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The Storm of History: Sergei Bundarchuk’s War and Peace
The movies now give us an “epic” nearly every week of the year. Digital technology, corporate budgets and the public’s own, current thirst for shallow escapism have paved the way for visions both ludicrous and wondrous. Chiseled, tattooed ruffians bestrode kraken-like monsters in Aquaman, cyborgs levitate from futuristic cities buried in trash in Alita: Battle Angel. But what do these films have to say? As we wallow in popcorn excess, Janus Films restores and re-releases the grandest, deepest epic of all, Sergei Bondarchuk’s War and Peace. Made in 1967, it shames everything, and I mean absolutely everything, playing at the ArcLight today. Slated for a June release on DVD and Blu-Ray by the Criterion Collection, it is touring various arthouse spots and must be seen on a proper, wide canvas. Your humble correspondent was lucky enough to catch such a screening at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica. It will grace the Egyptian in Hollywood on April 27.
If the average Marvel movie runs about 2 hours and 22 minutes, Bondarchuk’s sweeping rendition of Leo Tolstoy’s immortal novel clocks in at about 7 hours. It was a product of the Cold War, when political rivalry made for leaps in artistic ambition. In 1956 King Vidor directed an American adaptation of War and Peace starring the very un-Tolstoyan cast of Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda and Mel Ferrer. It was produced by Italian guru Dino De Laurentiis, a cutthroat known for his devotion to the gods of commercialism. Not content with…
