What is most important when a director adapts a book is that he understand the soul of its author.
Bondarchuk, for all the painstaking epic granduer that he brings to War and Peace, decided to gut the moral core of the story, which shows that he never really understood the spiritual depths of Tolstoy.
The most important part of this story comes when Pierre Bezukhov is on the brink of moral collapse after witnessing the sacking of Moscow and the execution of innocent life. He has lost his faith in humanity and life as such, and the loss of meaning for a being so sensitive as Pierre signals that even his physical collapse is immanent.
It is here that he encounters the most important character of War and Peace, Platon Karataev,
It is Karataev that teaches Pierre to put his faith in God, instead of trying to control events beyond his control, and it is Karataev that teaches Pierre that it is still possible to show love and compassion to others in the face of horrific circumstances. Moreover it is Karataev that teaches Pierre the value of simplicity, honesty and a love for all that God has made. In effect, it is Karataev who resurrects Pierre, and helps him to love life and God again.
That Platon is given no more than a minute of screen time in such a saga is a joke, and just shows that Bondarchuk missed the point.
The irony in all this is that Tolstoy emphasises time and again that it is not generals and their military plans that move history forward but individuals and the meaning they bring to each other's lives. Instead, Bondarchuk spends the film displaying the epic sweep of events and gives background thought to the lives of the characters and their spiritual struggles.
Bezukhov's spiritual epiphany where he starts laughing was beyond cringe, and by that point I was out.
It's a shame, because you can tell that Bondarchuk put his heart and soul into making this film, but he should have spent a bit more time re-reading the book and less time with the superficial aspects of the time and this could have been a different film.
I can speak of other key characters that were equally basterdized, e.g. Marya Bolkonskaya, but the throwaway portrayal of Platon Karataev was the end for me.
Bondarchuk, for all the painstaking epic granduer that he brings to War and Peace, decided to gut the moral core of the story, which shows that he never really understood the spiritual depths of Tolstoy.
The most important part of this story comes when Pierre Bezukhov is on the brink of moral collapse after witnessing the sacking of Moscow and the execution of innocent life. He has lost his faith in humanity and life as such, and the loss of meaning for a being so sensitive as Pierre signals that even his physical collapse is immanent.
It is here that he encounters the most important character of War and Peace, Platon Karataev,
It is Karataev that teaches Pierre to put his faith in God, instead of trying to control events beyond his control, and it is Karataev that teaches Pierre that it is still possible to show love and compassion to others in the face of horrific circumstances. Moreover it is Karataev that teaches Pierre the value of simplicity, honesty and a love for all that God has made. In effect, it is Karataev who resurrects Pierre, and helps him to love life and God again.
That Platon is given no more than a minute of screen time in such a saga is a joke, and just shows that Bondarchuk missed the point.
The irony in all this is that Tolstoy emphasises time and again that it is not generals and their military plans that move history forward but individuals and the meaning they bring to each other's lives. Instead, Bondarchuk spends the film displaying the epic sweep of events and gives background thought to the lives of the characters and their spiritual struggles.
Bezukhov's spiritual epiphany where he starts laughing was beyond cringe, and by that point I was out.
It's a shame, because you can tell that Bondarchuk put his heart and soul into making this film, but he should have spent a bit more time re-reading the book and less time with the superficial aspects of the time and this could have been a different film.
I can speak of other key characters that were equally basterdized, e.g. Marya Bolkonskaya, but the throwaway portrayal of Platon Karataev was the end for me.