I’ve been thinking maybe I should add a few shorter postings on this blog about costume dramas which I saw a while ago – just getting down a few impressions before they fade too much in my memory. These won’t be full-length reviews, and I may still return to write longer pieces on the productions in question if I watch them again in the future.
One massively long series (I can hardly call it a mini-series) which I re-watched a year or so before starting this blog was the BBC production of War and Peace, starring Anthony Hopkins as Pierre. This was one of the first costume dramas I ever saw, aged 12 when it was first shown, and it made a deep impression on me at the time – I remember being absolutely mesmerised by it and obsessed with the character of Natasha, although Hopkins as Pierre was the performance which stuck in my mind, maybe because he went on to become so famous later.
Watching it again more than 30 years on, I found it still powerful – and was impressed above all by the sheer amount of space and time given for the characters to develop. This also applies to other older series like The Forsyte Saga, which I’m currently watching at a leisurely pace and will blog about soon, The Pallisers, Brideshead Revisited and The Jewel in the Crown. It’s hard to imagine quite so much screen time being given to any literary adaptation now. The magnificent theme tune, the old imperial Russian national anthem, is something I’d remembered from my first viewing.
Despite the huge number of characters, most of the time it was fairly easy to keep track of who was who – director John Davies and screenwriter Jack Pulman did a fine job of interweaving all the storylines. I was slightly dismayed at first by the casting of Morag Hood, who was around 30 at the time of filming and seemed far too old to play Natasha, especially in scenes at the start where she was supposed to be a young teenager. However, I think this is a point where the remastering and my seeing the series in colour have emphasised the miscasting. Watching on a small black and white TV in 1972, I don’t suppose I was so worried by this. In any case, Hood does seem more right for the part later on, when Natasha is older and suffering.
The rest of the casting seems fine, especially Hopkins, and Angela Down – who I remember also giving a moving performance as Jo in a BBC adaptation of Little Women – as Maria . She comes across as a female counterpart of Pierre, both of them deep thinkers but appearing awkward and not regarding themselves as charming or physically attractive. I also liked Alan Dobie as a brooding, disillusioned Prince Andrei.
While reading the book, I often found myself eager to get back from the war scenes to the relative peace of the home front. In the series, however, I thought the war scenes worked well - and the whole production built up magnificently, so that I could hardly bear to reach the end. I did feel that both the book and the series have the same epic quality to them, although I’m sure there must be many shifts of emphasis between the two.
For anyone who wants to know more about this production, there is a full review of it at DVD Talk, including summaries of what happens in each episode.
Morag Hood was “somebody” in the BBC repertoire at the time. She’s in the 1971 _Persuasion_. I don’t know her previous history but often the actors came from radio and stage drama.
I’m really writing because even the mere promotional shot of Hopkins shows his early and unusual form of beauty for a man. In the book I mentioned on WWTTA, Jonathan Miller’s _Supreme Performances_, Miller includes a still of Hopkins as Othello in a 1981 production (with a young Bob Hoskins as Iago — imagine that) and how beautiful he looks there.
I should probably give in and join Netflix. My fear is I wouldn’t use it enough. I’m often so tired at night I don’t watch movies I want to watch because I just fall asleep.
Ellen
I hadn’t remembered that Hood was in ‘Persuasion’ – thank you for that, Ellen. I do agree that Hopkins looks striking in that picture, and am interested to hear about the Jonathan Miller book.
If you are tempted to try Netflix, you might find it has different plans depending on how much you think you will use it. Lovefilm, the UK equivalent, does that and these days I only rent three DVDs a month from them, rather than one of the “unlimited” plans where I was getting too many films sent to my house and didn’t have time to watch them all!
You’re probably right. I must look into it. I would enjoy so much more in life.
I was thinking about 1972 as a year. It seems to me from what I’ve read (the Giddings book, _The Classic Serial in TV & Radio_ is really worth trying to get hold of and reading) that there are phases. The early 1970s saw the first real flowering of these mini-series (my beloved BBC _Emma_ is that year, the Pallisers 1974). Then again the later 1970s and up to the mid-1980s; things stop for a while, and then this cornucopia of films everywhere throughout the 1990s. Now the problem seems to be budget plus a new retreat for women so the films show abjection and (for men too) much distraughtness (to coin a new yukky word).
Ellen
Thinking about it, I would say one drawback with DVD clubs is that they often send you only one DVD at a time from a box set – in the UK, at any rate, this means it is often cheaper to buy a box set, as many of these are now available for just a few pounds.
I’m interested in your comments about the phases of costume drama, and I have looked up the Giddings book, but it is out of print and second-hand copies seem to start at £60! I hope it may be possible to get hold of it on inter-library loan, as it’s one I would like to read.
I also first watched War and Peace when I was twelve and first read the book the following year. It remains my all time favourite TV show adapted from one of my favourite books.
I bought the box set of videos when still a student. I now have the DVD version which is far superior.
I believe that this is one of Anthony Hopkins finest performances. I still cry when I watch the scene in which he comforts the distraught Natasha after her aborted alopement. And I just love the scene where he throws Anatole across the room. (also fitting punishment for what he later did to Dr Who). Dobie is good as Andre but I felt he was too old for the role. Both Pierre and Andre are quite young, (twenties) when the story begins. I thought Morag Hood was wonderful as Natasha capturing the mercurial essence of the character. The sheer scale of hte battles scenes is remarkable. I doubt any other tv production has been make on such a scale, certainly none I have seen and these days those armies would be all CGI so we won’t see the likes of that again.
thank you for putting up this review.
Janette
Thank you very much for commenting, Janette – it’s interesting that you had always remembered this series and went back to it years later too. I do agree that it is one of Hopkins’ finest performances – and I remember that when I first saw the series, as a girl (you and I must be the same age as each other) he was the one who made the greatest impression on me and all my friends. I think Colin Baker is rather good as Anatole, but haven’t seen him as Doctor Who apart from in the occasional brief clip, where he did seem rather over the top! A good point about the scale of the battle scenes – CGI makes so many things possible but I think it often loses a lot too. Thanks again, Janette, hope to hear from you again in future.:)
Thanks you all for keeping this production alive in recollection. Hopkins
utterly captures Pierre who, in the novel, swings between innumerable
philosophies and moods. Whatever his station, he is as much an outsider as his great friend, Andre is an insider. Yet both share existential integrity and Tolstoy portrays their friendship as deeper than than those formed Pierre’s Masonic fellowship. I did not find Alan Dobie was too old; he’s clearly older than Pierre and Natasha who didntreally deserve the embarassing attempt by Morag Hood, at 30, to portray her as a ‘teen’. Angela Down’s Maria, as Judy points out, is far more a spiritual counterpart to Pierre than Tolstoy’s portrays. But the differences are radical: Maria is woman, Pierre a man …when gender shaped destiny. She’s a devout Christian, Pierre a free-thinking Mason. She is utterly devoted to her tyrannical father; Pierre really could care less. But she has a quality of purity and integrity that Pierre shares … as indeed do Natasha and Andre
by the film’s end. This is true for Tolstoy who loves his character
as a godfather as much as a novelist. The great contrast between
Napoleon and Kutusov is another gem. All in all, a wonderful
adaptation with screenwriter Jack Pulman deserving so much
credit Does anybody happen to know what the music is, or its composer that opens and closes each episode. It sounds like a national anthem
but it’s full of foreboding.
Thank you very much for your detailed comments, Paul. It is good to hear from someone else who appreciates this great adaptation. I do agree with you that there are great differences between Pierre and Maria but that they share a quality of integrity.
On the music, it is the old Imperial Russian national anthem, ‘God Save the Tsar’, composed by Prince Alexei Lvov and performed by the Band of the Welsh Guards – here is a link to a French website where you can hear the whole track streamed as performed in the series (it starts very quietly but then gets much louder!):
http://tinyurl.com/yjy3qej
And here is a link to the Wikipedia entry about the anthem’s history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Save_The_Tsar!
Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace
What a wonderful intertwined love story of epic proportions, leaving the paperback books gasping for breath.
The bumbling normal person catches the most beautiful girl in the world who loves him with a deep everlasting love.
Tolstoy knew how to love and how to write.
The BBC excelled their selves and proved that they can be the best.
I hear Hollywood still crying!!
Thank you for visiting and commenting, Gordon, and sorry to be slow in replying. I think “wonderful intertwined love story of epic proportions” is exactly the right description for this great novel – and definitely agree that the BBC excelled themselves with this production.