Ben Meyers’ rating: 4.1|5.0
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War
and Peace—drearily drags through 3 hours and 28 minutes—drowns itself
in good to average acting and tells a story that, if told within a 2-hour timeframe,
could have been interesting and worth watching. Little to no character
development hampers this movie from its beginning to its end with the primary
focus on Henry Fonda who the audience is expected to assume a necessary presence
when, in fact, could be eliminated entirely. The strongest actor, despite
having little screen presence and few dialogue lines, is Herbert Lom who plays
Napoleon Bonaparte. This phenomena/oddity is like the amazing screen presence
Michael Shannon obtained in his very small role in the movie The World Trade
Center. War and Peace definitely captures epic status, but that status
remains rather hidden under heavy doses of exposition and all the bells and
whistles that sing ‘epic movie’ which serve their own purpose but over the
whole run of the film overpowers and hampers its ability to retain audience
interest.Film Courtesy of Wikipedia
Storyline
The
story of Napoleon Bonaparte’s march into and out of Russia.
Additional Thanks
Thank
you to Director King Vidor for directing effort. Thank you to Executive
Producer Carlo Ponti for making the film possible. Additional characters/cast
include: Natasha Rostova (Audrey Hepburn), Pierre Bezukhov (Henry Fonda),
Prince Andrei Bolkonsky (Mel Ferrer), Anatol Kuragin (Vittorio Gassman),
Napoleon (Herbert Lom), Field Marshal Kutuzov (Oskar Homolka), Helene Kuragina
(Anita Ekberg), Dolokhov (Helmut Dantine), Prince Vasili Kuragin (Tullio
Carminati), Prince Mikhail Andreevich (Barry Jones), Lisa Bolkonskaya (Milly
Vitale), and Countess Rostove (Lea Seidl).
Buy a ticket? Yes? No? Maybe?
Yes.
The one reason one may want to watch this movie is to forgo reading the 1,225
pages of the book. The gist of the book can be obtained in a little over three
hours.
Video Critique Available Here:
Ben Meyers
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