Sergei Bondarchuk

War and Peace

War and Peace

At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet film industry set out to prove it could outdo Hollywood with a production that would dazzle the world: a titanic, awe-inspiring adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic tome in which the fates of three souls—the blundering, good-hearted Pierre; the heroically tragic Prince Andrei; and the radiant, tempestuous Natasha—collide amid the tumult of the Napoleonic Wars. Employing a cast of thousands and an array of innovative camera techniques, director Sergei Bondarchuk conjures a sweeping vision of grand balls that glitter with rococo beauty and breathtaking battles that overwhelm with their expressionistic power. As a statement of Soviet cinema’s might, War and Peace succeeded wildly, garnering the Academy Award for best foreign-language film and setting a new standard for epic moviemaking.

Film Info

  • Soviet Union
  • 1966
  • 422 minutes
  • Color
  • 2.35:1
  • Russian
  • Spine #983

Special Features

  • New 2K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New interviews with cinematographer Anatoly Petritsky and filmmaker Fedor Bondarchuk, son of director Sergei Bondarchuk
  • Two documentaries, from 1966 and 1969, about the making of the film
  • Television program from 1967 on actor Ludmila Savelyeva, featuring Sergei Bondarchuk
  • New program with historian Denise J. Youngblood (Bondarchuk’s “War and Peace”: Literary Classic to Soviet Cinematic Epic) detailing the cultural and historical contexts for the film
  • Janus Films rerelease trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Ella Taylor

New cover by Gary Kelley

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • New 2K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New interviews with cinematographer Anatoly Petritsky and filmmaker Fedor Bondarchuk, son of director Sergei Bondarchuk
  • Two documentaries, from 1966 and 1969, about the making of the film
  • Television program from 1967 on actor Ludmila Savelyeva, featuring Sergei Bondarchuk
  • New program with historian Denise J. Youngblood (Bondarchuk’s “War and Peace”: Literary Classic to Soviet Cinematic Epic) detailing the cultural and historical contexts for the film
  • Janus Films rerelease trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Ella Taylor

New cover by Gary Kelley

War and Peace
Cast
Sergei Bondarchuk
Pierre Bezukhov
Ludmila Savelyeva
Natasha Rostova
Vyacheslav Tikhonov
Andrei Bolkonsky
Boris Zakhava
General Kutuzov
Anatoly Ktorov
Nikolai Bolkonsky
Antonina Shuranova
Marya Bolkonskaya
Oleg Tabakov
Nikolai Rostov
Viktor Stanitsyn
Count Rostov
Kira Golovko
Countess Rostova
Irina Skobsteva
Hélène Bezukhova
Vasily Lanovoy
Anatole Kuragin
Irina Gubanova
Sonya Rostova
Oleg Yefremov
Dolokhov
Anastasia Vertinskaya
Lise Bolkonskaya
Boris Smirnov
Vasily Kuragin
Alexander Borisov
Uncle Rostov
Giuli Chokhonelidze
Prince Bagration
Vladislav Strzhelchik
Napoleon
Angelina Stepanova
Anna Scherer
Nikolai Trofimov
Tushin
Nikolai Rybnikov
Denisov
Jean-Claude Ballard
Ramballe
Yelena Tyapkina
Marya Dmitryevna
Sergei Yermilov
Petya Rostov
Nonna Mordyukova
Anisya
Mikhail Khrabrov
Platon Karatayev
Credits
Director
Sergei Bondarchuk
Screenplay
Sergei Bondarchuk
Screenplay
Vasily Solovyov
Based on the novel by
Leo Tolstoy
Cinematography
Anatoly Petritsky
Additional cinematography
Yu-lan Chen
Additional cinematography
Aleksandr Shelenkov
Cameraman
Dmitri Korzhikhin
Music composed and conducted by
Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov
Editing
Tatiana Likhacheva
Production design
Mikhail Bogdanov, Alexander 
Dikhtyar, Said Menyalshchikov, Gennady Myasnikov
Set decoration
Georgy Koshelev, V. Uvarov
Costume design
Vladimir Burmeister, Nadezhda Buzina, Mikhail Chikovani, V. Vavra
Makeup
Mikhail Chikirov
Assistant director
Vladimir Dostal
Chief sound engineer
Yuri Mikhailov
Sound engineer
Igor Urbantsev
Pyrotechnician
Vladimir Likhachev

Current

A Tolstoy Adaptation That Defies Gravity
A Tolstoy Adaptation That Defies Gravity

Cinematographer Anatoly Petritsky talks about the innovative camera work that made some of War and Peace’s most ambitious sequences possible.

War and Peace: Saint Petersburg Fiddles, Moscow Burns
War and Peace: Saint Petersburg Fiddles, Moscow Burns

Sergei Bondarchuk pulled out all the stops to bring Tolstoy’s sprawling vision to the screen, and the result remains one of the most extravagant epic films of all time.

By Ella Taylor