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War & Peace (BBC Production) (Box Set)
List Price: $119.98Price: $93.78 You Save: $26.20 (22%)Prices subject to change.
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786304246573
Format: Box set, Color, NTSC
ISBN: 0793984440
Label: BBC Video
Languages: English (Original Language), Analog
Manufacturer: BBC Video
Number Of Items: 6
Publisher: BBC Video
Release Date: September 11, 1997
Running Time: 751 minutes
Studio: BBC Video
Theatrical Release Date: November 20, 1973
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Editorial Review:
Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace towers over most novels. It isn't merely the length that impresses--over 1,200 pages--but the number of characters. This BBC/Time-Life serial spans the Napoleonic Wars (1805-20) and incorporates 52 principals and 110 supporting players (a 44-page booklet proves indispensable with identification). Chief among them is Pierre (a bespectacled Anthony Hopkins), an illegitimate idler who becomes Count Bezuhov upon his father's death. Pierre admires Napoleon (David Swift), and chooses not to fight. Cousins Nikolai Rostov (Sylvester Morand) and Andrei Bolkonsky (Alan Dobie) harbor no such reservations.
The Yugoslavia-filmed battle sequences convince with their cavalcade of extras, but the drawing-room scenes serve as the heart of the series. (The soft exteriors were shot on film; the crisp interiors on video.) In these sequences, the other Rostovs, Bolkonskys, and Bezuhovs--notably Nikolai's impetuous sister, Natasha (Morag Hood)--emerge as complex individuals. Occasional inner monologues distinguish them further. There's some overacting from a few cast members, like the splenetic Anthony Jacobs (Prince Bolkonsky), but Dobie, Angela Down (Andrei's sister, Maria), and especially BAFTA winner Hopkins, give three of the more nuanced performances. Dramatized by Jack Pulman (I, Claudius) and directed by TV veteran John Davies (Germinal), this 20-part series follows a black-and-white silent, a Hollywood production (with Henry Fonda and Audrey Hepburn), and an Oscar-winning Russian epic. The British edition, however, stands as the most complete adaptation. As Pulman stated at the time, "Part of the novel's effect is achieved by its sheer weight of detail, the piling up of incident upon incident." After 15 increasingly compelling hours of marriages, affairs, births, duels, and deaths, it's hard not to feel a kinship with these fatefully entwined families. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Just as great as I remember
I watched this when it was on Masterpiece Theater in the early 70's. I have loved Anthony Hopkins since. It is ambitious and very well done. Long but worth watching.
Rating:  - War and Peace - 1972 Version with Anthony Hopkins
The BBC version is great! We are really enjoying it! It's almost like watching a play. Have not gotten to the disc with the war scenes, but if it's anything like the earlier portion, anticipate it will not be disappointing!!
Rating: - War and Peace, 1972, BBC
This was a painstakingly accurate portrayal of a wonderful, meaningful novel. The brilliant actors were true to their characters and as dedicated to this film as I could have imagined. If you love the book, which it would be hard to believe if you didn't, you will appreciate the work done here. Thanks to the BBC and all involved in this dedication to such an important piece of history.
Rating: - Welcome Home,Finally
When War and Peace appeared on public television in 1972, I was enthralled by the multiple characters, the opulent sets, and last, but certainly not least, the high quality of acting from everyone.I was glued in front of the TV every night as its epic tale unfolded, and I was sorry when it came to an end. I purchased the video cassettes and since the advent of DVD, I have been impatiently waiting for its release in that format. Finally it is here, and it is more than welcomed.If you want to see almost ... Read More
Rating: - Finally, it's available!
I've been looking for a video recording of this production for decades, and it has finally arrived in this DVD recording. It is accompanied by a 44 page booklet which I confess I haven't even opened yet, but I have indeed watched every episode. Perhaps I should have read the booklet before watching it, because apparently it explains things that puzzled me a little as I viewed these episodes for the first time in 30 years. After watching all 20 episodes on the DVDs, only then did I read the reviews of this ... Read More
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