War and Peace
War and Peace - one of the greatest novels in the world, written by giant of Russian literature count Leo Tolstoy. Leo Tolstoy, the son of Count Nicholas Tolstoy, was born in 1828 at the family estate Yasnaya Polyana about 100 miles south of Moscow. His greatest novel War and Peace was published in 1869, after his work had undergone several changes in conception and he had "spent five years of uninterrupted and exceptionally strenuous labour".The epic War and Peace describes the lives of five aristocratic families during the Napoleonic Wars between Russia and France. His subtle psychological insights and realistic details create an entire world from various points of view. Tolstoy summarizes the moral evil of the war in these words:An event took place opposed to human reason and to human nature. Millions of men perpetrated against one another such innumerable crimes, frauds, treacheries, thefts, forgeries, issues of false money, burglaries, incendiarisms, and murders as in whole centuries are not recorded in the annals of all the law courts of the world, but which those who committed them did not at the time regard as being crimes.There are three main screen versions of War and Peace: the 1956 version by King Vidor, 1967
There is a great many of characters in the novel and each of them is thoroughly developed by Tolstoy. Whereas in the movie some of characters are not shown at all and even main characters are schematic and their evolution is not obvious to the viewer. The actress has absolutely inappropriate appearance. Just as in the book, Natasha grows from a spoiled princess to majestic woman full of grace, intellect and a deeply mystical charm. Each of them seeks after different goals and influences reader/viewer by different means. The novel War and Peace is historic-philosophical epic while the movie is a historic action driven drama. Meanwhile in the movie we see Henry Fonda, who is tall and slender superman in his fifties. Physically infirm but wise, powerful but unsophisticated, Kutuzov is really what we know about him from history. Generally Andrew is one of the better-presented characters in the movie. Star-studded cast and spectacular battle scenes (directed by Mario Soldati) certainly beautify the film. The 1956 version is not the best ever done but it was the first significant screening of the novel. I think that the movie also contains some profound miscasting (for example Henry Fonda as Pierre Bezukhov). Helene Kuragina - the first wife of Pierre is also well portrayed in the film. The actress is a pretty woman, while Tolstoy's Mary is plain and not good-looking. Naturally, it's hard to depict gradual maturing of the person who is already in years (Henry Fonda).
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Acceptance Essays
