Taras Bulba [DVD] [1962]

It is many years since I last watched this film, and it hasn't dated too badly at all. It certainly has plenty of fault lines running through it, but these are glossed over with typical Hollywood razamataz. In the grand scheme of things, so what if we have a Bronx Cossack so long as we get rollicking good entertainment, and this is what this film delivers in abundance. Nikolay Gogol's entertaining Russian novel about 16th Century Cossacks on the steppes of the Ukraine gets the typical Hollywood makeover treatment in the time honoured 'loosely based on' tradition. Thankfully it does at least keep to the spirit of the novel.

Tony Curtis plays the eldest son of clan leader Taras Bulba, played by Yul Brynner with his chest puffed out and hands on hips. His larger than life swaggering Taras unites the Cossacks in their fight against the Polish oppressors. In a cunning plan Taras sends his sons to study in Kiev in an attempt to learn more about the enemy. Unfortunately he learns a little too much about the enemy when he falls in love with a Polish beauty, thus causing family bonds to fracture. For some reason Curtis often found himself miscast in Hollywood films, "The Black Shield of Falworth" and "The Vikings" spring to mind. Oddly enough Curtis almost manages to duplicate the scene in "The Vikings" where he gets his hand chopped off. You have to admire his audacity in slugging it out toe to toe with Brynner, who actually looked the part.

The northern Province of Salta in Argentina substitutes seamlessly for the Ukranian steppes, which gives the cinematography some impressive realism. J Lee Thompson was perhaps not the most gifted of directors but handles the spectacle with a competent hand. In a nutshell the film is pure Hollywood hokum, but very entertaining hokum. A record number of dummies get chucked over a cliff in the all action finale. It is hard not to love the scene where all the Cossack tribes unite together in one glorious galloping mass to the strains of a rousing music score that euphorically sweeps you along. At the rate they were galloping the poor horses would have been winded long before meeting those devilish Poles! It is all of course absolute Hollywood hokum, but glorious hokum it has to be said. Just sit back and be swept along with those galloping horses in this enjoyable 'Romeo and Juliet' on the Steppes story. Optimum's DVD release is a decent one with no quality issues.

Taras Bulba is directed by J. Lee Thompson and adapted to the screen by Waldo Salt and Karl Tunberg from a story by Nikolai Gogol. It stars Yul Brynner, Tony Curtis, Christine Kaufmann and Perry Lopez. Out of United Artists, it's a DeLuxe/Eastman Color/Panavision production, with the music scored by Franz Waxman and cinematography by Joseph MacDonald.

Loosely based on Gogol's short novel, story tells of a Cossack uprising against the Polish forces who have taken control of the Ukraine. At the centre of the Cossack army is the leader Taras (Brynner) and his two sons, Andrei (Curtis) and Ostap (Lopez). But when Andrei falls in love with a Polish princess called Natalia (Kaufmann), it sets the wheels in motion for the Bulba family to crack from within; just as the Polish come calling asking for the Cossacks help to defeat the Turkish.

While not as epic as the film, the troubled back story of the production is big enough to lend one to understand why Taras Bulba is not the grandiose picture the story deserves. Main problem comes with casting, particularly that of Curtis as the elder Bulba son. It should have been Burt Lancaster, who walked, so in came Curtis and a decision was made to put him front and centre of the picture. Thus rendering Brynner's title character to playing second fiddle, so much so they really should have called the film Andrei Bulba instead. On his day Curtis could act, but he's out of place here playing a Cossack with brain and brawn. Then there was the small matter of Curtis' marriage to Janet Leigh falling apart, with Leigh visiting the set, falling ill and no doubt noticing the sparks flying between Curtis and his delectable co-star, Kaufmann. Curtis would say it wasn't the final straw, but with him going on to marry Kaufman shortly after his divorce, it's hard not to think that it sealed the deal!

He's not helped by the writers who allow the love story sub-plot between Andrei and Natalia to form the core of the plot. They too, Messrs Salt & Tunberg, were brought in after historical novelist Howard Fast (Spartacus) refused to tone down the screenplay. He wanted to include what was an important part of the Cossack/Pole war, that of the Cossacks anti-Semitic attack on Polish Jews. The makers balked and Salt & Tunberg came in and delivered the Andrei overkill and some rather cheese laden dialogue. Brynner was crushed, his biography (written by his son Rock) reveals that it was a role and film he cared for more than any other, he had grand plans for the portrayal but the makers didn't share his view. A shame because what we do get of Brynner is wonderfully exuberant, muscular and (correctly) scene stealing.

However, when Taras Bulba as a film is good, it's real good, and thankfully it's never dull, even if it's it a bit more jovial in the mid section than it is meant to be. Thompson was a fine director of action and suspense, and he gets to flex his muscles here to great effect. Casting aside the cheap shots of dummies and wooden horses being hurled about a couple of times, the sight of thousands of men on horseback swarming across the Steppes (actual location used was Argentina) is spectacular. The battles are fierce, violent and gripping, while the scenes in the Cossacks camps are joyous as men drink, sing, test their manhood by doing things like dangling over a bear pit, it's all very robust and Vikingesque, but entertainingly so. There's even some dashing sword play, while quality suspense is eked out during a challenge to the death over a seemingly bottomless gorge.

Joseph MacDonald's Panavision photography neatly brings the wide vistas to life, aided by the use of Eastman Color which gives off a nice period hue. Waxman delivers a blunderbuss score that's seasoned with Russian vitality, while the costume department deserves a mention for their efforts, particularly for the Polish army who look dandy men of steel. Yes it's a film of flaws and bad decisions, but the good does outweigh the bad in this instance, and how nice it is to have the chance to see a little known part of "bloody" history up there on the screen. 7/10

Taras Bulba could have been a very good film, possibly even a great one. But Hollywood values killed any chance of that. Instead, we have a reasonably enjoyable mess of a movie with two outstanding ingredients that rise above the rest - Franz Waxman's rousingly inventive music and a suitably over the top performance by Yul Brynner. As the title character, Brynner looks every inch a Cossack - swaggering and posing like a macho peacock, delivering his lines with that growling accent, and wearing his costumes as though he had lived in them all his life. Brynner was a hugely undervalued actor - a larger than life performer whose presence saved many a film. But the odds were really against him here.

Instead of focusing on Brynner, the film makes Tony Curtis, as his son, the central character. Curtis makes absolutely no effort to look like a Cossack so it is not surprising that he doesn't act like one either. While the rest of the Cossacks are swarthy, burly, scalplocked he-men, the sons of Taras Bulba look more like a couple of California surfers who have wandered in from the film next door. Worse still is Curtis's love interest - the enemy girl he falls in love with and betrays the Cossack brotherhood for. She is played with wan listlessness by Christine Kaufmann in a performance so wooden it's a wonder Curtis didn't get splinters in their love scenes. Still, in real life, he must have fancied her because he left Janet Leigh to marry her.

Even with its insipid love story, Taras Bulba could still have achieved greatness through sheer spectacle. The costume department certainly did their bit, although some of the Polish uniforms are needlessly naff. The music thunders and roars - except for the obligatory love song sung by an over-sweetened choir over the equally obligatory 60s montage. Filming in Argentina may have been a good financial decision, but it doesn't help the look of the film. Pampas are not steppes. Still, there are some exciting and effective sequences, notably the ride to Dubno during which Brynner's followers grow from a handful to an army. (It is alleged that you can sometimes see the tracks of the camera truck on the road in front of the growing horde.) The battle scenes are as lively as the Polish university scenes are dull. Sometimes the scale of the enterprise impresses. But you end up wanting to like the film more than you do.

SPOILER ALERT!

Perhaps the film's uncertain tone is best illustrated by a post-production anecdote. At a pre-release screening, director J. Lee Thompson supposedly turned to Yul Brynner and Said: "I still don't see why you had to shoot Tony."