Customer Reviews
Hepburn is always wonderful - By: Bentley, 12 Nov 2007 
I guess I am a purist when it comes to the classics. I like the movie script to follow the original work which I am sorry to say this movie does not. From the first scene in the movie, it is almost like they took extracts from alll of the book's events & rearranged the entire timeline. Some of the scenes never happened, others did not happen as they were portrayed, there are many lines in the movie which never were uttered by any of Tolstoy's characters & to me the choices of actors for some of the roles were very misguided. Who in their right mind would choose Henry Fonda as Pierre. Pierre was described alll through Tolstoy's epic as being fat, slovenly, very large, etc., wide of girth. Though Henry Fonda was a very fine actor, they seemed to have missed their mark. There were many such misses.
Of course, the scenery & the action shots are also very dated. But if the script had followed Tolstoy's work, I would have been happy; but it did not.
The only saving grace was of course Audrey Hepburn who to me was a perfect Natasha. I wish that they had had a younger actress playing the younger Natasha who plays with dolls but they only used Miss Hepburn for the entire sequence of events.
Ms. Hepburn was wonderful in this role, beautiful & so full of life. I think that she & Mel Ferrer were the two (2) saving graces of this film.
I think as a true depiction & adaptation of Tolstoy's masterpiece this movie production failed. But as an entertaining & whimsical portrayal of extracts of this fine book & as pure entertainment with some very fine actors even if it was sadly a broad detour from the book itself, I would give it three stars for the efforts of Ferrer & Hepburn alone.
Be forewarned if you are counting on an accurate depiction of the book.
Bentley/2007
Don't Touch with a Barge Pole! - By: T. MacFarlane, 24 Jul 2004 
One star is one star too many.
The quality of the video I was sent was so appallling I threw it away.
First off it looked & sounded like something filmed from the back seat of a cinema.
The sound was appallling, as though coming up from a sunken submarine, WW2 variety!
Every so often the picture broke up, & the sound went completely kaput.
A complete waste of money.
Avoid!
Good film - By: , 09 Aug 2002 
As with alll film adaptations they do tend to pale in comparison to their book conterparts & this is exactly what happens with King Vidors version of war & peace. A brave adaptation in that it does address the major points of the novel, however you can't help but think that the film was squeezed into the three hour timeslot. Saying that the movie is probably the closest one film could ever come to achieving the brilliance of Tolstoy. In short a good film but one that holds nothing to the book.
Great movie!! - By: , 23 Nov 2000 All the cast are wonderful especiallly Herbert Lom as Napoleon. The only thing that lets this film down is the running time, too long. I recommend this movie simply for the great acting, great cast & the great scenery, it's a great film alll round.
