James Hitchcock "Taras Bulba" dates from the early sixties, at the height of the popularity of the epic film. Most of the epics of the fifties and sixties were based on either Classical antiquity or the Bible, but occasionally Hollywood could turn to subject matter less familiar to Western audiences, in this case to a novel by the Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol. (Gogol was born in the Ukraine, although he wrote in Russian). The story is set in the seventeenth century, at a time when the Ukraine was under Polish domination. The title character, Taras Bulba, is the leader of a Cossack clan on the steppes. The Cossacks are Polish subjects, and an important source of manpower for the Polish Army, but are humiliated and treated as little more than barbarians by their overlords. The film deals with the relationship between Taras and his sons, Andrei and Ostap. He sends the two young men to the university in Kiev, at this time a Polish city, to obtain an education, but they learn little except how deeply the Poles despise them. Andrei does, however, fall in love with Natalia, an aristocratic Polish lady, and in future Andrei's loyalties are split between his father's cause and his feelings for Natalia. These divided loyalties will come to the fore when a Cossack army besieges the Polish-held fortress of Dubno and Andrei learns that Natalia is present inside the city. The storyline is a complicated, and occasionally confusing, one, and although both Yul Brynner as Taras and Tony Curtis as Andrei play their roles with aplomb, in neither case is this really their greatest performance. The Austrian-born Christine Kaufmann as Natalia looks stunning, but does not display any great charisma and it is clear why she did not become a major star in the English-language cinema, although she was well-known in Germany and Austria. (She did, however, go on to become the second Mrs Tony Curtis, following his divorce from Janet Leigh). The film was directed by the British-born J. Lee Thompson. During his British period of the fifties, Thompson mostly worked in black-and-white and specialised in small-scale social-realist dramas, films noirs and war films like "Woman in a Dressing Gown", "Yield to the Night", "Tiger Bay" and "Ice-Cold in Alex". Moving to Hollywood seems to have given him the chance to work on a larger canvas; his next film after this one was to be "Kings of the Sun", another large-scale epic also starring Brynner.The main attraction of the film today lies in its visual appeal and in its action sequences. The Ukrainian steppes seemed like the ideal setting for sweeping photography and shots of massed cavalry thundering across the plains, although at the height of the Cold War the film could not actually be shot there. Instead, the Argentine pampas stood in for the Ukraine. The action scenes are well staged, notably the opening and closing battles and the scene when Andrei and a man who has accused him of cowardice have to jump across a chasm on horseback until one of them falls in. "Taras Bulba" may the sort of film they don't make any more, and we may be none the worse off for that fact, but we can still enjoy watching it when there is nothing else to do on a wet weekend. 6/10 Some goofs. The King of Poland is referred to as "His Imperial Majesty". No Polish King ever used this title, which would only be used by an Emperor. In the film the Polish flag is a gold eagle on a green field. In reality the Polish eagle has always been white on a red field.

Robert J. Maxwell It's hard to resist this headlong story of Zaparoshki cossack Taras Bulba, Yul Brynner, and his son Andry, Tony Curtis, set in the 1600s. Essentially, the plot is that Taras Bulba hates the Poles and is always ready to revolt and fight them, but Curtis falls in love with a Polish princess while studying in Kiev. In the end, Curtis saves his girl, Christine Kaufmann, but only at the expense of his life. To keep Kaufmann from being burned at the stake, Curtis helps the Poles and is executed by Taras Bulba, his own father.This is the kind of movie that's usually called "epic." They must have used a thousand extras in scenes of hordes of horsemen sweeping across the Russian steppes. All of them wear colorful costumes. Nobody ever rides a horse except at full gallop. The musical score by Franz Waxman soars above all the on screen noise. The three opening notes of the main theme, first up and then down, follow precisely those of the most familiar Japanese folk song in existence, easily YouTubed. And, man, is there a lot of noise. Cossacks lived in semi-independent communities that were organized along military lines, with regiments and so forth, and they fought hard and played equally hard. Their usual role when allied with other armies was reconnaissance and ambushes.The Jivaro tribe of the Amazon basin, major headshrinkers, were also fond of ambushes in warfare. I don't know why I'm inserting this datum. I guess since I had to learn it, I don't see why anyone else should have the privilege of not knowing it. Try to think of it this way. There are maybe three or four people on earth that know that the ambush was the Jivaro's favorite tactic in combat -- and you are now one of them. I shake your hand.Where was I? Yes, a stupendous, colossal movie in every respect but it is dated. If they were to make a modern movie of Gogol's story (and they have, just this year), I don't think Tony Curtis or anyone like him would be chosen to play Andry. Nor would the actor have Curtis's slicked-back and gelled hair do. And every scene wouldn't be shot under the blazing suns of California, Argentina, and Yugoslavia -- especially not Yugoslavia. There would be occasional clouds, rain, and mud. Everything wouldn't be so sterile, so free of lice and pimples. In short, a remake wouldn't look so much like it had been produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille. The movie belongs to the Old Hollywood, the classical Hollywood of studios and contract players, that was fast disappearing. This may be among the system's last ticks.I don't know who they might get to play Taras Bulba. Yul Brynner seems to the character born. He was a Russian himself and in this kind of arrogant role, his default setting was the King of Siam. He always stands with his legs spread, his fists on his hips, and he bellows every word.And I can't be sure about Christine Kaufmann as Princess Natalia either. She's a pretty young woman with a winsome manner. Tony Curtis married her. She's not much of an actress as far as it's possible to tell -- she has so few lines -- but her evident shyness before the camera may add the proper touch to her character. It's conceivable that a young cossack might fall for her tiny voice and gracile figure after all the muscular and hairy cossack women he's gotten used to. It's also conceivable that the romance will bore your cuirass off.These cossacks lead one hell of a life, by the way. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing to excess. They don't talk; they shout. They only have two interactional modes into which they can toggle. They either argue or play grab ass. Each cossack man drinks enough vodka to topple a rhinoceros, and THEN he walks across a plank balanced over a pit of enraged bears. A man stakes everything on his personal honor. A cross word must lead to death during a particularly tense and grueling ritual, at the end of which the loser takes his horse with him, a dirty trick on an innocent animal. The penalty for opposing the will of the majority is death. The penalty of accusing someone of cowardice is death. The penalty for falling in love with the wrong Polish princess is death. The penalty for everything is death. In one version of Gogol's story, Taras Bulba is nailed to a tree and set on fire. But -- this being Hollywood and not the banks of the Dniper -- in this movie Brynner survives, sadder perhaps about slaughtering his own son, happier perhaps because the cossack way of life is preserved, but no wiser.

kosmasp ... even as a Coassack! Seriously though Mr. Brynner can play everything, as far as I'm concerned, and that in a very convincing manner, too! But although the film is called "Taras Bulba", it's actually son Bulba, who's playing the main character here (portrayed by Tony Curtis).I had the opportunity to watch the movie in a (blow-up) 70mm copy. Unfortunately the colors had faded away, but it still looked great. The battle scenes are especially good. But it's the nature of the movie that I liked, the depiction of a small group of "rebels" that tried to go a different way (if you see the movie, you'll know what I mean). There's a great quote from "Bulba Sr." (Brynner) about having faith in poles, just awesome!

Poseidon-3 What could have been one of the strongest epic films of the early 60's is weakened by the miscasting of Curtis, a few studio-imposed cuts and some really juvenile-looking matte work in the city scenes. Brynner plays the title character, a Cossack warrior, fighting against the more civilized Poles who rule over the territory in which he lives (the Steppes.) For a time, the two peoples exist in a sort of peace, but eventually the restless and proud Cossacks tire of the oppression they feel from the Poles and a major conflict arises. Unfortunately for Brynner, he has shipped his sons off to Kiev in order to educate them in the civilized Polish ways and, not only has the education had an affect on one son's (Curtis's) thinking, but Curtis has fallen for a young noblewoman (Kaufmann) and this later complicates things greatly when the war erupts. Brynner felt more deeply about this role than practically any other in his career (including The King of Siam) and he immersed himself in it fully. Though he complained about the editing of his performance, he is clearly perfect for the part and does an admirable job. He took an extra $100,000 to soften the blow of second-billing to Curtis and it was that casting that throws the film off track. Aside from the fact that Brynner and his olive-skinned wife would hardly have produced a son with pool-blue eyes, a pompadour and a Brooklyn accent, Curtis adopts an acting style that is wildly erratic. Though he clearly tries to bring depth and passion to the serious scenes (with middling results), he offers a quirky, irreverent take during other scenes and this seems both out-of-place and cheap in the midst of the serious goings-on in the story. Kaufmann (only seventeen at the time of filming, but already a ten-year veteran of the cinema!) is lovely and cries beautifully, but that's almost all she is ever given to do. She and Curtis make an attractive and appealing couple, but their relationship is never as realistic or as fleshed-out as one might hope. (They fell in love during the filming and married soon after in real-life.) Other notable cast members include a nearly unrecognizable Dexter as Brynner's brother, razor-thin Rolfe as the chief Polish antagonist, MacCready as Kaufmann's stern father and Rust as her handsome, but detestable, brother. Rust is so mysterious and captivating in his few brief moments that one longs to have seen more of him. His career seems to have been stifled by type-casting as unsympathetic henchmen (see "Walk on the Wild Side" for more of him.) A truly marvelous score by Waxman is reminiscent of "The Sabre Dance" at times. It adds considerably to the film. What hurts is the focus on Curtis over Brynner and the cuts that were made in order to whittle this gigantic story down to a movie that could play three times an evening. Also, the sets and backdrops for Kiev look like something more suited to "The Student Prince" or "The Pirate" than a serious story like this. A few unfortunate rear-projection shots mar a few of the outdoor riding scenes as well. Though a few changes were made from the source novella, the story adheres fairly closely to the original. One thing that stands out here is an unintentional (?) homoerotic subtext. Brynner and Curtis can't keep their hands off each other and are often hugging, kissing, wrestling and even caressing in some scenes! Curtis and his brother sleep in a dormitory with many athletically-built students in skimpy pajama shorts and both gentlemen are stripped and whipped frequently. It's an imperfect film, but an interesting one with many virtues, many of which have been buried in the bad reviews and lost sands of time. A widescreen DVD would surely grant the movie more attention as it contains massive spectacle with the Argentine Army pitching in to make sure the battle sequences aren't puny looking. There's a lot worse out there in the way of historical epics than this.