Based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy this film essentially revolves around four different characters during the time leading up to the war between Russia and France under "Napoleon Bonaparte" (Herbert Lom). As the film starts out "Pierre Bezukhov" (Henry Fonda) is a troubled young man who agonizes over the fact that he is illegitimate and not accepted by his wealthy father. He is also a pacifist and one of the few Russians who happens to be an admirer of Napoleon. This particular opinion puts him at odds with his very close friend "Prince Andrei Bolkonsky" (Mel Ferrer) who is an officer in the Russian Army and holds a set of ideals which Pierre wishes he could emulate. The fourth character is an enthusiastic, young woman of nobility by the name of "Natasha Rostov" (Audrey Hepburn) who everybody likes due to her warm and positive disposition. What none of these people realize is just how badly all of their long-held beliefs and values will be sorely tested as the French Army steadily advances toward Moscow. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that--although this movie was quite long (approximately 203 minutes)--it failed to capture the depth of the great novel due in large part to the exclusion of numerous other characters written about by the author. Of course, to include all of them would have taken an enormous amount of time and effort which would probably have been better suited for a mini-series than the current format. Be that as it may, this was still a decent film for the most part and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.
Review of War and Peace
