Well Deserved Praise

An Exercise In Nonsense

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Dino DeLaurentis produced this fine film, Tempest, of Alexander Pushkin's novel set during the reign of Catherine the Great starring Van Heflin as the rebel pretender Pugachev who said he was really Czar Peter III who was Catherine's husband and whom she overthrew several years earlier. Viveca Lindfors plays a cool and calculating Empress Catherine.But the thing to remember is that this is not a work of history. Pushkin did write history as well, but this film is not history as such. It is based on Pushkin's novel The Captain's Daughter and the protagonists are Geoffrey Horne and Silvana Mangano. It is through their eyes that we see both their love and the background that led to this attempted revolution against Catherine.Young Horne for an indiscretion is sent in exile from Catherine's court to a frontier outpost commanded by Captain Robert Keith. With a little matchmaking help from her mother Agnes Moorehead the two are fated to be mated, eventually.But in the meantime the revolt of Pugachev is growing. As it turns out Horne and his servant Oscar Homolka saved the life of a frozen peasant on the way to the outpost. When Pugachev overruns their outpost, Horne's life is saved by the fact it's none other than Van Heflin now styling himself as Czar Peter.Heflin who was a consummate actor playing all kinds of everyman roles as an American transfers well as a Russian peasant. A whole lot better than Henry Fonda did as a Russian in War And Peace. But that's not the end for Horne. For his warnings about the growing discontent of the peasantry and Heflin's popularity with them, he gets himself into a nice little jackpot. Aided and abetted by the dying words of Helmut Dantine, another officer who actually did turn traitor to Catherine. Dantine also had eyes for Mangano.Pushkin was a romantic writer and Tempest first and foremost a love story just like Gone With The Wind against the epic background of a great war. As far as the novel goes, Tempest sticks fairly close to the plot of The Captain's Daughter. And the spirit of those times of Catherine the Great are captured in the novel and in this film.Tempest is a good historical epic which is sadly neglected today. I'm sure the Russians have adapted this same story, maybe better. But this is a fine version as is for the English speaking world.

There has been not many films on Russian historical events (other than local products). "Tempest" is a co-production (French, Italian and Yugoslavian) that deals with a cossack uprising against empress Catherine II's ruling in Russia. It is in my opinion a very acceptable movie rather accurate to facts in its underground and with a fine screenplay in the surface.The plot is interesting and precisely managed by Italian Director Alberto Lattuada. The film doesn't lack spectacle and intensity with fine battle scenes and action sequences that could qualify it as a true epic. Wide open outdoor color shooting and good interior settings also help the product.But what really hurts the picture, and badly, is the important role of Russian officer Grinov played by a completely miscast-ed Geoffrey Horne. He just doesn't fit at all as the man who unknowingly saves the rebels leader life and from then on is the character that allows viewers to know about Pugachov's reasons and ideas that led him to raise against the empress in an almost impossible task. Horne's acting is definitely poor and he lacks the strength and passion his role demands. On the other hand, Van Heflin does a very good work and plays most convincingly Emelyan Pugachov the man who dared to challenge the powerful Catherine (in fact I can't recall a bad performance from Heflin in films). The rest of the cast is correct, mainly Agnes Moorehead, Oskar Homolka, Silvana Mangano (you just can't understand how she could fall in love with Horne's dull and inexpressive character) and Viveca Lindfors as the empress.But all in all "Tempest" is a watchable and most entertaining film in its genre.

thousands "epic" AND, largely through the excellent acting of Van Heflin, Agnes Moorehead, and a couple other real actors and intelligent segments of the script, one of the better historical films. Van Heflin is totally believable as the pretender to the throne and is quite charismatic. If only, say, El Cid's Anthony Mann had directed, with Yakima Canutt as battle scene director, this movie could have been fantastic. As it is, the first battle scene, the storming of a fort, is largely wasted by thousands of ill-directed extras slogging forward. The last battle scene, however, has a certain sweep and indication of tactics that make it quite effective. Personally I think it Van Heflin's finest performance. A very much underrated actor.

A privileged soldier in Catherine The Great's Russian Army of 1770, was sent to a distant post for disciplinary reasons. On he way there, he picked up a half frozen man and revived him. At the new garrison he fell in love with the Captian's daughter. Against orders he fought a duel with his foe. During this time, the man whose life he saved - had been uniting the Russian Cossacks in uprisings to over throw Catherine.