well done. The production value is good, the battle scenes are good, there are some epic shots in this, and Audrey Hepburn is great. That's the best things about this in a nutshell. That being said, Mel Ferrer is just alright and feels a bit wooden. Fonda isn't bad but I don't know it felt like he was almost miscast for this. Neither don't have any real special chemistry. Now I can tell you there probably is quite a bit of stuff cut from the novel because it does jump around at times between the stories of all 3 navigating through the Napolean's Conquest of Russia. And this feels VERY long. The third hour is defintely the best one though. The direction is pretty basic also and it feels like it doesn't always make the best use of it's assets to give an epic feeling. Like certain shots feel like they could be done better to convey a much better epic scope. This alternates between epic and intimate with mixed results. This kind of makes you feel the weight of that runtime. There isn't any intermissions in this so definetly take a couple breaks with this. It makes sense enough but I just really never felt that much emotional connection to any of the main trio for the reasons listed above. If your a big fan of the source material and a fan of any actors in this than maybe it's worth a shot with this. I am aware there are better adaptations than this. For a Western version it would be worth it to try and remake this. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 10/25/24 Full Review Jared D This is a big production with big strengths and big flaws as well. If you are unfamiliar with Tolstoy's original, even at 3 and a half hours this film only hits the highlights. Strengths: the casting. Most of the cast are excellent. This is actually one of Audrey Hepburn's best dramatic performances. She captures the character of Natasha perfectly. The weaknesses: again, the casting. The exception to the previous point is Henry Fonda's role as Pierre. Fonda never finds the essence of this character. One of Fonda's strengths is his ability to play an American "everyman." Among this cast of Europeans telling an essentially European story, his Americanness stands out. He is simply not convincing playing a Russian aristocrat. I also think he was too old to play this young man who is only supposed to be 10 or so years older than Natasha. Rather than anchoring the scenes he is in with a compelling characterization, Pierre comes off as enigmatic and unreadable. Another weakness: the editing. The film easily could have had a 30 minutes or more chopped out of it and it would not have been missed. Still, overall, a movie worth seeing for the rest of the cast, a truly great story with many surprises. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 10/19/20 Full Review Steve D Great adaptation with strong performances. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 07/05/23 Full Review William L About as much of a success as Napoleon's actual retreat from Moscow. This attempt at continuing the epic literary adaptation craze falls flat on its face right out of the gate and then drags the viewer along without much change for the next few hours, capped by a particularly poor performance from Hepburn. (1/5) Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 08/09/20 Full Review Audience Member For such an epic story, this movie was just meh. A truly strange cast. Some great actors but none of them really fit together. The battle scenes were good but most of the rest, not so good. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review harri k Despite some superb performances, great art direction etc, it's just not a narrative optimal for a feature-length production. Long and boring but still quite meaningful and rewarding. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews

War and Peace

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