War and Peace (1956)

One of the signature classic movies of all time!

This is one of the best books ever written made into one the truly signature classic movies ever made! Henry Fonda, Audrey Hepburn & Mel Ferrer (who just passed away at the age of 90) make a stellar cast, and while its a long movie, its a movie I love to watch again & again!

This is a movie worth owning, I promise!! June 7, 2008

War and Peace

A sprawling film from the even more sprawling Russian novel by Leo Tolstoy. It is the early 1800s, and Napoleon's army is moving from France into Russia and on to Moscow. Tolstoy depicts polite Russian society and how its world is ripped apart by Napoleon's ambition. Henry Fonda plays the bumbling, intellectual Pierre. Audrey Hepburn is the naive Natasha. Swede Anita Ekberg, dripping with sex, is Helene. As an astronomy buff, my favorite scene is Pierre observing the comet of 1812. Its tail was long and luminous. While many people in those days believed comets to be bad omens, Pierre sees its beauty and feels a kinship with it. To Pierre, the comet represents hope. Jean Louis Pons discovered the comet in July. It was visible through September.

February 22, 2008

A timeless classic

War and Peace is without a doubt, a timeless classic. We chose to obtain this version to share it with Katya and Nadya, young adults who are now studying this period in history.

This Tolstoy's classic is wonderfully played by Audrey Hepburn as Natasha, a young woman who experiences the hardships of war. Henry Fonda provides a great performance as he lives through and observes Napoleon's invasion.

The Russian General, who retreats, and refuses to engage in battle, waiting for the winter to become his ally is superbly played and provided a chance to discuss strategy and books, such as the Art of War. The insight gained was excellent.

The battle scenes leave a sense of desolation, and as Napoleon retreats, we were able to discuss how Russia has benefited from a harsh winter as the defense against intruders.

Highly recommend watching this film. November 26, 2007

Hepburn is of course wonderful

I guess I am a purist when it comes to the classics. I like the movie script to follow the original work which I am sorry to say this movie does not. From the first scene in the movie, it is almost like they took extracts from all of the book's events and rearranged the entire timeline. Some of the scenes never happened, others did not happen as they were portrayed, there are many lines in the movie which never were uttered by any of Tolstoy's characters and to me the choices of actors for some of the roles were very misguided. Who in their right mind would choose Henry Fonda as Pierre (he sounds like he is from Kansas). Pierre was described all through Tolstoy's epic as being fat, slovenly, very large, etc., wide of girth. Though Henry Fonda was a very fine actor, they seemed to have missed their mark. There were many such misses.

Of course, the scenery and the action shots are also very dated. But if the script had followed Tolstoy's work, I would have been happy; but it did not.

The only saving grace was of course Audrey Hepburn who to me was a perfect Natasha. I wish that they had had a younger actress playing the younger Natasha who plays with dolls but they only used Miss Hepburn for the entire sequence of events.

Ms. Hepburn was wonderful in this role, beautiful and so full of life. I think that she and Mel Ferrer were the two (2) jewels of this film and at the time I believe they were actually married.

I think as a true depiction and adaptation of Tolstoy's masterpiece this movie production failed. But as an entertaining and whimsical portrayal of extracts of this fine book and as pure entertainment with some very fine actors even if it was sadly a broad detour from the book itself, I would give it three stars for the efforts of Ferrer and Hepburn alone.

Be forewarned if you are counting on an accurate depiction of the book. It is just the Hollywood version with all of its literary liberties fully exploited. But at least enjoy the beauty of Hepburn and her wonderful charisma.

Bentley/2007

War and Peace November 12, 2007

A really great version of the Novel

This is a really great American version of the novel. This is not the same as the Russian version, but done in a different way. September 24, 2007

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