THE BATTLE OF AUSTERLITZ (1960)
DIRECTOR: Abel Gance
CAST: Pierre Mondy, Vittorio de Sica, Jean Marais, Jack Palance, Orson Welles, Claudia Cardinale, Martine Carol, Leslie Caron, Orson Welles, Ettore Manni and Rossano Brazzi.
REVIEW: One of the earliest international epics, directed by the French master of cinema Abel Gance, turns out to be one the worst films ever to grace the screen. A combination of over-acting, lack of action, excessive cutting and bad dubbing ruins what could have been a really awesome spectacle.
Napoleon (Pierre Mondy) becomes emperor of France and goes to war with the rest of Europe. He wins control of the continent through a series of maneuvers at Austerlitz, battling the Austrian and Russian armies.
Leading the cast is Pierre Mondy as Napoleon, horribly dubbed to sound like a cross between a Canadian and a New Yorker. His completely western accent sounds awful and doesn't portray a hint of the true character. In support, watch for Claudia Cardinale (Escape to Athena), Martine Carol and Leslie Caron (Is Paris Burning?) as the women in his life. Each of these lovely actresses is badly dubbed, and either so made-up or impossibly young, so it's often difficult to tell who is really who in some scenes. Ettore Manni (Heroes in Hell) is credited as Lucien Bonaparte, but his role is missing (along with over an hour of footage). Vittorio de Sica has a small, silly role as Pope Pius and Jean Marais has a substantial part as Napoleon's advisor, Talleyrand. Orson Welles (Waterloo) has two scene-stealing sequences as an ambitious American inventor who has no real bearing on the story.
The worst member of the supporting cast has got to be a young Jack Palance(The Mercenary) (!) as an Austrian General. Throughout, Palance sports a horrendous fake Germanic accent and over-acts every movement, every line of dialog until you're ready to throw a rock at the TV! Seriously, I've seen Palance corny, I've seen Palance serious, I've seen him bad - but this performance just kills his reputation as an actor. He must have been pretty desperate for money to try this kind of role so early in his career.
The film is also hampered by a terribly slow, talky pace. For the first hour, the stage is set for the Battle of Austerlitz. This is also where most of the cuts occur - this is really obvious when the movie fades out every 3-4 minutes abruptly - so most of the interesting dialog was clipped. Most of what's left is the bare bones of the story; just enough to keep you informed but not enough to keep you the least bit interested. Then, when the battle starts, Napoleon and his enemies sit around talking strategy for forty minutes. You never really know what's going on, because Gance fails to lay out the geography of the battlefield in simple terms. Generals talk about hills, valleys, plateaus, moving one regiment from point A to point B and one never knows what the significance of these places really are. Once the battle starts, there are a few wide shots of hundreds of cavalry and infantry divisions, but for the most part Napoleon's aides stare through telescopes informing him of what's going on.
On home video, the movie is presented in letterbox format, at 1.85:1 - not the correct 2.35:1 ratio that the credits appear at. The image is very grainy and the image is a hazy, like a third generation video dub. Colors are accurate for the most part, but everything looks kind of pale and everything looks dull and dreary. The tape clocks in at just under two hours.
Veteran director/actor Sergei Bondarchuk, the man who brought us War and Peace , would direct Waterloo 10 years later. The movie tells a similar story in a much better manner, with better acting and dubbing, a clearer focus and much more action. If you want a good Napoleon movie, skip Abel Gance's bomb and see Waterloo instead.
SGT. SLAUGHTER'S RATING: 2 Bullets
