War and Peace (1968 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

War and Peace
Original russian film poster
Directed by	Sergei Bondarchuk
Produced by	Mosfilm studios, Goskino USSR
Written by	Leo Tolstoy (novel), Sergei Bondarchuk, Vasili Solovyov
Starring	Lyudmila Savelyeva, Vyacheslav Tikhonov, Sergei Bondarchuk
Distributed by	Kultur International Films
Release date(s)	28 April 1968
Running time	484 min.
Language	Russian, some French
Budget	~ $100,000,000 (560,000,000 with inflation)
IMDb profile

War and Peace (Russian: Война и мир; Vojna i mir) is a Soviet-produced film adaptation of the Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. Sergei Bondarchuk directed the film, co-wrote the screenplay and starred in the role of Pierre.

The film took 7 years to produce and cost over $100 million. It has been estimated that if inflation is taken into account, a film of this magnitude would cost over $500 million today,[1] making War and Peace arguably the most expensive film ever made [2].

1 Production
2 Theatrical exhibition
3 Video releases
4 Awards
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Production

Pre-production started on Mosfilm in 1961, and filming commenced in 1963.

War and Peace DVD cover

According to the Guiness 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 sumptuous films ever created.

War and Peace was one of the first films in the USSR to be shot in 70 mm (the official process was called "Sovscope 70" in the USA, the Soviet version of "TODD-AO", a large camera/presenation format (65/70mm) 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 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 the magazine takes up most of the camera, making the camera very lightweight.

[edit] Theatrical 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]}:

Part 1 - Andrei Bolkonsky
Part 2 - Natasha Rostova, running time 255 minutes, released 1965
Part 3 - 1812, running time 104 minutes, released 1966
Part 4 - Pierre Bezukhov, running time 125 minutes, released 1966.

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') with a fifteen minute intermission between them. 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. 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

[edit] 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 restored to its original length, original language, and original aspect ratio by RUSCICO, a Russian/Belgian DVD company specializing in Russian cinema. This version is available from Image Entertainment in the US.

The film was restored in 1988, from surviving studio 35mm elements. The original 70mm film elements are unavailable, stored somewhere in the Ukraine, their condition unknown due to feud over Bondarchuk's legacy between post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine.^{[citation needed]} As a result the film is only printable in 35mm and available on video.