War and Peace (1965)

Won 1 Oscar
- 5 wins & 3 nominations total

Top cast99+

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Lyudmila Saveleva

Natasha Rostova

Vyacheslav Tikhonov

Prince Andrei Bolkonsky

Sergey Bondarchuk

Pierre Bezukhov

Boris Zakhava

Field Marshal Kutuzov

Anatoli Ktorov

Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky

Anastasiya Vertinskaya

Princess Lise Bolkonskaya

Antonina Shuranova

Princess Maria Bolkonskaya

Oleg Tabakov

Nikolai Rostov

Viktor Stanitsyn

Ilya Andreyevich Rostov

Irina Skobtseva

Hélène Bezukhova

Boris Smirnov

Prince Vasili Kuragin

Vasiliy Lanovoy

Anatol Kuragin

Kira Golovko

Countess Rostova

Irina Gubanova

Sonia Rostova

Aleksandr Borisov

Uncle Rostov

Oleg Efremov

Dolokhov

Giuli Chokhonelidze

Prince Bagration

Vladislav Strzhelchik

Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte

Director
- Sergey Bondarchuk
Writers
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Trivia
Sergey Bondarchuk created meticulous recreations of battles of the Napoleonic Wars. The Battle of Borodino against the Napoleon's invasion is the largest battle scene ever filmed.

Goofs
When some of the characters are attending the opera, "L'incoronazione di Poppea" by Claudio Monteverdi is being performed. It premiered in Venice in 1642, but by the time that the story takes place (ca. 1807), it had been lost and all but forgotten. A score wasn't rediscovered until 1888, and the first modern performance was given in 1905. The anachronism is probably intentional since Monteverdi's tale of the destructiveness of erotic desire foreshadows the events immediately after that scene.

Quotes
Platon Karataev: Lord, lay me down like a stone and raise me up like new bread.

Alternate versions
There are three different versions: The American release, a 360 minute film in two parts (dubbed in English). The Russian release, a series of four films totaling 403 minutes (see also Vojna i mir I: Andrei Bolkonsky (1965), Vojna i mir II: Natasha Rostova (1966), Vojna i mir III: 1812 god (1967) and Vojna i mir IV: Pierre Bezukhov (1967)). Most reviews (including Leonard Maltin's) list this film's running time as 507 minutes; this is a mistake due to the longer lengths of 70mm prints.

Connections
Edited from War and Peace, Part I: Andrei Bolkonsky (1965)

Soundtracks
Prologue
(uncredited)
from "L'Incoronazione di Poppea"
Composed by Claudio Monteverdi
Written by Giovanni Francesco Busenello

I remember seeing this film without a break back in the 1970s in Greenwich Village. It's a grand work of art. The movie started around 9pm and ended 5:00 am. It was snowing outside. I felt we had all lived through the War with Napoleon, seeing Natasha grow (the movie took so long to make that the young actress visibly grew before our eyes), and confronting the issues of war and peace.

It was in Russian with English subtitles. That was better than the TV version some years later that was overdubbed. The feeling of the actors didn't come through in that broadcast.

The music was extraordinary. There was a certain waltz that intrigued me. Saw the other War and Peace with Audrey Hepburn that just could not compare to it. It was too lame.

Nothing in film today can compare to those battle scenes. Nowadays, such scenes are too computerized.