War and Peace

1956
PG
3h 28m

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

11K

YOUR RATING

Play trailer3:18

1 Video

74 Photos

Period Drama War Epic Drama Romance War

Napoleon's tumultuous relations with Russia, including his disastrous 1812 invasion, serve as the backdrop for the tangled personal lives of two aristocratic families.Napoleon's tumultuous relations with Russia, including his disastrous 1812 invasion, serve as the backdrop for the tangled personal lives of two aristocratic families.Napoleon's tumultuous relations with Russia, including his disastrous 1812 invasion, serve as the backdrop for the tangled personal lives of two aristocratic families.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

11K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 3 Oscars
- 6 wins & 13 nominations total

Videos1

Trailer 3:18

War and Peace

Photos74

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Audrey Hepburn's character was supposed to be thirteen when the movie begins. She was twenty-seven when this movie came out.

Goofs
The marching band in the opening parade are all playing modern musical instruments.

Quotes
Prince Andrei Bolkonsky: There must be something you want to do.
Pierre Bezukhov: I want to discover... everything! I want to discover why I know what's right and still do what's wrong. I want to discover what happiness is, and what value there is in suffering. I want to discover why men go to war, and what they really say deep in their hearts when they pray. I want to discover what men and women feel when they say they love.

Crazy credits
Closing credits epilogue: The most difficult thing - but an essential one - is to love Life, to love it even while one suffers, because Life is all. Life is God, and to love Life means to love God. Tolstoy "WAR and PEACE"

Alternate versions
Two different versions of the main titles exists. Both of them in English. In the one, the credits are set against a neutral background, in the other against details of a painting of Napoleon in front of his troops.

Connections
Edited into Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

Soundtracks
Grande Valse Brillante
(uncredited)
by Frédéric Chopin (Waltz n°1 in E flat major)

User reviews79

Review

Featured review

7/10

Well-made 1950's movie

Beautiful movie to look at (Cinematography Oscar nom was well earned). Fine epic movie score. Good direction and editing. Some of the best costume work ever put on film. No one even today could do a finer job of costuming.

Mel Ferrer is nowhere near the same league as Omar Sharif was in "Zhivago". Sharif was great, Ferrer just average. Ferrer is a major drawback. In contrast, Fonda displays tremendous acting ability (not having read the book I can concentrate on his performance rather than whether he looks the part). Hepburn is perfection and she delivers a great acting performance.

Yes it is a 1950's style movie, which of course has some dated aspects. However, in the case of costume, cinematography and some of the acting you couldn't see better in a film of any era. This is an impressive effort all-around.