About the film
Sergei Bondarchuk spent six years making the most ambitious Soviet film ever: four feature-length films following Tolstoy's characters through Russia's wars with Napoleon. Prince Andrei Bolkonsky looks for meaning in war, young Natasha Rostova in love, and the awkward, kind Pierre Bezukhov in everything.
The battle scenes, especially Austerlitz and Borodino, were filmed with thousands of real soldiers and are still among the largest ever put on screen. The ball where Natasha dances with Andrei is just as famous.
On this page the film is split into five videos, exactly as Mosfilm has uploaded it. Start with part one and take your time: together they run for nearly seven hours.
Did you know?
- It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for 1968.
- Lyudmila Savelyeva was a young ballerina when she was chosen to play Natasha.
- Bondarchuk directed the film and also played Pierre Bezukhov.
