A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Tolstoys' in-depth and detailed novel is nothing to shrug off. The 3rd film focuses on the War of 1812 and more the specifically the battle at Borodino. The cinematography and man power involved is of epic proportions. These days we have technology and CGI to assist with film which makes it all the more impressive. The entire film is about 7 hours in length. I was mainly interested in the part of the film. Prince Andrei Bolkonsky struggles with the concept of death and is unsure of his purpose in life and what role if any he will play. Being a higher ranking person in the military he displays confidence and dedication to Russia yet inside is this battle through out the film. Pier Bezukhov is apart of the elite of Russian society and fancies himself a gentleman. This leads him to travel to the front lines and make some discoveries about him as a man he did not know. The depictions of the different class systems is illustrated perfectly for the time. You really get an understanding of how different every level of society was at the time. They were all in the same place same situation yet different dress and attitudes. Over all this is an excellent view of this battle and the most detailed telling I have encountered. Enjoy!

I don't see how anyone who has read War and Peace could enjoy this film, no matter how worthy it is. It completely misses the mark in every respect except for "costume drama" and "epic". Tolstoy's writing is so natural, so beautiful, so descriptive, and so illuminating that this adaptation seems sullen and superficial in every respect. The impressions that Tolstoy's writing creates are timeless - completely accessible to modern minds. But this production is weighted down in costumery and baroque frumpery. It starts badly, with a quotation from the epilogue that is meaningless out of its context, and it doesn't get any better from there. The early scenes are anemic representations of Tolstoy's magnificent scene-setting. Even the intimate little scenes, like the Rostov children in the garden, are completely wasted, barely providing any impression of that most impressionistic scene. I just couldn't stand watching this, scene by scene tarnishing every precious jewel that Tolstoy polished to perfection and left to posterity.

This is one real grand old fashioned epic movie, in basically every way imaginable. But how many people have actually ever heard or watched this movie? Surprisingly not nearly as much as it's deserving. It of course also has to do with the fact that this movie was made at the time of the cold war, so this movie wasn't largely viewed or available in the West. And of course its extreme long running time is also an element that prevents lots of people from watching this.Yes, you can view the movie in parts, since each part of the movie forms a new different 'chapter' (Chapter I: Andrey Bolkonskiy, chapter II: Natasha Rostova, chapter III: 1812 god, chapter IV: Pierre Bezukhov) of the story, focusing on another character, in either war or peace but its of course best and most effective to watch this movie as one whole. After all the chapters and characters are of course all connected. There are a couple of characters that appear- and connect the 4 stories. The chapter themselves also aren't at all times chronological with each other and its rather 4 different tellings and different point-of-views, each of them providing more in depth of the story and characters. Each chapter has of course its own qualities and some are more appealing than others for certain people. And even though the movie its running time is over 7 hours, it still is a movie that moves along just fine. Despite not having the most fast pace, it never drags.It's especially the contrast between the war and peace situations that makes the movie so epic and powerful in what it tries to achieve. Each chapter focuses on a different either war or peace situation. I think Tolstoy himself would had been pleased with this adaption of his novel.It's probably one of the, if not the, most expensive movie ever made but that's hard to really say because of the inflation. So it can't be really said how much this movie cost to make with today's money. The movie not in the least also was so expensive because it took years to make it. It was good to see that they didn't just only put all in the money in the battle sequences of the movie but also obviously in the overall look of the movie. The movie features some amazing large detailed sets and good, detailed, authentic looking costumes. But it of course are still the battle sequences that will impress the most. It will blow your mind. Ten-thousands of extra's were used during the big battle sequences. I keep saying this but it's always more impressive to see an extreme number of real humans charging than it is to watch a grand CGI-battle, no matter how realistic and impressive it all looks.What I also liked during the battles was that it in parts used the same style as '20's and '30's Russian genre movies, in its camera-work and style of editing mostly. No doubt an homage to the good old golden days of Russian cinema. But the movie overall also uses a great and unique unusual style at times. It uses lots of tricks in parts, such as split-screens and extreme fast editing, to often give the movie an unique and sort of surreal feeling. The movie would often also feature some extreme long shots, in which the camera moves all the way through the ballrooms or other rooms in the palaces or over the battlefield.The acting in the movie is also surprisingly great, as far as I'm able to judge that. I mean it's also hard to really judge the acting quality in a movie in a language that you don't speak or understand for yourself. Seemed to me that most of the actors in this movie are normally stage actors, which was a good and suiting acting style for this, of course sort of overblown, movie. The movie of course features a whole lot of characters but they all get the right required treatment and are deepened out. The long running time of course allowed this all to be possible. No way this movie would had worked out as good as it was just 'merely' a 3 hour epic.I think the fact that the movie won an Oscar for best foreign film, despite of the cold war at the time, shows how brilliant the movie is.10/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This is not a commentary on the actual movie, but on the RUSCICO DVD release for North America. I don't know if there have been different releases and updates, but the disks we rented had a 2000 copyright on them, if that means anything. Anyway, the sound mixing on these DVD's was absolutely horrible. The levels often yo-yo-ed up and down; when the scene cut to a battlefield panorama, the orchestral track would thunder so loudly that I didn't know which would blow out first -- my eardrums or my speakers. When it was time for dialog, the volume would usually drop to something barely audible. Occasionally, the orchestra and Foley-work would stay loud while the dialog was superimposed at a much lesser level. My wife and I found that the only way we could watch this movie at all from these DVD's was if one of us kept a hand on the remote to continuously modulate the volume. And, like another user has already commented, when we selected English audio the dialog kept switching back and forth between Russian and English; and occasionally when the characters spoke in French on the native track the dubbing was in Russian, so you're SOL if you understand neither. Ultimately, we gave up watching after the first disk. Before you fork out $50+ for this movie on DVD for your own library, I'd heartily recommend getting your hands on a rental copy to see whether you can really enjoy this epic flick when burdened by such bad sound, particularly if you've never read the book and really want to understand the storyline.