Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace is a masterful magnum opus, with a riveting if very long story with many themes, interesting sense of history and very memorable characters brilliantly written. But because of the book's mammoth length, incredibly rich detail and the many characters that need a lot of development despite being one the greatest novels ever written it's also one of the hardest to adapt, word for word and detail for detail being almost impossible when adapted.Of the major versions, the best version is the 1972 mini-series with Anthony Hopkins, not only an ideal adaptation of the book and as faithful as one could get but also brilliant in its own right, one of the best the BBC ever produced. The 1966 Russian one directed by Sergei Bondarchuk, while not as accessible, is a close second, a towering achievement and contains the best battle and ballroom scenes of all the War and Peace adaptations. The 1956 King Vidor film has a number of good things, like the production values, the music score, Audrey Hepburn and some of the supporting cast but the sound quality and two male leads are very problematic and the story is not as riveting as it could have been. Any version of War and Peace does deserve a pat on the back for even attempting to adapt the work, and although this 2007 mini-series was underwhelming and my least favourite of the adaptations it is not exempted from that.The mini-series does have a fair number of virtues, first and foremost the exquisite production values, the amount of detail in the lavish décor and settings is jaw-droppings, the costumes are rich in colour and detail and the whole mini-series is beautifully photographed, especially in the ballroom scenes. The music score positively soars with elegant lushness, the ballroom scenes are gorgeously romantic (though the Bordachuk version's ballroom scenes still has the ones here beat) and there are some impressive supporting turns. Ken Dukan is deliciously serpentine as Anatoli, Benjamin Sadler is appropriately roguish as Dolokhov, Malcolm MacDowell makes for a chillingly arresting Bollonsky, Violante Placido's Helene is delightfully wicked and played with relish and Brenda Blethyn is marvellous. Vladimir Ilin is a very memorably forthright Kutuzov.Clémence Poésy doesn't fare as well, her portrayal of Natasha is the least successful of the four adaptations, the problem is not that she's necessarily physically wrong but more that her performance is both melodramatic and anaemic and the character is written as a spoilt brat with not an awful lot of charm. Alessio Boni is sometimes successful at bringing out Andrei's tragedy, but generally his performance is rather stiff and his chemistry with Poésy rather cold. Alexander Beyer is attractive but rather too dour as Pierre, a character that is quite complex but written too much of an idiot here. Ana Caterina Morariu is also so bland it got irritating, Platon is pretty wasted and this is the War and Peace with the least interesting and one-dimensional Napoleon (the Napoleons of the other adaptations succeeded in bringing the character humanity, but here he's a broadly played caricature which was avoided before).While War and Peace (2007) looks ravishing, the writing is less so. The script sounded underwritten and awkward, and very rarely delves into the depth of Tolstoy's writing and the points he's trying to make, the events are there but in very condensed and on-the-surface form. The story is written and adapted in a very rushed way and with not much emotional impact or substance at all, melodramatic soap-opera is what it's been described as and that's apt, while of all the adaptations of War and Peace this is the only one where the battle scenes (like the French Army's retreat, powerful in the other three versions but treated in a rushed indifferent fashion here) lack power, intensity or any kind of emotional connection. The CGI did strike me as unnecessary, and while they didn't hinder the scenes that badly they also added little and the quality was only standard, nothing to go wow over.All in all, definitely worth seeing for anybody considering themselves completests of War and Peace or Tolstoy, but for me it was underwhelming and the weakest version. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Frankly, I have watched only two short extracts of Part 1 as I could not bear to watch the whole part. In the 1st extract I was surprised to see that Natasha Rostova was a blue-eyed blonde, below medium height (according to the book, Natasha was a tall brunette). And Pierre Bezukhov was a thin man! (a 'massive', overweight man - according to the book). In the 2nd extract (I guess, it was the end of Part 1), I was shocked to see Bolkonsky and Rostova waltzing to the music which was composed by A.Khachaturian in 1940's (i.e. about 150 years after the events described in the book!!!). I doubt if the movie-makers ever read the book. The movie may be alright only for the American audience :-)

I have to say that I watched this movie because of my love for Russian history and for Tolstoy. I was entertained yet, disappointed as well.This series is based on the classic epic novel by Tolstoy and is a massive undertaking for any film company and this is a pretty good adaption. It tells the love story of several young aristocrats set against Napoleon's invasion of Russia in approximately 1812. There are a few war scenes, not many, but enough to know what is going on. While filmed in St Petersburg we don't get to see much of it due to it's limited budget I imagine. The focus is on the main protagonists and their relationships.My main problem was with the casting of some of the leads. This was truly a multi European cast of actors coming from all over Europe, including Italy, Germany, Russia, Poland, with some Brits thrown in as well.First of all, Clemence Poesy as Natasha wasn't believable to me. A young lady from an aristocratic family raised in the French style would carry herself much differently. Here she seems childish, bratty, and not especially beautiful, which she isn't in the book, but still she must show something that would attract as much passion as we are suppose to believe she does here. She certainly doesn't come close to the elegance and beauty of a young Audrey Hepburn in the 50's version.The characters of Andrej and Pierre (Alessio Boni and Alexander Beyer) seem very unemotional and stiff, especially Boni who doesn't seem at all passionate. This may be due to the fact that while they spoke English in it-you could tell from reading their lips-their voices were dubbed by British people more than likely due to their heavy Italian and German accents, Bonni being Italian and Beyer German. I have seen Boni before and he is a fine actor when allowed to speak for himself.The rest of the cast is good, with some fine older character actors included; Malcolm McDowell and Brenda Blethyn are marvelous. All of the actors are well known in their respective countries and some have made American or British movies before so they are recognizable to me. I loved the Russian general, Kutuzov, played so well by Dmitri Isayev, a fine character actor.The screen play seems written with the thought that the film will be dubbed and subtitles shown in many countries (I watched the Spanish subtitled version). The sentences are kept short to allow time for the viewers to read the captions; I find this very annoying. Not all the actors are dubbed; some actor's voices were used, accents and all. I love the story of War and Peace, so I watched the entire thing anyway and suggest you do the same if it is a favorite of yours. So far, I haven't seen a version I really love so I will have to make do with what we have so far. I prefer this version to the badly cast American version of the 1950's. Only Hepburn did a fairly good job in that film, possibly because she was born into a European aristrocaratic family and knew how a young woman would act. It did have a better screen play, in my opinion.To dub or notto dub? I prefer subtitles, added after the fact. Amricans, in general, do not like dubbing which is probably the reason it was never released here in the States, but many European countries use it a lot, although I hear that is changing.

Countries of the Europe tried very much to make this movie. Movie is outstanding, but not without remarks. Firstly, Clémence Poésy does not approach for Natasha Rostova at all. There is no that charm which was described by the Leo Tolstoi in the novel. Secondly, in the end of first part of movie was used music by... modern composer Aram Khachaturyan for the Lermontov's drama "Masquerade". Italian actor Alessio Boni is ingenious! I think, that his role the best in this film! Hi is one of the best actors, ever played role of Andrey Bolkonsky. Alexander Beyer's work (Pierre Bezukhov) is very convincing. Noticeably, that this actor really very well knows "War and peace". It has allowed it to represent Pierre Bezukhov very authentically. The image of old prince Bolkonsky (M. McDowell) has turned out very expressive and truthful. Such old Russian prince - the petty tyrant. In common, movie is remarkable!