Review of War & Peace

There are at least three major filmed versions of the epic, sprawling Tolstoy masterpiece, and each offers particular pleasures. The King Vidor version made for Hollywood is short; otherwise, it offers a miscast Henry Fonda and a wistful Audrey Hepburn, who while lovely indeed, is out of her depth in a deeply tragic story. The Russian version which clocks in at somewhere about eight hours has lavish spectacle going for it, huge amounts of staged battle sequences which boggle the mind--and done without the use of CGI;its drawback is an often confusing script and, for contemporary English and American audiences, an over-the-top, occasionally hysterical acting style. This version is fifteen hours long and I found it followed the book carefully, and is loaded with fine performances, particularly Anthony Hopkins as the confused Pierre, bumbling through life in search of some spiritual catharsis; there are numerous other roles that become memorable from actors not familiar to most of us, and only Napoleon comes up short in a lackluster, thudding performance. Because this version was for BBC and not the movies, it looks a little spare now and then, but once the rhythm was set, I found it compelling and hugely satisfactory.