Let's be realistic.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Anyone who has read, as I read, the entire book "War and Peace", has a clear idea of ​​the enormous work that must have done to make this film. Its probably one of the most complex war dramas ever written and the largest dramatic book I have ever read. It's not my bedside book, but it's certainly one of my favorites when it comes to Russian literature. Directed by King Vidor (who transformed this film into his greatest masterpiece), he has Audrey Hepburn (in the role of Natasha), Henry Fonda (as Pierre) and Mel Ferrer (as Prince Andrei).The script is very faithful to the book and seeks to make a legitimate adaptation. However, its very slow, giving too much emphasis and spending too much time on certain scenes without need, and it lacks emotions and strength, being unable to thrill or grab our attention. Perhaps the complexity of the original material has caused so many difficulties for the writing team that they have not been able to handle it in the best way. As for the actors, I liked Audrey Hepburn, she knew how to give life and joy to her character, but I expected more from Mel Ferrer, he did not understand his character. I hated Henry Fonda... he had one of the most psychologically rich characters in the novel and simply was unable to deal with it. It was a clear casting error.The film has excellent war scenes and portrays very well the armies but always without emotion or danger, in a very warm manner. The costumes and scenarios fill my expectations and have taken great attention with detail and realism, which is quite pleasant. Cinematography is quite pleasant, although it exaggerates in brightness sometimes. Nino Rota is responsible for the soundtrack and did a good job. Anyway, as this movie has the worst sound effects I've heard in movies, I will not criticize the soundtrack.

As with most literary adaptations, it is fundamentally pointless to speculate on the extent to which King Vidor's memorable movie either departs from or reproduces the themes and style of Tolstoy's source- text. Film and literature are fundamentally different media and should be treated as such.What is perhaps more suggestive is to look at this version of WAR AND PEACE in its context of production. Napoleon (Herbert Lom) has the desire to invade Russia and hence expand the scope and range of the French Empire, just like Hitler had imagined fifteen years before the film's release. Initial success was followed by ultimate failure, as the Russians, spearheaded in the film by Field Marshal Kutzorov (Oscar Homolka), fight a war of attrition, eschewing direct combat in favor of occasional guerrilla raids. Napoleon cannot understand his opponents' behavior: no one will come to sign an official surrender. Eventually he is forced to withdraw, and his troops have to complete a 3000+ kilometer journey out of Russia while enduring the exigencies of winter. With little or no capacity for resistance, they are easily overrun by Dolokhov (Helmut Dantine) and his forces. Vidor's film offers a powerful denunciation of dictators, who are often so crazed with ambition that they have little or no concern either for military logistics or for the welfare of their forces. Napoloeon, like Hitler, gets what he deserves.Yet WAR AND PEACE is equally critical of the Russian side. Natasha Rostova (Audrey Hepburn) inhabits a bourgeois society where outward show matters: as in many latter-day Austen adaptations, most members of her class spend their time trying to see and be seen at balls. Vidor includes several dance-sequences that might be pretty to look at, but suggest the trivialities of the Russian world; even though the French army are drawing nearer and nearer, no one seems to be taking any notice. Eventually her lover Prince Andrei Bolkonsky (Mel Ferrer) is sent away to the front and discovers the realities of life. Natasha has a brief fling with another man, but comes to discover the realities of life when she and her family are forced to evacuate Moscow to avoid being annihilated.The film contains some spectacular battle-sequences, no more so when the French and Russian forces meet, and Pierre Bezukhov (Henry Fonda) tours the Russian battle-lines and discovers to his cost just how hellish the world of combat can be. Having been taken prisoner by the French, he is marched back to France with the departing forces, where he meets a fellow-prisoner Platon Karataev (John Mills) and discovers a way to survive even in a world seemingly crashing to destruction around him.WAR AND PEACE contains a happy ending of sorts, as Pierre and Natasha reunite after several years apart, but the scene of utter destruction facing them makes it a Pyrrhic happiness. The only way they can survive - as the film reminds us in a title-card taken from Tolstoy's novel - is to love life itself, and accept all that it can throw at us with equanimity. This might have seemed a rather optimistic message during the mid-Fifties, at a time when US-Soviet relations were lukewarm, to say the least, but it still holds sway today.Vidor's film is extremely long, but sustains our attention throughout. Definitely worth watching if time and attention permit.

WAR AND PEACE is an attempt to turn the sprawling epic of the Tolstoy novel into something approaching movie length, although at over three hours this is a long slog. I haven't read the original novel, but speaking to somebody who has, this adaptation misses out plenty.And yet, despite the lengthy running time, this is a movie which feels surprisingly hollow and empty in places. The moral complexity and character depth of the novel is missing, leaving in its place one-dimensional characters who are carried through sweeping panoramas and tumultuous events. Case in point: Audrey Hepburn's character, reduced to a vacuous airhead for much of the running time.There are pluses here, of course, not least Henry Fonda and Mel Ferrer, two dependable and entertaining characters - even if they are miscast! The film is also well shot, and the various battle sequences have an epic feel to them, even though the tactics are non-existent. It's hard to dislike a film featuring Herbert Lom as Napoleon, either. However, as an adaptation, WAR AND PEACE is far from definitive.

I refer to the oft running joke about the time it (apparently) takes to read the full Tolstoy novel. The width refers to the slight flabbiness of its storytelling and obvious cuts and constricts to allow for its stellar Anglo/American cast.My DVD was a Korean release, which you need to go into the menu to turn off their subtitles and set it to 'none'. It does seem strange that such a famous and widely respected and loved epic, in probably its most popular 'Hollywood' format just doesn't seem to be more widely available.I'm also probably the only person to have seen, in its five disc entirety, the 1967 Russian Oscar Winner, directed by Sergei Bondarchuk before this far more accessible one. I'm no literary expert but this one here is easier to follow (the subtitles on the Russian one are impossible at times and some of the dialogue is in French but not subtitled!) and the narrative jumps about confusingly.It's always great to see our favourite actors - when we are not sure or enjoying the story less, we can savour and immerse ourselves in their familiarity and in this case, Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda are two of mine and many others' all-time favourites.Whilst the legendary Jack Cardiff takes the reigns with the cameras here and his Technicolor is deep, sumptuous and rich, for once, even he is vastly overshadowed by the Russian epic, which has three chief cinematographers! and has some of the most beautiful, majestic and uplifting images ever recorded, including the legendary hiring of the actual Red Army as extras for the awe-inspiring battle scenes.Back to this King Vidor adaptation - for my fairly ignorant eyes and palate, it is more measured and the dialogue less 'free', almost monosyllabic and starchy. The costumes are regal and splendid of course and the period detail of a impeccable standard one would expect.All in all, I find much of this War and Peace a bit flat-footed and without the spirit of the 8 hour epic. The mixture of accents don't always help either but the story does get told, clearly and concisely, which is the main thing, I suppose.