Trivia / War and Peace (1966)

• Dawson Casting: Natasha Rostova is only 13 when the novel opens and is played by Ludmila Savalyeva, who was in her early 20s during filming.
• Executive Meddling: Of the political variety. Sergei Bondarchuk persistently butted up against Soviet authorities, due to his decision to hire actors who'd previously been censored or blacklisted under Stalin's regime. They grew fearful that the film's international acclaim would go to his head and make him a potential nuisance. After the film won its Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, the authorities intimidated Bondarchuk into joining the Communist Party.
• Extremely Lengthy Creation: Production lasted five whole years, from 1962 to 1967. Filming took up four; the Battle of Borodino alone took two years to complete.
• Fake Nationality: Frenchman Napoleon Bonaparte is played by Russian Vladislav Strzhelchik.
• Troubled Production:
  • Director Sergei Bondarchuk had two heart attacks during production, the first while filming Part III, the Battle of Borodino, and the second while filming Part IV, the Fire of Moscow. He was also in and out of hospital during post-production.
  • The Borzoi dogs used in the hunting sequence were not trained to hunt down wolves, as in the book. The crew had to resort using off-screen scent hounds to scatter the wolves and the Borzois released to catch them.
  • Ten percent of the movie had to be reshot due to the shoddy quality of the 70mm film stock, which was locally made. This is probably part of the reason no 70mm version survives today - the print restored by Mosfilm and used for the Criterion Collectiom edition is from a 35mm duplicate.
  • Alexander Shelenkov and Iolanda Chen, cinematographers of the first two parts, quit after one too many arguments with Bondarchuk.
  • The film went overbudget during the filming of the Battle of Schongrabern, as seen in Part I.
  • The Battle of Borodino in Part III was supposed to be shot in thirteen days; it took three months.

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