This is a hard-to-find NBC TV mini-series from the eighties. The film is a very well-made historical (true) period drama, in six hours, a super-production relating the life and times of czar Peter the Great of Russia, with a stellar ensemble cast including Laurence Olivier, Vanessa Redgrave, Omar Sharif, Mel Ferrer, Ursula Andress, and Elke Sommer, some of them in cameo roles, but they look great in period costumes. Peter the Great is powerfully portrayed by Jan Niklas (younger czar) and Maximillian Schell (adult czar) with Maximillian Schell giving the character epic proportions in the latter years.
The series is unpretentiously directed by Marvin Chomsky, with attention to detail to the prevailing conditions and settings of the times: For instance one does not feel artificial light was used at any time, as all filming seems to have been done outdoors in natural light or indoors with chandeliers and candle lights. The Director of photography is Vittorio Storaro who is the cinematographer of such visual feasts as "The Last Emperor", "Apocalypse Now", and "The Sheltering Sky". This mini-series was filmed on location in the ex-USSR (Russia) when it was under Communism, with artistic and technical assistance of an extended Russian crew, which was, at the time, a remarkable example of cultural cooperation between East and West. I hope this film will be digitally remastered, it deserves it, and it would be advisable to affix a (12) rating on the DVD due to scenes of some violence and mild intimate encounters, and of course include side features perhaps by contributors to the original series at the time. This must be one of the best ever made-for-TV historical films, and a great entertainment with palace intrigues, power politics, passionate relationships, and men and women who changed the course of history.
The series is unpretentiously directed by Marvin Chomsky, with attention to detail to the prevailing conditions and settings of the times: For instance one does not feel artificial light was used at any time, as all filming seems to have been done outdoors in natural light or indoors with chandeliers and candle lights. The Director of photography is Vittorio Storaro who is the cinematographer of such visual feasts as "The Last Emperor", "Apocalypse Now", and "The Sheltering Sky". This mini-series was filmed on location in the ex-USSR (Russia) when it was under Communism, with artistic and technical assistance of an extended Russian crew, which was, at the time, a remarkable example of cultural cooperation between East and West. I hope this film will be digitally remastered, it deserves it, and it would be advisable to affix a (12) rating on the DVD due to scenes of some violence and mild intimate encounters, and of course include side features perhaps by contributors to the original series at the time. This must be one of the best ever made-for-TV historical films, and a great entertainment with palace intrigues, power politics, passionate relationships, and men and women who changed the course of history.