Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Director 1956

The Contenders:

Michael Anderson: Around the World in 80 Days
William Wyler: Friendly Persuasion
George Stevens: Giant (winner)
Walter Lang: The King and I
Walter Lang: War and Peace

Epic Disappointment

Film: War and Peace (1956)
Format: DVD from DeKalb Public Library on laptop.

While the term “epic” in movie language tends to bring up films like Gone with the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, Ben-Hur and even modern films like Gladiator, in the literary world, “War and Peace” is king. This isn’t the case when it comes to the film version—any film version, for that matter. The film in question here is the 1956 version brought in far less than the studio would have liked. There are serious problems with this version of War and Peace, not the least of which is the length of just under three-and-a-half hours.

I’m not going to try to rehash the plot here. The story takes place in Russia during the Napoleonic era, which means old-school military with guys standing in ranks in bright-colored uniforms shooting at each other. It starts with Russia attempting to assist in Austria (or maybe it was Poland) and ends with Napoleon’s attempted invasion of Russia. In between , there’s some romance and a lot of dithering around. Suffice it to say that everyone in the world appears to be in love with Natasha Rostova (Audrey Hepburn) despite her evidently being about 16. Among those after her hand are her cousin Pierre Bezukhov (Henry Fonda), Bezukhov’s friend Prince Andrei Bolkonsky (Mel Ferrer) and a womanizing rogue named Anatol Kuragin (Vittorio Gassman). For her part, Natasha, being young and blindingly naïve, loves each of them in turn, because that’s the way a Russian epic rolls.