*Spoiler/plot- 1986, Russia at the dawn of the Eighteenth century --- a vast, chilling mysterious land, mostly medieval. A country led by a man whose curious, questioning spirit is eager to learn all that is new and Western. Peter was a monarch who brings his feudal country into the modern world. The power plays, love affairs and international intrigues are brought to life by a stellar cast, featuring Oscar winners. Peter the Great was a shrewd Czar and visionary, statesman, sailor, blacksmith, shipbuilder and military leader. He's a husband and a father. He's a man who dared to dream the impossible dream and succeeded in the greatest measure.
*Special Stars- Maximilian Schell, Vanessa Redgrave, Omar Shariff with cameos from, Sir Laurence Olivier, Trevor Howard, and Elke Summers.
*Theme- Russia is complicated and eastern.
*Based on- Russian history
*Trivia/location/goofs- From a NBC TV miniseries. This film was produced with the assistance of the Soviet government. The shooting locations were all in Russia and the real royal, church, and palaces interior shooting scenes were in historical places. The locations, weather, and costumes were extravagant and rich to enjoy. The history facts in this film overused due to 'dramatic license'.
*Emotion- The editing of this week long many episodes miniseries into a feature film makes it somewhat boring for the viewer to sit through. There are too many long boring opening establishing shots of lead characters walking into frame at historic places. While some of that is tolerable, sometimes this film is nothing more that a Russian travelogue instead of a narrative feature film. The factual period history is questionable. It's a western point-of-view on a very foreign eastern subject matter and it is very liberally biased. I found myself yearning to see the next Oscar winner to pop-up in scenes or looking to enjoy the costumed battle scenes. The narrative seems to get lost in the beauty shots and landscape views. The huge cast of story characters and the many decade story caused a loss of interest in all of them except the lead roles, so the character nuances of the plot script was too confusing to keep straight in your mind. I found myself feeling like I was watching paint dry and that's a shame for such an expensive film project. Other film project of this size have done it much better like; 'Gone with the Wind' 'Laurence of Arabia', 'Citizen Kane' and 'The Godfather'.
*Special Stars- Maximilian Schell, Vanessa Redgrave, Omar Shariff with cameos from, Sir Laurence Olivier, Trevor Howard, and Elke Summers.
*Theme- Russia is complicated and eastern.
*Based on- Russian history
*Trivia/location/goofs- From a NBC TV miniseries. This film was produced with the assistance of the Soviet government. The shooting locations were all in Russia and the real royal, church, and palaces interior shooting scenes were in historical places. The locations, weather, and costumes were extravagant and rich to enjoy. The history facts in this film overused due to 'dramatic license'.
*Emotion- The editing of this week long many episodes miniseries into a feature film makes it somewhat boring for the viewer to sit through. There are too many long boring opening establishing shots of lead characters walking into frame at historic places. While some of that is tolerable, sometimes this film is nothing more that a Russian travelogue instead of a narrative feature film. The factual period history is questionable. It's a western point-of-view on a very foreign eastern subject matter and it is very liberally biased. I found myself yearning to see the next Oscar winner to pop-up in scenes or looking to enjoy the costumed battle scenes. The narrative seems to get lost in the beauty shots and landscape views. The huge cast of story characters and the many decade story caused a loss of interest in all of them except the lead roles, so the character nuances of the plot script was too confusing to keep straight in your mind. I found myself feeling like I was watching paint dry and that's a shame for such an expensive film project. Other film project of this size have done it much better like; 'Gone with the Wind' 'Laurence of Arabia', 'Citizen Kane' and 'The Godfather'.