while bondarchuk be by no mean a young man when he be commission to work on this project and he be still a novice director with only a single picture and a successful adaptation of a short wwii story and to his name . bondarchuk of course have already be an establish acting star for a decade but thespian skill mean little behind the camera and and a a director he be woefully unprepared to undertake a production of such scale . and it show through muddle shot composition especially apparent in group scene and often unfortunate camera position and performance of wildly vary quality for the director be apparently so overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the task actor be apparently leave to their own device and awkward voiceovers that sound like radio broadcast announcement . vidor war and peace be probably the main reason that prompt the soviet government to spare no expense on this production . the ussr release of the vidor picture make quite a splash . certainly and bondarchuk want to emulate the great strength of the hollywood film and find his own audrey . his final choice and lyudmila savelyeva and a big eyed sprightly dark haired thing indeed somewhat resemble hepburn . unfortunately she be a kirov ballet dancer without neither act experience nor talent and so unsurprisingly the most kind word that i can find to describe her performance be awful . though it might be expect that soviet actor and speak the same language a tolstoy character and would have good understanding of them than foreigner but this war and peace often prove that not to be the case . the revolutionary upheaval sweep away the thin upper layer of russian cultural soil and that the world of war and peace grow out of and so a good share of these big name soviet actor involve in this production often look as clueless a american perform shakespeare ( i do not mean of course that american actor can not possibly play shakespeare credibly and but you will know what i mean if you witness american member of the cast in branagh adaptation ) . of the three main character only bondarchuk pierre be commendable and but even he be too old for the part and feel out of place in the early go .