War and Peace (film series)

War and Peace
Original theatrical release poster
for Part I: Andrei Bolkonsky.
Directed bySergei Bondarchuk
Screenplay by
  • Sergei Bondarchuk
  • Vasily Solovyov
Based onWar and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy
Produced by
  • Viktor Tsirgiladze
  • Nikolai Ivanov
  • G. Meyerovich
  • V. Krivonoschenko
Starring
Cinematography
  • Anatoly Petritsky
  • Yu-Lan Chen
  • Alexander Shelenkov
Edited byTatiana Likhacheva
Music byVyacheslav Ovchinnikov
Distributed byMosfilm
Release dates
  • 14 March 1966 (1966-03-14) (Part I)
  • 20 July 1966 (1966-07-20) (Part II)
  • 21 July 1967 (1967-07-21) (Part III)
  • 4 November 1967 (1967-11-04) (Part IV)
Running time
  • Part I:
  • 147 minutes
  • Part II:
  • 100 minutes
  • Part III:
  • 84 minutes
  • Part IV:
  • 100 minutes
  • Total:
  • 431 minutes
CountrySoviet Union
Languages
  • Russian
  • French
  • German
Budget
  • 8,291,712 Rbls
  • (US$9.2 million)
Box office58,000,000 Rbls (USSR estimate)

War and Peace (Russian: Война и мир, romanized: Voyna i mir) is a 1966–1967 Soviet epic war drama film co-written and directed by Sergei Bondarchuk, adapted from Leo Tolstoy's 1869 novel. Released in four installments throughout 1966 and 1967, the film starred Bondarchuk in the leading role of Pierre Bezukhov, alongside Vyacheslav Tikhonov and Ludmila Savelyeva, who depicted Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and Natasha Rostova.

The film was produced by the Mosfilm studios between 1961 and 1967, with considerable support from the Soviet authorities and the Soviet Army which provided hundreds of horses and over ten thousand soldiers as extras. At a cost of 8.29 million Rbls (equal to US$ 9.21 million at 1967 rates, or $60–70 million in 2019, accounting for rouble inflation) it was the most expensive film made in the Soviet Union.

Upon its release, it became a success with audiences, selling approximately 135 million tickets in the USSR. War and Peace also won the Grand Prix in the Moscow International Film Festival, the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Since its release, the film has often been considered the grandest epic film ever made, with many asserting its monumental production to be unrepeatable and unique in film history.