On Mon, 17 Jan 2022 03:18:35 -0800 (PST), David Read
Post by David ReadPost by SurreymanPost by Peter JasonThe Napoleonic one "The Duellists"was great and I always get a buzz
from historic costume dramas.
I'm trying to get my hands on the 1976 "War and Peace", the one
starring the whole Soviet army at a cost of $100millions or so, for
the stirring Battle of Borodino. The trick is to find the
remastered/restored version.
I saw that for real at the time. Our wargaming group travelled up to London on two successive days to see it - it was such a long film that it was split into two halves!
I got the 1965-67 Russian Bondarchuk version of "War and Peace" last year on DVD but still haven't got round to watching all of it.
There have been a couple of BBC versions now, from 1972 and 2016. I didn't care for the 2016 version much, and I certainly thought the "peace" bits in the 1972 version were far more engaging than those in the Bondarchuk version which seem rather ponderous to me. The battle scenes in the 1972 BBC version weren't bad either, but for sheer scale the Bondarchuk takes some beating (120,000 extras!)
Cheers,
David Read
I have tracked down what appears to be the Criterion version, all re
mastered, in Russian with Eng subtitles.
The are 4 episodes.....
https://filmsgraded.com/reviews/2021/03/waran1.htm
https://trailersfromhell.com/war-and-peace-1966/?fbclid=IwAR00vfj1bklIpoQjXhSsNmcSKKy3X4PEceq0VMKWIrDh_KHrKk38oN6e61M
.... and I have finished viewing the first two.
The restoration is magnificent.
I have an average 40" Sony TV and I cannot fault the visuals.
A must see!
Watch out for the Grand Ball in part two, and I'll watch part III
(Borodino) this week.