Like all other film versions of Nikolai Gogol's great novel "Taras Bulba", this film also completely misses the point. Gogol's novel is actually a great tragedy of a father losing both his sons, dressed up in flamboyant style and splendid language, while both this English version, the Italian version of 1962 and the American version of that same year only take care of the flamboyancy of the story and ignore the abysmal tragedy. Here at least the film has taken care of Gogol's great element of humour. In this film the director has written the script himself, and this is a great theatre version which at least includes both his sons, which none of the other versions do, concentrating only on the romantic Andrei. Harry Baur as Taras Bulba is grotesquely exaggerated, like he is also in the Italian version, while Yul Brynner at least lives up to the true character and does him more than justice. Roger Livesey as the elder son Ostap, here renamed Peter, is unfortunately totally miscast, being more of a cheery good old lad than convincing as a Cossack. Anthony Bushell is better and more convincing as Andrei, although they both are too much of English gentlemen. The elder son is even given a Cossack sweetheart here, which neither the book nor the other versions do. The music is very good here, and one of the impressing scenes is a presentation of the Polish court with the nobles making a magnificent entry to a real Polonaise - both the other versions ignore the Polish element completely. There are also some magnificent cavalry scenes here, which obviously the American version made a note of and magnified to the extreme, making the film totally outshining the other versions in splendour and glory. The Italian version is the best one for the battle scenes, while here the director/script writer Adrian Brunel is taking gross liberties with the story, allowing the elder son to survive his father. The romantic scenes are more convincing here, while unfortunately even here the show is spoiled by some sentimentality, by making Taras Bulba's death a prolonged sobbing show - there is no sentimentality at all in Gogol's novel. In brief, this is a good theatre version, the Italian version is the best one for battle scenes, while the Yul Brynner version is the best for flamboyancy and the leading character.
Review of The Rebel's Son
