Trivia
Adjusted for inflation in 2005, this film cost over $700 million to make, and is thus the most expensive film ever made.
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This film was made with the complete cooperation of the Soviet government, the Red Army, and the citizens of Moscow which is how they managed to get 1500 horses and 120 thousand extras into the war scenes.
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The film premiered in its entirety on Mexico's Channel I and II in March 1981. It garnered a Guinness World Record for being the longest film to be broadcast on television.
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The film has 300 speaking characters and about 120 thousand extras and stunts. Three hundred speaking characters speak Russian, French, German and vernacular Russian.
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The Battle of Borodino took over two years to produce with over 300 actors and 120 thousand extras involved. About 200 firing cannons were filmed in the battle and about 100 thousand rifles were used by extras and stunts.
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The battle of Borodino took two years of filming and a year of post-production. In 1965, during the filming of the battle, director Bondarchuk had a heart attack.
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Original location of the historic route of Napoleon's Army at the Smolensk Road was used for filming.
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The "first dance" by Natasha Rostova and Anderi Bolkonsky was filmed in twenty five takes with over 150 actors, musicians and stunts involved.
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Original Russian cut runs 445 minutes. Part1= 148 min, Part2= 101 min, Part3= 85 min, Part4= 101 min.
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American version is one hour shorter than the original Russian movie. The director's cut with additional scenes runs about 500 min.
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Director Sergey Bondarchuk had two heart attacks during the years of production. He suffered his first heart attack while filming part 3, the battle of Borodino. He suffered his second heart attack while filming part 4, the Fire of Moscow. Then the director was in-and-out of hospital during post-production.
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Original art, jewellery, swords, guns, and period furniture from several museums, as well, as replicas of period military uniforms, decorations, ball gowns and costume jewellery pieces were used in the film.
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About a thousand professional artists, designers, decorators and museum specialists worked on sets construction, design, and decoration. Several companies in Moscow and Leningrad were involved in making replicas of military uniforms, period dresses and costumes during the years of production.
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Lyudmila Saveleva came to the 1969 Academy Awards, she received the Oscar on behalf of the filmmakers. But when she came back to Moscow, the Soviet authorities entered the airplane. The Soviet government took the Oscar away from the filmmakers.
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After winning the Oscar, director Sergey Bondarchuk was intimidated by the Soviet authorities and was forced to join the Soviet communist party.
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Released in theaters in 117 countries. Over three thousand copies of the film were released worldwide.
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Director Bondarchuk cast those Russian actors who were previously censored under Stalin, and were kept underemployed in the Soviet film industry. Thus Bondarchuk arranged for comeback of several stars of the 1930s and even of the silent-films era, such as Veronika Polonskaya, Stanitsyn, Anatoli Ktorov, Galina Kravchenko, Boris Zakhava and other notable actors.
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Sergey Bondarchuk created meticulous recreations of battles of the Napoleonic Wars. The Battle of Borodino against the Napoleon's invasion is the largest battle scene ever filmed.
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Director Bondarchuk made history by introducing remote-controlled cameras that were moving on 300 meter-long wires above the scene of the battlefield.
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A replica of central Moscow was built in Volokolamsk for filming the fire of Moscow. The replica was completely burned down as part of filming. For filming the scenes of the fire, actor Sergey Bondarchuk had a stand-in, Yuri Devochkin.
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The US' première was held at the DeMille Theater, Seventh Avenue and 47th Street, New York. The screening for this seven-hour epic was shown in two parts, and the cost of a ticket was a staggering $7.50, for the best seats.
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Her role as Natasha was the first performance for former ballerina Lyudmila Saveleva. More than 40 years later she would return to Tolstoy with a performance in a television mini-series adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.
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