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. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
is neutral about it.
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. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide