good back-story, and good acting

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

I have never read the book nor seen any other adaptation of it. I watched the series throughout the week, one episode per night. Three days later all I can think of is the last film. My heart is aching. The scene where Pierre is walking with his fellow prisoners and has to leave Platon behind in a fit of cough... and three seconds later within the same shot (no editing) the French soldier shoots Platon in cold blood and we see Pierre's exhausted face (still no cut) realising what just happened. This scene will haunt me for a long time. Just like Pierre I think of his friend's wisdom ("You see, they are prisoners too.") and compassionate heart. I found myself closing my eyes and savouring every bite while eating my rice & veg dish during lunch break. Sure, I will probably never go hungry like they did - and yet it spoke to me. Platon *is* Tolstoy. He is the soldier who has never killed anyone nor wanted to. A blissful satisfaction took over me as Pierre sits with Natasha and Marya and tells them of Platon. Finally, the three (or four) nicest people of the saga are reunited and they celebrate the truest of them all. Thank you, writer, for giving us a moment of joy after all the suffering. Paul Dano stands out as Pierre as does Tuppence Middleton as Helene. Prince Andrei holding hands with Anatole after the battle was powerful. Alas the final scene was underwhelming, but understandable for its time. True happiness is having babies - sure if you say so. The series makes me want to read the book so bad. I do love Russian literature so it's only a question of time for me. I recommend the series to anyone who enjoys period dramas.

So, another version of War and Peace, something we all needed about as much as a new recording of Beethoven's Fifth. War and Peace seems to be to literature what the Mona Lisa is to art – they are seen as the pinnacles of their form but no-one can tell you why. It is all a bit of a mystery. In the case of movie versions of W+P the book seems to have become largely irrelevant and each new version is principally an opportunity to outdo its predecessor for the most stunning camera-work, the most sumptuous ballroom scene, the most extravagant palaces, the war scene with the most extras, the most breathtaking scene. This is not necessarily a criticism but rather the nature of the beast, for while some may deem W+P a "great piece of literature" it is not without its flaws, some of them bigger than Texas. There are really two "stories" in W+P. The main story, and in my opinion the only reason W+P could possibly be regarded as great literature, is the story of Russia, its history and culture, in particularly turbulent times. The chief character in W+P is Russia, and the only film that could do this story justice would be a documentary. The "other" story, the one that deals with the petty tribulations of Natasha, Pierre, Andrei et al, are largely a backdrop that allows Tolstoy to tell this story. Regrettably it is only this secondary story that can be translated into a movie for general entertainment. Therein lies the problem, for this secondary story is neither especially interesting nor populated by great "characters". Natasha must surely be the most thinly sketched character in the history of literature, and what is sketched is uninteresting and annoying. Pierre's is a totally unbelievable character and Andrei is just boring. The "story" is largely a bunch of random fragments strung together, the great majority of which add nothing to progressing the story and could easily have been left out. Pierre drinking on the window sill. The wolfhunt. The party at Natasha's uncle's house. Any scene involving Boris. Any scene involving Boris's mother. The business about old Count Bezuhov's will. Count Bezuhov's entire death scene, indeed Count Bezuhkov's entire existence. Napoleon's famous "that is a great death" scene. I could go on, and on...This version does not get off to a good start. In its first 15 minutes a camera cruises breathlessly around a party "introducing" us to various people, whose names, identities and relevance are a mystery to the viewer. It could have been an opportunity to ease the average viewer into what is probably the world's most complex novel, but within 15 minutes we have reduced our viewing audience to those that already know the story by heart. Eventually we meet Natasha. This version elects not to portray her as a bubble headed, flighty adolescent, and this at least is a blessed relief. Lily James was a delight in Downton Abbey but here she does not seem to be bringing her "A game". Her character is just not well acted – she has so many facial movements it seems she has been afflicted with St Vitus Dance, and to make matters worse she is dressed in what appears to be a floral nightie recently bought on special at Walmarts. There is not a lot you can do with the "story" of W+P, all you can really do is make a list of all the set pieces and then select which ones you want to include – the choice does not matter much for as I have commented most of them are irrelevant. This time, mercifully, the producers omitted the dreaded drinking on the windowsill scene, for which we may all be eternally grateful. With any W+P we can take as a given that the camera-work will be spectacular, the war scenes will be magnificent, the palaces and estates bigger than Ben Hur. All that really distinguishes one W+P from another is the casting, so how does this version fair? Lily James is always easy on the eye but as already commented, her acting is simplistic and inconsistent. Her accent is at times cockney and her lines often rushed. The impression she gives is not of a Princess but the girl behind the counter at the dairy. She often comes across as surly and pouty, not attractive traits for a Princess. But the most heinous casting mistake is that of Sonja – her cockney accent is excruciating and she would have been better cast as Eliza Dolittle. Even their maid has a cockney accent! Pierre is very well acted, although no actor can make the ridiculousness of his written character entirely credible. It is unfortunate that he is made up as the dead spit of John Denver - it is difficult to take him seriously when any moment you expect him to take out his guitar and burst into "Rocky Mountain High". Andrei and Anatole are as OK as Tolstoy's story could allow them to be, although they did not look like the chick magnets they are supposed to be to me. By far the best cast were Dolokov who had genuine "hunk power" and dare I say it, an actual personality, and Boris. Marya was also very good, although far too pretty to make the nasty comments made of her credible. She has to be the far and away the best actress on the set. There is very little feeling of Russia and given this is the whole point of the book this is a major flaw. Were we not shown the titles of "Moscow" and "St Petersburg", given the predominant accents, we could be forgiven for thinking it was set in the East end of London. In summary, a mixed bag limited by the source material, like all the others. Can't wait until the next version.

Sitting down to watch this was supposed to be our compelling (we hoped) introduction to what the letterati call the best novel of all time. Neither of us have read the book, so we had no idea what to expect besides Napoleon in Moscow. Anyways, it took a while to get past the annoying fact that none of these Russians looked Russian and all them spoke with a limey accent. I guess the BBC does amateur hour from time to time; they sure did this time. The title abbreviation (the book sellers aren't calling it War & Peace) is a tip-off of bad QA that I didn't look for until I was thoroughly annoyed at New Yorker Paul Dano doing Bezukhov with the UK accent. We watched the whole thing in one afternoon last week on a disc set borrowed from the library. The Bolkonsky father and son were an interesting pair I suppose. Helene and Prince Kuragin were just OK as the heels of the piece. I don't know if it's the nature of the story or if it's this BBC rendering, but the entire film is populated with a bunch of unremarkably human characters heading towards a very conventional finish. Those BBC folks didn't do Leo Tolstoy nearly as well as they did Hillary Mantel, and not just because they wouldn't reach for Russian accents.

Honestly i'm quite disappointed, I think that BBC could have done it much better. What I actually didn't like is the fact that there's practically no references to this period in Russia where every single aristocrat was mainly speaking french. This is really ridiculous that even Napoleon speaks English (although the actor is french). I truly understand that this is an English film but at the same time it's a film about the greatest war of two greatest cultures who have had something in common. I wouldn't mind to read subtitles. This is very important I think to show that the Russian aristocracy being so feared of Napoleon stayed still at the same time in love with french traditions and culture so they couldn't stop to speak french sometimes (there were someone who tried to speak Russian as the sign of the protest to Napoleon). The novel is fulled by the parts and dialogues in french! Also I think if the actors don't speak Russian they should absolutely not sing in Russian, it's kind of silly to hear this (there are a few moments where you can hear a real Russian song and right after that the singing with a strong accent.I also didn't like the main characters. Sometimes you can hardly understand what are they thinking. Pierre is full of pity that we can't see how passionate his is in his ideas every single time, but I think that is the only actor who was close enough for his character. Natasha looks more silly that naive, Andrei is too motionless and we don't see how deeply he had changed. Anatoly is so rude and tough, that's even embarrassing as his sister (the story shows a reference to the film Les Liaisons Dangereuses but this is so far from the novel).Well, all I can say, watch the Russian film, it is the best for the moment.