War and Peace
War and Peace
A seven-hour epic adaptation of the novel by Leo Tolstoy. The love story of young Countess Natasha Rostova and Count Pierre Bezukhov is interwoven with the Great Patriotic War of 1812 against Napoleon's invading army.
Mike reviewedOctober 11, 2024
War and Peace is an epic film on a grand scale like you have never seen before
"Success does not depend on positions or weapons nor even the number of men... It depends on the feeling within me, within him, within every soldier."
From the giant battles, huge environments, 103 filming locations, 300 characters with dialogue and 12.000 extra's... to the 6 year production time, big crew and 7 hour runtime. Literally everything about this film is massive.
War and Peace is split into 4 parts. The first, third and fourth part were excellent and felt coherent, because they all focussed on the war between Russia and France. The second part was about Natasha Rostova and was tonally different, because it focussed more on her romance. At first I thought the second part felt too out of place, but in the end it made more sense within the story as a whole. This film did not only accurately visualize the cruel deeds of mankind and war in general, but it also provided a different emotional element through Natasha's romance, which created an emotional contrast that gave the film more depth.
The overall story within the 7 hour runtime was very captivating and immersive. I expected the 7 hour runtime to drag, but this was not the case. I did notice some pacing issues throughout the film, which were mainly caused by an imbalance within the plot. It was noticable, but did not pull me out of the story.
With a runtime this long and a lot of actors with dialogue, interesting characters are a must. Luckily this film had this aspect on point for the most part. My favorite character was Pierre Bezukhof, because he had a very strong character arc that made his character the most interesting in the film. I really liked the relationship between Pierre and Natasha, because it gave his character more depth and created an emotional connection with him. This emotional connection added a whole new dimension to the third and fourth part.
There are still some characters that felt unnecessary within the story, like the young boy in the end for example, but this is just a minor complaint. The fact that all characters felt believable helped tremendously with the immersion during the 7 hours, especially during the battles.
Read full review at Letterboxd: Mike_v_E