- Also Known As:
- Unknown
- Year:
- 1972 – 4
- Country:
- Predominant Genre:
- Drama
- Director:
- John Davies
- Outstanding Performance(s):
- Anthony HOPKINS
- Premiss:
- The impact of war on five families.
- Theme(s):
- Compassion
- Destiny
- Empathy
- Evolution
- Friendship
- Humanity
- Identity
- Loyalty
- Mercy
- Personal change
- Political Correctness
- Redemption
- Self-expression
- Social class
- Totalitarianism
- White culture
- Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:
- Unknown
- Review Format:
- DVD
A variable quality cast - some of whom perform theatrically as if unaware of close-ups - still do not ruin this great tale that manages to comprehensively capture all of human life.
Yet the drama - as a whole - does not sustain its superb start: The length of the book defeats the tv screen as the Russian steppes defeated Napoleon and Hitler.
The real problem here, despite the compulsive nature of this mediocre adaptation of a superior soap-opera, is that there is no genuine sense of Russian culture. One is limited to the universal aspect of the drama as the adapter is forced to find analogues with English culture to give it any cultural life at all. But the fit is not right; making this a story that could just as easily be located in the West as it could in the East; accepting the universality of its many themes while denying their cultural specificity.
Copyright © 2014 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute this posting in any format; provided mention of the author’s Weblog (Esthetics) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
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