User reviews

Russia, the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century. Tzar Peter, much ahead of his times, attempts at turning his country into the modern world. However, it is a real hardship to achieve the goals. He has to cope with conspiracies, even in his own family, and the objection from the church and the mob. That's more or less a brief summary of the mini series Peter the Great. Although the movie entails several serious historical inaccuracies, a viewer does get a general picture of the Russia of that time, of tzar Peter and his genius. What is more, it is very good as a movie.

Any director has the right to change something in history, interpret it in his/her own way. That is no problem. The real distortion comes when there is a travesty of the times and of historic figures. But that is out of question when applied to this movie.

The action is great! The mini series, though quite long, is made in such a way that once you start watching it, you will watch it till the end. The director's main focus is the figure of tzar Peter, his life, his goals, his dreams for Russia, and his disappointments. Looking from this perspective, the movie is a masterpiece, highly underrated. In most of the scenes with Peter, one can follow his thoughts, his experience with ruling, his goals that are hopelessly destroyed by the patriarchs, who say that Peter lost his soul, the blind mob, and, most tragically, his son Alexis. I can't forget the scene when Peter says "I've lost my son. He doesn't love me" The tzar Peter is beautifully portrayed by two actors: young Jan Niklas, really worth noticing, and Maximilian Schell, and undoubtable talent, not only as an actor but as a director too (see for instance his Erste Liebe).

Other cast are also very, very good. Lawrence Olivier as the English king, William of Orange, Trevor Howard as Sir Isaac Newton (consider Peter's memorable meeting with Sir Newton); Ursula Andress as Athalie, and especially, Vanessa Redgrave as Peter's rebellious sister Sophia. She plays equally well as in another Russian epic, Young Catherine (1991) by Michael Anderson with Julia Ormond in the main role.

I want to make one more notice about the movie. There are a lot of scenes that the movie is worth watching for. But especially, watch the part that shows Peter's journey to Europe. Marvin J. Chomsky wonderfully presents a huge contrast between the Europe of that time and Russia. Then, you will definitely understand his goals...

Peter the Great is a Russian epic that is highly underrated and seriously forgotten. The movie is very well made, it gives a clear picture of that reality, and a memorable interpretation of Peter's life. The whole story proves one sad fact very clearly:

Great people are usually GREAT after their death! Isn't that an irony of human fate?

The movie is fantastic -great plot, superb acting and characterization, fantastic sets, costumes and music. BUT It is historically very inaccurate - Peter suffered from bouts of temporary insanity. Far from betraying him his first wife was madly in love with him and bombarded him with love letters througout his European tours. Also ironically (remember Omar Sharif's comment on Peter being strong and Ivan weak) most of Peter's twenty something children died in infancy - Ivan produced a flock of children and grandchildren.

I read a prior comment and was rather shocked. I was always taught that if entertainment becomes too like real-life, it ceases to be entertainment. That one should suspend one's disbelief for the term of the film - unless the film is claiming to be a documentary or to be of educational value.

Anyhow, I am not a Russian ex-patriot. I'm an American, born and bred. I loved this movie! My father is an History professor. I was well aware that the film was not entirely historically accurate. I will grant you that by 1986, one would wish to have a bit more accuracy regarding the major historical events.

I must disagree that there was a prophetic quality to the 'visionary aspects' of the character Peter the Great. I felt that it came across more as a burning passion. He seemed better educated and thus possessed of a better understanding of what the 'Western European' knowledge/technology could do to help strengthen Russia.

Maximilian Schell is perfect in this role! Although he is a Austrian actor, he is the epitome of a burly Russian Czar.

If you are looking for historical accuracy - look elsewhere. If you are looking for an intense, sweep-me-away drama filled with riveting acting - you've chosen well.

I keep checking to see if this marvelous production has been transferred to DVD, but so far no luck. Vanessa Redgrave wonderfully portrays Sophie. Maximillian Schell (always good) is equally mesmerizing as Peter the Great. The production as a whole is faithful to Raymond Massie's book (same title) which I read twice many years ago. Having the smaller parts played by the likes of Omar Sharif, Laurence Olivier, and Trevor Howard is a real plus.

Peter's struggles with the Streltsy and the Boyars is faithfully portrayed. There is a pedestal in Red Square where the executions supposedly occurred. Peter the Great single handedly dragged Russia from Asia into Europe. He established the Russian navy and his first ship building effort is housed in a museum outside Moscow. I've seen the ship, but could never verify whether it was the original or a copy.

I found this TV min-series to be absolutely superb. The acting by the international cast was excellent and the costumes seemed like they belonged to the time period. It is a great, sweeping story about one of the greatest monarchs of all time and this film does not disappoint. The filming in Russia I think made the movie all that much more convincing.

It may be subject to the criticism that it is not completely historically accurate, but then the point of the mini-series is to entertain with a delightful story and I think it is understood that some freedom to re-write the history is acceptable. The main outline is correct and the characters look and act the part well.

I do not make this rating lightly. I have it on a VHS tape I bought years ago and still watch it often. I highly recommend it. Find it on the Internet and buy it. That's my recommendation.

Vanessa Redgrave plays a brilliantly wicked Sophia in this mini epic. I just purchased this film and watched all 6 1/2 hours in one setting and believe me, it didn't feel that long. The acting was good, and the story kept my interest. I'm surprised Maximilian Schell wasn't nominated for an emmy. Redgrave, as I stated, was just wicked and her facial movements were classic and evil as she watched Peter move up. I would greatly recommend this film for anyone. I've never been interested in Peter the Great, so this was a very interesting film that, as I've read, was full of falsehoods, which most bio pics are. I will admit that I purchased this because of Redgrave and so didn't know what to expect. It was, once again, a great film. Also, whoever did the make-up deserved that win, if i remember correctly, because when they aged Redgrave she looks exactly the way she does now. A must see for anyone with a free day.

I saw in childhood, not knowing very much about the main character. But the performance of Maximilian Schell, like the couple scenes, impressive for violence are, today, after almost 40 years, fresh in my memory.

After a time, I saw it again. And, against the mistakes about history events, the powerful emotion , the high interest were sustained by the beautiful acting, the impressive cast.

A film about power and its status of heart of radical transformation of a too old world.

The sketch of portrait for an extraordinary man , crafting his destiny.

And, near the effort from Judgment at Nurnberg, a great role created by admirable Maximilian Schell.

The Polish commentator (see above) has it right. Some of the facts may be inaccurate but this is a superb film, visually and dramatically.Most important, the basic theme of a brilliant but eccentric and sometimes viciously cruel ruler who despite all of his shortcomings is determined to drag his country into a modern world is undoubtedly correct.Roosevelt and Churchill would have loved him. The Massie novel has been described as one of the most illuminating portraits ever of Russia as it really is.Too bad old Karl XII (actually it was a Swedish General namedLoewenhaupt) lost the battle of Poltava, but he did. And when Karlhimself fell victim to a stray battlefield bullet a few years later,one of his senior officers commented, "Gentlemen, the comedy is over."

Nobody mentioned in their reviews that the wonderful Lilli Palmer played Natalia, the mother of Peter the Great, which gave her a golden globe nomination for best support, though she died before the TV miniseries aired on TV... Yes this was her last performance after a Forty year career in films TV and theater around the world.. She is terrific and her last scene, her death scene, is particularly poignant.. There has been criticism that the miniseries is not historically correct. OK but its a miniseries, not a serious documentary and so poetic justice is expected and acceptable. They did get the idea of who Peter was and what he did for Russia and that is what is most important. A wonderful cast in this lavish production and a marvelous chance to see the still beautiful Miss Palmer in her last role, even though she was already apparently dying of cancer and quite ill during the shoot. IT is a shame she did not live to see her nomination, which she lost.

This is a hard-to-find NBC TV mini-series from the eighties. The film is a very well-made historical (true) period drama, in six hours, a super-production relating the life and times of czar Peter the Great of Russia, with a stellar ensemble cast including Laurence Olivier, Vanessa Redgrave, Omar Sharif, Mel Ferrer, Ursula Andress, and Elke Sommer, some of them in cameo roles, but they look great in period costumes. Peter the Great is powerfully portrayed by Jan Niklas (younger czar) and Maximillian Schell (adult czar) with Maximillian Schell giving the character epic proportions in the latter years.

The series is unpretentiously directed by Marvin Chomsky, with attention to detail to the prevailing conditions and settings of the times: For instance one does not feel artificial light was used at any time, as all filming seems to have been done outdoors in natural light or indoors with chandeliers and candle lights. The Director of photography is Vittorio Storaro who is the cinematographer of such visual feasts as "The Last Emperor", "Apocalypse Now", and "The Sheltering Sky". This mini-series was filmed on location in the ex-USSR (Russia) when it was under Communism, with artistic and technical assistance of an extended Russian crew, which was, at the time, a remarkable example of cultural cooperation between East and West. I hope this film will be digitally remastered, it deserves it, and it would be advisable to affix a (12) rating on the DVD due to scenes of some violence and mild intimate encounters, and of course include side features perhaps by contributors to the original series at the time. This must be one of the best ever made-for-TV historical films, and a great entertainment with palace intrigues, power politics, passionate relationships, and men and women who changed the course of history.

I liked this series very much although it started to drag during part 4. I was vaguely familiar with Russian history and thought the series was accurate; that is until I read some of the comments from those truly knowledgeable of Russian history.

But my main contribution to this forum is to recount what my wife (a Russian) said about the movie as we watched it. First of all, how would we Americans like it if a movie about Abraham Lincoln portrayed him as a man of average height? Peter the Great was about 6'8" or 6'9". She also wishes that they would have shown how Russians built boats in the North and had to carry them a long way over land (I think she meant when they attacked the Turks at Azov). The movie also neglected to show how Peter established Universities and sent students to study in Europe.

And as one other person commented, I wish they would have shown more of St. Petersburg and how it was built.

It seems that there is enough material here for a ten part series rather than four.

The production of this series is top notch and a treat. The sets, the snow, the costumes, everything is brilliant.

The casting and acting are respectable as well, although I'd have liked to see a taller, fitter Peter. At one point an out of shape Schell huffs while liting an axe then wields it with the wrong hand. Peter, always described as tall, strong and with boundless energy, would disapprove.

What truly lets down this series however is the scriptwriting. Here you have a great story, a stellar cast, and all the right ingredients, but the screenplay is a series of shockingly fake sounding set pieces. It's just a mystery to me with all the nice things this movie has to offer why they couldnt have come up with a better script.

After the battle of Poltava, Menshikov says to Peter, "You have saved Moscow" and Peter says, "We have secured our access to the sea". Really? You're gonna announce the conclusions of a battle you just fought like you wrote a term paper? This sort of thing abounds in the series. Another example is the highly unnecessary and historically doubtful "Peter in Newton's lab" scene. It's like their research dug up that Newton was around at the same time Peter was in England, and hey let's have them meet. Then it's also the struggle between keeping things chronological yet interesting, which kinda falls flat. Peter talks about St. Petersburg from a rather early age, and builds it only towards the end of the movie. It's never really shown. That is like one of his most interesting achievements and the screenplay pays it the usual lip service.

This could have been so much better.

Peter the Great, from the perspective of an AP European History student: I was surprised any production agency would pursue creating such a powerful movie on a topic destined never to be watched for entertainment. Any viewers strapped to a chair and forced to watch this movie will probably groan (if they are truly cultureless), but will leave that chair in tears. This emotional 3 video series is a true classroom hit which everybody should be proud to display in their home video collection.

Those were the times! When this exciting mini-series about Russia's Tsar Peter the Great was broadcast on the West German television station ARD in Advent 1986, we were in the heyday of American mini-series such as "North and South" and "The Winds of War".

The life and work of Peter the Great was presented in four parts with an exuberant star cast. What a shine! What a treat!

And the great thing was that many stars from German-speaking countries were also used. In those years, many Russian roles were often cast by German-speaking actors. And this despite the fact that - thanks to Gorbachev - some scenes could already be filmed in Moscow. Further scenes were shot in beautiful Vienna, at Schönbrunn Palace.

To the actors! First of all, the great West German actor Jan Niklas (*1947) must be mentioned as the young Tsar Peter. His powerful and intense playing caused enthusiasm not only in the USA. Jan Niklas was rightly nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Mini-Series in 1987.

ACADEMY AWARD winner Maximilian Schell (1930-2014) was seen as older Peter. The Fassbinder heroine Hanna Schygulla (Silver Bear at the BERLINALE 1979 for THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN) played the Tsar's long-time lover and second wife.

Also there were: Vanessa Redgrave as the scheming Tsar's sister, Omar Sharif and Helmut Griem (1932-2004) as friends and advisors, Laurence Olivier as the King of England, Trevor Howard as Isaac Newton, the Golden Globe winners Ursula Andress and Elke Sommer (as Queen of Prussia), Renee Soutendijk (Peter's lover as a carpenter in the Netherlands), Mel Ferrer, Ulli Philipp, Günther Maria Halmer and the Kassel-born ZAUBERBERG (1982) star Christoph Eichhorn (*1957) as King of Sweden . What a cast!

At the time of broadcast, the great actress Lilli Palmer (1914-1986) had been dead for almost a year. She was posthumously nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in a Mini-Series in 1987 for her touching role as the Tsar's Mother. That would have been the deserved crowning of a fantastic career!

While filming in Moscow, main actor Maximilian Schell met and fell in love with his future wife, Natalya Andrejchenko. In the series they were also a married couple, but a more than unhappy one. At the time, that was a welcome ray of hope in the darkness of the Cold War. Three years later the world would look completely different...

One of the most beautiful mini-series of the 1980s! Absolute recommendation!

This melodramatic Russian patriotic mini-series is supposed to depict the life of Peter the Great but purposely skips the most important incidents of the era. Much worse however is the way it attempts to re-write history to make Russia appear the helpless victim of an imperialistic and aggressive Sweden (at the time a Great Power in Europe), when in reality a weakened Sweden was attacked by a Russian/Polish/Danish alliance.

The Swedish king, Karl XII, is depicted as a foppish young womanizer, which is about as far from the truth you can come. At the same time, Peter is shown as a balanced visionary, with the prophetic (and ominous) vision that Russia's future (expansion) lies in the West. While it is true that Peter was in a sense the father and architect of modern Russia, he was also a drunkard and a ruthless imperialist. Furthermore the battles that are covered by the mini-series have basis in reality only as to the locations and the final outcomes (the Swedish army was always outnumbered by at least 3-1, had to attack heavy fortifications at Poltava, etc).

Few people realize just how pivotal this forgotten war between Sweden and the Russian alliance actually was. Had Sweden won (which it very nearly did), St. Petersburg would never have been built, Russia would have had no access to the Baltic Sea, and would likely have lost some territory as well as a huge sum of money - it would probably never have become the Great Power we know today. I can only recommend this mini-series to romantic Russian patriots and imperialists, who will no doubt swallow this falsified account of history without too much trouble.

for accuracy and for acting. for care for details and music. sure, for Maximilien Schell in one of his greatest roles. a film like a history lesson, who escapes from artistic temptation effects for present a character and his period, the huge pieces of a work and the life as alive parable. a film about transition and ambitions.and about lessons of a manner to transform a society. far to be a pink picture, it is a good example about the force of accuracy.great cast, wise script. a show and little more. because it present more than a page of Russian history but a portrait of a struggle. a seductive mini-series. and a great occasion for discover the freshness of history air history.