War and Peace (Russian: Война и мир, Voyna i mir) is a Soviet-produced film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. Sergei Bondarchuk directed the film, co-wrote the screenplay and also acted in the lead role of Pierre.
The film took seven years to produce and cost over US$100 million. If inflation is taken into account, a film of this magnitude would cost over US$700 million today, making War and Peace the most expensive film ever made.[1]
Production
Pre-production started at Mosfilm in 1961, and filming commenced in 1963.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the Battle of Borodino scene included 120,000 soldiers, making it one of the largest battle scenes ever filmed. Many museums in the USSR contributed artifacts for the production design, making it one of the most elaborate films ever created.
In relating Tolstoy's complex tale of Napoleon's invasion of Russia, Bondarchuk helmed some of the most graphic battle scenes ever seen, one of which runs nearly 45 minutes. So many horses were killed in these sequences that the film was loudly boycotted in some American cities by the ASPCA.
War and Peace was one of the first films in the USSR to be shot and released in 70 mm. The process was called Sovscope 70 in the USA and Europe, and was the Soviet version of Todd-AO, a large camera/presentation format with 6-channel stereophonic sound. There are many hand held shots in the film, which are difficult to achieve with a 70 mm camera. However, a special lightweight camera was devised for this film (which can be seen on the bonus DVD of the Ruscico release). The camera resembles a Bolex camera, and its magazine takes up most of the camera body.
Theatrical and television exhibition
In the USSR, the film was released in 4 parts, with a total running time of 484 minutes (8 hours); a longer running time of 511 minutes is a miscalculation based on longer length of 70 mm prints[citation needed]:
For the US release, the film was shortened by more than an hour and shown in two parts: in some cities, part one was shown for one week and part two the next. However, the US screenings retained the four part structure by dividing part one into two chapters (entitled 'Natasha and Andrei' and 'The Battle of Austerlitz'). Part two was similarly divided into chapters entitled 'Natasha and Pierre' and 'The Burning of Moscow'. The run time of part one was three and a half hours, and part two was three hours both of these include fifteen minute intermissions between the named chapters. The film was dubbed into English with a linking narration, both of which were decried by some reviewers.
War and Peace 1st part soviet poster
In August 1972, the film was shown in the U.S. in a four-part presentation on ABC-TV.[2]
Video releases
War and Peace was released initially on VHS in the truncated US cut, with dubbing and pan and scan. Recently, it has been released on DVD in its original length, original language, and original aspect ratio by Ruscico, a Russian/Belgian company specializing in Russian cinema. This version is also available from Image Entertainment in the US.
The Ruscico release was made possible by a major restoration effort undertaken in 1988 by Mosfilm studios using an anamorphically compressed 35 mm copy of the original negative. The original 70 mm film elements were unavailable at the time, stored somewhere in the Ukraine, their condition unknown due to a feud over Bondarchuk's legacy between post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine.[3] As a result, the restored film (and associated video) was derived from the 35 mm copy.
Awards
Notes
See also
References
External links
