War and Peace (1972) Parts 15 to 18

 

Episode Fifteen- Moscow!

“He’s caught his bear but he’s trapped in the cage with it” is Marshal Kutusov’s accurate opinion of Napoleon’s situation. We see the French Emperor arrive in Moscow feeling he can be generous in victory, talking of a strict but compassionate regime and he quickly sends for dignitaries to speak to. He soon learns the truth that anyone of rank has left the city in the hands of looters and arsonists determined to let Moscow burn rather than allow the French to properly occupy it. It is a gripping opening alright as Napoleon struts around a very grand room – yet another impressive set- and declares he will have his office here even though the place is the size of a small church and similarly decorated. Yet his confidence soon turns to anger and its noticeable that his ideas shift with every development which his Generals can all  see. It’s a well calibrated performance from David Swift who revels in Napoleon’s force of will yet shows his frustrations too.

The largest section of the episode though is given over to Pierre who remains in his Moscow house though now wearing peasant’s clothes, a disguise which twice in the episode fails to fool the French. Still convinced his and Napoleon’s destinies are intertwined he has tarried too long in the capital and ends up reluctantly having dinner with a French officer called Ramballe whose life he saves when a drunk servant tries to kill him. It’s one of those Pierre `how did this happen` moments that have recurred through the story because the pistol was actually his. The narrative often uses Pierre to coax more from characters who would otherwise remain defined by rank or duty and here over a long, wine fuelled meal Rambelle becomes more human to a point. I really thought the scene was taking us somewhere but unfortunately it fizzes out as both crash to the floor drunk. It does go on a bit too long but is another example of Anthony Hopkins’ intense acting style and he’s matched here by Stepen Yardley’s pompous Ramballe.

In terms of staging and direction there are some impressive sequences. At the start we see the French marching towards Moscow which once again shows how a vast number of extras were utilised. One shot shows Napoleon atop a hill looking down on hundreds and hundreds of troops with Moscow in the distance. For 1972 this is close to filmic stuff. A simpler shot later on shows a camera closing in on a ranting Napoleon; It starts at the far end of a very large set and keeps going till it arrives directly in front of him and underscores his words as he speaks. We end though with Pierre imprisoned though as the solders have sussed he’s a noble perhaps he might get his audience with Napoleon after all?

Episode Sixteen- Two Meetings

A smaller scale episode in which we catch up with the Rostovs and also the seemingly indestructible Andrei who despite standing inches from an exploding grenade ten days earlier is still alive albeit seriously wounded. We also find Nikolai charming various women in a nearby town while also being manouvered into meeting up again with Maria. Of course, if they get together it would overturn his long stated pledge to marry Sonia but that doesn’t seem to matter too much to Countess Rostova because Maria has money.

I’m starting to dislike the Countess as she uses every trick in the book to get her daughter and niece to do as she wants. While earlier in the series she allowed her husband to fritter away money without check, now it’s up to the girls to marry into money to restore the family’s damaged finances. Also she hasn’t told Natasha that Andrei is amongst the wounded and now she confronts Sonya to try and get her to break her pledge to Nikolai. She is a piece of work alright. You have to credit Faith Brook with giving the character’s duplicitous nature a sugar coating but watching from a modern perspective you feel like shouting to the girls “walk out and live your life as you choose`. Sonya makes a heartfelt speech about how only she has to make sacrifices and it could apply to a lot of the female characters in this piece.

The episode does therefore have something of a repetitive nature leaning too much on coincidence for its plot. Really we’re all just waiting for the Natasha and Andrei reunion which occurs in the final minutes though the director cheekily spends the episode making us think Andrei has passed away only for him to open his eyes again! When they do finally see each other it is a lovely moment, well played.

Episode Seventeen- Of Life and Death

A lyrical episode charts the differing perspectives of both Andrei and Pierre. Now being nursed by Natasha, the former has resigned himself to death in a manner that he always has. When you think about the way he was wounded first at Austerlitz and then Borodino they were moments of recklessness from a man who has been otherwise shown as a thinker. Now reunited with the love of his life he seems to prefer imminent death to the prospect of recovery. He is a tough character and an unlikely protagonist who would nowadays be classed as someone with depression. Alan Dobie has less showy material than Anthony Hopkins but he has an authority that shines even in these scenes when Andrei is somewhat serene in death. “I shall die- what of it?” he muses in voiceover seemingly unconcerned about Natasha, his sister and son all of whom pay tearful bedside visits. In one scene his internal monologue speaks over Natasha something I’ve never seen done before but it shows just how he is barely in the present. This lack of concern of death has always been there- and voiced in earlier episodes- so perhaps he is happy now it is here.

By comparison Pierre, a prisoner of the Russians and narrowly avoiding execution in a powerful early scene is to be later found, in his own words, happier than he’s ever been. Befriended by other prisoners, especially Platin, a simple uneducated man he has found the solace he previously sought in freemasonry or philanthropy. Once again you can only be impressed at Anthony Hopkins’ ability to sell these unusual conclusions breathing life into such lines as “Life is the minute by minute living of it”. Pierre is happy to banter both with guards and prisoners while declining an opportunity to be moved to better conditions. There’s a great turn too from Harry Locke as Platin whose embracing of the simple life seems like inspiration to Pierre. Between them the dialogue sings and if it can seem a little familiar to modern ears you have to remember when this was made and dramas less regularly delved into such philosophical concerns. Is it patronising the lower classes? Is Pierre’s espousal of this simple life just too unlikely for a man of such standing? Or have his experiences- especially his crazy infiltration of Borodino- changed him? It is tempting to see him as a narrator figure, somehow managing to collide with all of the story’s main events in an improbable yet fascinating manner. Whatever Tolstoy- and this adaption- intend it makes for a richer viewing experience.

I suppose the scene that lingers though is the firing squad sequence which is shown with a directorial flourish- different angles, focusing on the drums, seeing the victims being chucked into a hole in the ground. It sits uneasily with the matey camaraderie we see later on but shows that in war all sorts of odd things can happen and perhaps the lesson here is that we all need to think a bit more like Platin.

Episode Eighteen- The Retreat

From its stark title through its every scene this is a bleak piece of television. Watching it is a mixture of being shocked by the scenes we’re seeing yet simultaneously impressed by the staging of it all. Even more so than the battles and ballroom sequences that have been the standout scenes this is harrowingly real. Indeed, it must have been very hard for the actors, extras and crew filming it in thick snow, freezing temperatures and rugged landscapes. OK so they didn’t have to walk over eighty miles but I’m sure it wasn’t too difficult to look at first weary and later absolutely frozen when shooting this. The director captures it all in the sort of detail you might expect in a documentary and what the modern viewer notices more than anything is the complete absence of incidental music. The soundtrack instead is the rolling of carts, the shorting of horses, the coughing of dying men and every so often a gunshot ringing out as another prisoner is shot because they cannot go on.

I doubt if modern audiences would stick with such lengthy sequences as these but they make an impact. The retreat from Moscow depicted is every bit as harsh as you might expect. Columns of soldiers together with hundreds of Russian slaves leave Moscow headed back the way they came amongst them Pierre and Platin. The mood sours straight away- last episode’s chumminess gives way to barked orders and bristling rifles as the army leaves the capital. At first it doesn’t seem too bad as they march along cobbled streets and out into the woods yet each time the scene cuts it is to more difficult conditions. There are some fantastically captured moments where we see columns of people trudging along with a wintry haze surrounding them. The further we go the more tired they become, the more strung out the line gets.

Poor old Platin is not going to make it of course- he knows it, Pierre knows it and so do we and in an instant another friendship is gone. There is more tragedy ahead too. A small cadre of Russians make the mistake of attacking this convoy at night in a sudden flurry of fast shots and cuts but it’s not as easy a target as they imagine. Amongst the casualties is the youngest Rostov, Petya, whose reckless determination to get into the melee costs him his life in what seems a pointless attack on retreating soldiers. Like Platin’s death this is treated as an inevitability of the war. Its interesting that every main character who has been killed has lost their life in a pointless way. There are no heroes here on either side.

What of Napoleon who only last episode was not contemplating a retreat? The episode shows him brooding over what to do, regretting past decisions and finally deciding to leave his army to the retreat and get back to Paris.  I suppose Emperors get to make more errors than football managers! In an episode with a minimum of dialogue it is both Anthony Hopkins and David Swift who becomes orators of this sorry situation and they do a fine job of taking us through a superbly constructed piece of television drama.

Pictures from the Radio Times War and Peace Special magazine.