Review of War and Peace (1956) by Jens T — 25 Dec 2011

King Vidor's Hollywood adaption of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace isn't actually the best screen adaption I've seen. It's simply more of a turn off, because of the bad adaption and not enough effort to make more than just a mediocre epic that isn't that great compared to other epic of it's time. For those who don't know anything about Tolstoy's War and Peace, it's follows the Russian upper class during the Napoleonic Wars from the battle of Austerlitz to Napoleon's withdraw from Moscow. We follow the three characters Count Pierre Bezukhov (Henry Fonda) and Price Andrei (Mel Ferrer) who are at one both in love with the young and beautiful Natasha Rostova (Audrey Hepburn). They all feel struggled by the war, and we can really feel the apocalypse coming closer.

The actors actually fits the description of the characters in the book. Even though Henry Fonda is to old to play Pierre, I actually bying his performance, mostly because he's once again play the honest and always polite main character. Mel Ferrer with his stone face is the perfect man to play the cynical Prince Andrei. And of course who other in Hollywood fits the description of Natasha Rostova better than Audrey Hepburn. And we also have Herbert Lom playing a perfect Napoleon. I don't have that much agaist the cast. But it's all the things from the book that isn't included in this film. And it often takes short cuts and don't want to loose itself in the moment. The battle sequence are not that impressive. it doesn't bring the feeling of apocalypse as in the book. But the scenes of Napoleons retreat through the ice cold Russia is truly effective. It's not a good movie, but as good it could have been on that time, it's only bad that I read the novel. But I still give this movie a thumbs up.