War and Peace

A story of a warfront and a ballroom, a pretty romance and one of the most brutal depictions of war, the grandest scales and the most personal intamicies. Of war and peace... 1965 was a very good time for the USSR, you were looking to thrash the Space Race, you weren't too poor yet, the Americans were losing the Vietnam War but they were lacking in one major flaw. The Arts, there wasn't a Russian Beatles, no Polish Hitchcock, Russia had always and at the time was the superior country in the arts of beauty and 'high art' but they never had the answer to Hollywood. So in comes War And Peace, the greatest novel ever, and the most boastful film ever. I may refer to Edgar Cochran's review for the list of the scale and how huge this film was both on the screen and in the theaters but it is impossible to pass you by when you watch it, the amount of jaw dropping images that stretch for miles on your eyes, the detail in every shot. It's like Barry Lyndon with an extra cloning machine. The film gets better as you engulf yourself in its atmosphere, and even better when seeing it as a whole (hence my ratings only average to 4¼ for the series) the film showcases Russia in all of its beauty in all of its 7 hour runtime. Every opening credits flashing upon imagery of the wilderness. I'm not going to take down the story of War And Peace but do just know that it's War And Peace, and it truly is the film that deserves to take on Tolstoy. I watched the 4 parts over 4 days but would watch this over 1 day for sure