Sergei Bondarchuk Movies

Unlike Warren Beatty's Reds, this film by director Sergei Bondarchuk does not create much human dimension to the character of John Reed (1887-1920), the well-known leftist journalist who first gained fame reporting on the Mexican Revolution and eventually wrote 10 Days that Shook the World on the 1917 Russian Revolution. His stormy relationship with fellow journalist Louise Bryant does not feature here either (though she appears in the film). The main attraction of this movie is the climactic storming of the Winter Palace. Reed was indicted for sedition in the U.S. and moved to Russia where he died at the age of 33 of typhus. He is one of two Americans buried in the Kremlin. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This film won a prize at the Moscow International Film Festival. Director Savva Kulish had previously worked with Mikhail Rom on the renowned documentary film Ordinary Fascism. He went on to make a particularly well-received espionage drama Dead Season. The Takeoff is a drama concerning the famous aviation inventor and space-scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (played by poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko). The scientist was considered to be the father of the Soviet space program. Like Beethoven, the scientist was profoundly deaf and had many difficulties because of this which required extra effort to surmount. The story concerns a period during which his son commits suicide and his daughter has been exiled to Siberia by the Tsarist government for revolutionary activities. At the same time, Tsiolkovsky has been feuding with government agencies to try and get funding for his researches into lighter-than-air vehicles (i.e., "dirigibles") and rocketry. His experiments in rocketry were decades ahead of their time. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Tormented by his many high ideals and equally numerous failures to live up to them, an elderly Russian nobleman reminisces about his life while travelling on a ferryboat, as he listens to his fellow passengers telling stories about their religious faith. When he was a boy, he attended a military academy. He was so filled with high ideals and belief in the sacred person of the Tsar even then that he slapped a superior officer who, in his view, had betrayed those ideals. As a man, his troubled conscience led him to follow the monastic ideal and become a priest. However, his sexual urges were so overwhelming, even though they did not cause public trouble, that he shaved his beard and pretended that he never took holy orders. When an affair with a childhood girlfriend offers nothing in the way of consolation, he heads for Siberia, where he serves the peasantry as a teacher and a doctor. This film, commemorating the 150th year after the birth of Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), is based on his last short story. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

During World War II, in order to enable a wave of Partisans to cross through German lines, a small group of Yugoslav Partisans must gain control of a pass through the mountains. Despite heavy odds and heavier bombardment, these brave individuals hold off the oncoming army just long enough, and many even survive to fight another day. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The desperate battles of Soviet troops during the German invasion of Russia are chronicled in this epic film. The effort to defend the country is shown to unify the people and the soldiers, quelling their doubts about the regime. This film won the State Prize of the Russian Federation in 1977. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This Yugoslavian epic depicts the World War II military exploits of Marshall Tito (played here by Richard Burton), who later became the unrivalled ruler of that troubled country. During that war, he was instrumental in resisting Nazi efforts to exterminate the Yugoslav partisans. The film details the events surrounding the climactic battle with the Germans along the Sutjeska River. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This lavishly costumed historical epic had an estimated $100 million price tag. Spectacularly photographed battle action contrasts with often plodding individual scenes that bog down the plot. Fearing his growing power, European monarchs force Napoleon Bonaparte (Rod Steiger) to abdicate as Emperor and retire to Elba, and the French are concerned they will be outnumbered by a force of combined armies from many countries in Europe. Napoleon no sooner says goodbye to his loyalist troops than he begins to rally his men and prepare for another takeover. King Louis XVIII (Orson Welles) sends Marshal Michel Ney (Dan O'Herlihy) and his men to counter Bonaparte, but upon seeing his old commander (and ally), Ney thrusts his sword to the ground and takes up arms with the deposed emperor. They all return to Paris by popular demand, defying the orders of Louis (who flees from the palace) and running the monarchy tout seul. Soon England, Austria, Prussia and Russia unite to try and stop the dictator. Wellington (Christopher Plummer) readies his troops near Waterloo, refuses to retreat anymore, and waits for Prussian Marshall Blucher (Sergei Zakhariadze) and his army to join up with the British as the only hope to stop the French juggernaut. Jack Hawkins and Michael Wilding portray key military commanders Picton and Ponosby, respectively. Napoleon and his troops cut into the Prussian and British forces dramatically, weakening their power, but three problems arise. First, Ney refuses to lead his segment of the troops onward; and second, Bonaparte's men are plagued by the wet weather, which causes
the cannon brigade to become immobilized in mud (when Wellington strategically gives Bonaparte's troops the lower ground) rendering it ineffective until late in the day. And even more calamitously, Bonaparte - growing increasingly ill -- insists on leading his men from the rear, which causes the information to become outdated as soon as it gets to him. The Russian version of this film was nearly four hours long, while western audiences saw an edited version slightly over two hours long. Unfortunately, Waterloo bombed at the box office. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Originally titled Seryozha, the Russian A Summer to Remember was co-adapted by Vera Panova from her own short story. War and Peace director Sergei Bondarchuk plays the new stepfather of young Seryozha (Borya Barkhatov). So close do the stepfather and the boy become in the months following their meeting that, when time comes for the boy to move on in life, he refuses to leave his new dad's side. Their summer idyll takes place on a Soviet collective farm, managed by Bondarchuk and depicted by novice filmmakers Georgiy Daneliya and Igor Talankin in the most glowing and apolitical of terms. Though there isn't much to the plot, the film admirably succeeds as a sort of cinematic tone poem. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi