War and Peace (1966)

People are voting emotionally.

Excellent but underrated film

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I watched the film in Russian, as I'm a Russian speaker. The film focuses less on the characters and the people, and mostly focuses on patriotic issues, such as showing how Napoleon and the French are cruel, showing how the Russians are brave and how they protect their motherland and "sacred Moscow". The story telling is very outdated. There are jumps within the story between scenes. Scenes with potential emotions and empathy are cut short, just when they get interesting, and sometimes the narrator just tells you what happened instead of showing it. You can count the emotional scenes on 1 hand. You just can't get any connection to the characters. The battle scenes are impressive, with many participants and extras, and are done in a very large scale. But they are too long and tiring. After you get impressed from the first minutes, you just get bored and wait for the lengthy scenes to finish. The too long and outdated effects and the lengthy many philosophical texts also do not contribute to the viewing experience. And add to everything the length of these film-series... I was very disappointed, after having high expectations due to the good reviews on IMDB. Recently I watched a much newer version made by BBC. It was much much better and interesting - it captured all the key moments and developments, but added a lot of emotion and empathy to them.

Who ever mentions Sergei Bondarchuk when it comes to talking and writing about great movie directors? and so we should realize he only happens to have directed the best film epic ever made and he also co-adapted the massive Tolstoy novel its based upon as well as performing in the leading role...This colossal Russian version of War and Peace also happens to be the single greatest achievement in the history of motion pictures and in my opinion no other film compares to this incredible masterpiece that is most certainly not to be missed by anyone...I have read several hundred favorite movie lists and this film is more or less never included in any of them and its also more or less never mentioned within any of the many great and famous movie books that I have read either and the only reasons I can think of as to why this fantastic Russian version of War and Peace is so sadly and obviously underrated is because there still exists remnants of cold war paranoia and extreme jealousy from a Hollywood that has never been able to equal or surpass this monumental Russian movie and not even with their usual and almost total dependence upon CGI has Hollywood duplicated or exceeded its majesty and grandeur and there is no CGI used within this Russian version of War and Peace and just imagine how there is no other type of computer aid within this movie whatsoever...Its really difficult trying to find words that are able to accurately describe to someone who has never seen it just how awesome and visually stunning this supreme motion picture actually is and it contains so many intimate and panoramic scenes filled with sights and sounds and colors never seen before or since within any other movie,as well as containing the most vast and amazingly realistic battle scenes ever filmed and I've seen thousands of movies and just about every epic film ever made and none of them can touch this sense staggering Russian motion picture...I clearly remember how the very first time I ever saw this film was by accident late one night on television many years ago and I was stunned and amazed and during my still awakening state I thought I was watching footage taken by someone who went back in time and actually filmed real history taking place during the early 1800s and in all seriousness,that is really no exaggeration at all,because this film is that well made and its that realistic and its all the more intense and incredible of an accomplishment for being a film that was made back in the 1960s...And so do not miss this brilliant Russian version of War and Peace and be sure to watch it digitally re-mastered in its original wide screen format and once you've seen it you'll never be able to forget it...

War And Peace is one of those Soviet films which are readily available even in Western countries. It's unquestionably the best adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's great novel. Director Sergei Bondarchuk's epic is truly grand. Sometimes it lacks emotional punch and sometimes it's slow-moving. Still, this is hardly a problem because each scene is beautifully shot. The battle scenes are the most spectacular in cinema. Thousands of extras were employed in realistic battles which haven't been matched in any other film, except perhaps in the series about the Eastern Front called Liberation (1971). In addition to this grandeur Bondarchuk stressed realism. The French speak their own language, and the portrayal of Napoleon Bonaparte is especially impressive. The Russia of the early 19th century looks completely believable, and the great city of Moscow is most memorable. In order to better express the themes of Tolstoy's novel in film narration is sometimes used. At other times narration isn't necessary and interaction between characters is enough. War And Peace is essential viewing especially for those who like war films.

War and Peace is a tremendous film, and an undertaking which will never be rivaled. Bondarchuk secures a spot for all time in adapting, directing, and acting in this giant spectacle. Its in my top 50 greatest films of all time, perhaps top 25, and I have had the privilege of seeing many masterpieces.It is a film though, not with out its flaws. I think that War and Peace is a film that any filmmaker should watch and use as a guideline of what to do...and what not to do. First, the flaws: Bondarchuk lingers too much, much of the film is poetry, but one can only take so many shots of trees and the sky, and the battle that is part III is just far too long, when its intention is to show us the chaos of war, as viewed by Pierre-so there is no real development to the battle, its just random chaos carried over the course of 78 minutes-and that equals far too many overhead shots and shots of the legs of horses. The scene is spectacular, but for what it is trying to convey, it could have been done just as effectively in 40. I have no problem with the overall length of the movie, I just wish that more of the length was used to expand on existing characters or add other ones left out from the novel; rather than all of these aerial shots and shots of trees, and people looking off into space. Like Cy Young, even with all of its flaws, this film has twice as many shinning victories. It gets better as it goes on, and parts III and IV are definitely the best and most spectacular parts of the film. The battle from part II is nothing compared to the one in part III, and the burning of Moscow is a candidate for the most spectacular scene ever filmed. Bondarchuk does so much right in this film, I don't know where to start, but one thing I will note is that this is no boring by the letters film. While Bondarchuk would have benefited from a Hollywood cameraman, what he achieves here is simply amazing, and I must thank him for being so experimental. Sure, a lot of the experiments don't work all that well, and have aged a bit, but the ones that work, work marvelously, and it keeps the film fresh. This film would have been much poorer if it were made like "Gettysburg", or in the manner of your standard movie, because with a running time of nearly 7 hours, this film demands innovation and freshness.In the end this film is a monument of the medium. Not the most perfect film, but undeniably one of the greatest, and a must see for every movie lover.