That's one of the few good lines, and director Vidor might have written it, as he's one of eight(!) credited screenwriters. Perhaps it occurred to him because he had quite a few excellent excuses himself to explain the mortal sin that is this movie:
1. Money: It was co-produced by Paramount and Ponti/Di Laurentiis, so he had not one but two companies looking over his shoulder.
2. Location: It's all shot in Italy, which explains the terrible sound editing (Italy didn't film with sound, they added it in post-production) and even worse lip-syncing.
3. Acting: The minor roles are mostly filled by worthy British and Italian actors (I except the scenery-chewers, Anita Ekberg and Milly Vitali, especially the latter, whose Lisa Bolkonsky can't die soon enough). As for the leads: All-American Fonda doesn't embarrass himself, but that's the best that can be said. Natasha was a bit beyond Hepburn's range, but she shines anyway. But casting Mel Ferrer as Prince Andrei Bolkonsky is catastrophic; Ferrer should have done Hollywood a favor and remained a dialog coach.
4. Story: Suffice to say that the legendary scene where Napoleon saves Prince Andrei (one of fiction's greatest characters played by one of cinema's lamest actors) on the battlefield is reduced to a meaningless incident in the plot.
5. Music. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate Nino Rota. But if ever a film demanded Russian choral music, it's this one.
Still, no excuses, however excellent, can entirely vindicate Vidor. I had just finished reading the new translation of the novel, so I gave his epic-well, maybe I should just say "long"-movie a shot when it was on TCM recently. It turns out, a shot would have been the humane thing to do.
NB in April 2022: I have now seen the 7-hour Russian epic by Sergey Bondarchuk, which makes this version even more deplorable.
1. Money: It was co-produced by Paramount and Ponti/Di Laurentiis, so he had not one but two companies looking over his shoulder.
2. Location: It's all shot in Italy, which explains the terrible sound editing (Italy didn't film with sound, they added it in post-production) and even worse lip-syncing.
3. Acting: The minor roles are mostly filled by worthy British and Italian actors (I except the scenery-chewers, Anita Ekberg and Milly Vitali, especially the latter, whose Lisa Bolkonsky can't die soon enough). As for the leads: All-American Fonda doesn't embarrass himself, but that's the best that can be said. Natasha was a bit beyond Hepburn's range, but she shines anyway. But casting Mel Ferrer as Prince Andrei Bolkonsky is catastrophic; Ferrer should have done Hollywood a favor and remained a dialog coach.
4. Story: Suffice to say that the legendary scene where Napoleon saves Prince Andrei (one of fiction's greatest characters played by one of cinema's lamest actors) on the battlefield is reduced to a meaningless incident in the plot.
5. Music. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate Nino Rota. But if ever a film demanded Russian choral music, it's this one.
Still, no excuses, however excellent, can entirely vindicate Vidor. I had just finished reading the new translation of the novel, so I gave his epic-well, maybe I should just say "long"-movie a shot when it was on TCM recently. It turns out, a shot would have been the humane thing to do.
NB in April 2022: I have now seen the 7-hour Russian epic by Sergey Bondarchuk, which makes this version even more deplorable.