War & Peace: The Complete Miniseries

“War is a terrible thing,” says high society matron Anna Pavlovna (a rather stiff Gillian Anderson) in this international production offering a mostly faithful adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's epic 1869 novel, in which the struggles on the battlefield of the human heart also loom large. Scripted by Andrew Davies (Pride and Prejudice) and directed by Tom Harper, the six-hour War & Peace—opening with rumors of war in 1805 and continuing up through the disastrous invasion of Russia by Napoleon's army in 1812—focuses on three major characters: Natasha Rostov (Lily James), a high-spirited girl looking for romance; military hero Prince Andrej Bolkonsky (James Norton), a somewhat rigid fellow who falls in love with Natasha; and bastard-son-turned-rich-aristocratic count Pierre Bezukhov (Paul Dano), a friend of Prince Andrej who muses philosophically about human nature and is unhappily married to the beautiful and unfaithful (Andrews makes explicit what Tolstoy strongly suggests) Helene Kuragin (Tuppence Middleton). Along the way, the series interweaves myriad events in the lives of the Rostovs and Bolkonskys, as well as others, such as battle-avoiding Russian general Kutuzov (Brian Cox). A handsomely mounted production, this version (like others) suffers from the necessary telescoping of Tolstoy's massive tome—most notably here in the abrupt whirlwind romance between Natasha and Helene's villainous brother—but overall this is equal to the 2007 miniseries (VL-11/13), and compares favorably with both the 1972 miniseries starring Anthony Hopkins (VL-1/08), and Sergei Bondarchuk's Oscar-winning 1969 classic (which today suffers from its overuse of distracting late ‘60s cinematic tropes such as kaleidoscopic images). Extras include behind-the-scenes featurettes. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)