We start with Pierre waking up late for the battle, and then the theme music as Pierre walks into the battlefield and sees the battle, with a scale point of view shot. The strongest parts of the episode, besides the ending, are these point of view shots or shots that follow Pierre very closely, helping us understand his experiences. The battle, which is built up at the end of the last episode, is maybe a little underplayed, and the show definitely decides to focus on the small, "down in the dirt" aspect of the battle, and contains almost no large view moments of the battle.
Pierre has a discussion with Kutuzov about how he wants to get in the thick of it, with the lingering shot of Kutuzov seeming to convey some sort of approval. This really replaces his following of Bennigsen and the adjutant. He is then in the middle of the battle and has a conversation with a soldier about how they are scared, that could perhaps come off as a little cliche.
Andrei's regiment continues to get blown apart as they march forward (rather than standing pointlessly), with him saying "Nothing to do but endure." Pierre helps with some cannon and volunteers to get more charges. Handheld cam is used as he runs with a soldier through a trench and to a cart, and there is a great spinning camera shot when the cart gets hit by a cannon and throws him on the ground. The whole thing is not quite cinematic, but really effective television work. There is quite a bit of blood and violence and we see the man absolutely torn in half as Pierre crouches over him. This violence I think is really important to really drive home the point of the war scenes should make, and is surprising for a television show. Meanwhile, we hear constant screaming and Pierre comes back to say that the ammunition boxes were blown up. His encounter with the Frenchman is played awkwardly and quickly (see his more macho violent scene later) and we move to Napoleon turning down reinforcements in a scene that really emphasizes how I don't like the way they played Napoleon in the show. The acting of his character, and this is likely more the direction than the acting, may be the weakest in the show, and is certainly the weakest in the episode. A cynical person might think that this is why there isn't a huge focus on him in the show. With the scenes we get with the other characters, I want to see him even less and more Lily James. However, much of this is probably because of how hard it is to portray Napoleon, especially how he is portrayed in the novel, and the weight and high expectations playing his character comes from.
We get the dog that is laughed at right before the spinning bomb lands. We get increasingly closeup shots of Andrei and we again do not get inner monologuing, which may have the effect of making his indecision even more baffling. We cut immediately to the hospital. The cutting up of Anatole's leg is is extremely gory and his face is so bloody it is hard to tell who he is without knowing beforehand, so the show gives him a little dialogue. Much like the 2007 show, there is a moment where Bolkonsky and Anatole hold hands, but it is played much better here. We get some chanting as we cut to an exhausted Pierre, a close up more than any kind of scale gore shots, a technique that is used more effectively later, as we'll see. We then cut into Kutuzov and his generals with him arguing that they should retreat and abandon Moscow (which makes his motivation at the end of the last episode nonsensical. As you'll see, this scene is basically repeated later, and though there is definitely repeated scenes in the novel and the points around Kutuzov are drilled home almost to a sickening degree, Kutuzov, like Napoleon, seems to get in the way in this adaptation and the just half to quarter-way attempt to have the grand national narrative in the story seems a little superfluous instead of the way the narrative of the novel interconnects it). We cut immediately into rioting and start to follow Petya as he runs back into the Rostovs (we see the pigs again). He tells everyone they have to leave, but Ilya argues that everything is okay and they don't need to leave. This takes us to the packing and accepting soldiers scene, followed by a Natasha and Sonya scene, with them both believing they will die as maids, with Nikolai abandoning her and what has happened to Natasha. Natasha speaks about Pierre and then to take the prisoners with them, with Ilya and his wife having their discussion of it, Natasha standing up for herself and what she believes is right (Ilya doesn't waver the way he does in the novel and the countess doesn't have her change of heart). The countess seems to be even more negative, somehow, here. A lot of this may have to do with the decision to have her as an almost absent character in the first two episodes.
Napoleon stands outside of Moscow and proclaims that he comes in peace and will bring them happiness. We really don't get his despair after Borodino, going for a more simplified version of his character development. There is a bit of emphasis on the chaos while the Rostovs leave Moscow. Pierre tells Natasha explicitly that he has to kill Napoleon (we don't get any of the Antichrist stuff here, so I think we are to assume that his war experiences color his thoughts here, which works with a more modern interpretation that will be tempted to insert PTSD in a novel that doesn't really deal with the issue or show the characters emotionally broken from their experiences).
Pierre finds a man in his house singing in French and that the French army has commandeered his house. This is Ramball, whom I am rather surprised exists in this version, who drinks with Pierre and tells him that Napoleon is in the city. Ramball gets to talk about women and tells the story of the Polish wife and that he is a romantic. Pierre tells him about his experience with love and how whom he really loves can never belong to him.
The Rostovs arrive at Mytishchi and discover that Prince Andrei is with them. They then watch Moscow burn in the distance, with Ilya getting the reaction that Tolstoy gives the lower-class people with Rostov in the book (a change that is sensible, as those characters are only introduced for that purpose).
Pierre has a moment where it is clear he is contemplating killing the sleeping Ramball and then we get some unfortunate CGI fire as Pierre walks through and encounters the woman (who is being confronted by French soldiers) with the little girl in the fire. We get the handheld shots like in the battle as he runs to save the child. Pierre tackles and punches French soldiers and says that he will fight them all before they grab him and take his knife. He screams rather painfully as they drag him away. This is followed by a quiet scene of Natasha and Sonya. Sonya tells her that Andrei is with them. Andrei and Natasha have their moment, and they ask each other for forgiveness before we switch to Nikolai, who arrives at Marya's and tells her that her brother is alive.
The countess gets a scene where she begs for the family to move on, while a broken (the dialogue, evidently not considering his acting to be enough, has her say explicitly that he is broken) Ilya can't make a decision, putting it on her. Ilya continues to watch the fires of Moscow in a state of confusion as military drums take us to the prisoners with Pierre. We watch, mostly over his shoulder, as they escort men to an already bloody wall and posts as the soldiers begin to shoot them. The distance here is created by not showing a lot of the violence, instead focusing mainly on Pierre and having the soldiers speak in untranslated French. We then get the rare voiceover with a nature montage of Andrei talking to Natasha, which turns into a scene of him telling her that he is happy and that he saw Anatole at the hospital, explicitly saying that he loves him and that he can't help being the way he is.
Rather than a prayer, Nikolai tries to write Sonya before the obvious Lavrushka stand in appears and gives him the letter from Sonya. Nikolai says, "Oh thank you God" out loud. We then get shots of a tear-filled Sonya outside, with shots of flowers, as the rest of the brief letter is read out loud.
We get another general meeting and Kutuzov preaches time and patience versus the aggressive Bennigsen. Kutuzov is a little more aggressive at shutting down the meeting, but appropriately looks tired.
Napoleon has a scene where he wonders why he did not get a battle, and says in almost tearful rage that he is disappointed. The setting looks a little strange, as he is clearly supposed to be in his headquarters in the Kremlin, but I think the backgrounds are CGI'd in and it appears a little cramped. There is a lot of focus on his breathing as well, which I can't really understand.
Ilya at this point appears to be suffering from dementia and has problems understanding what is going on. He even tries to get Marya to have tea rather than going to see Andrei. There is a nice long shot that avoids going to the immediate close up (and doesn't even follow initially) as Marya, Nikolushka, and Natasha walk into Andrei's room.
After their scene together, we get a last rites scene that is overpowered by piano music and shot with closeups to the different characters that I think does a good job to represent their differing sadnesses that is brought out in the book. We get a little montage of Andrei, with a couple nice double exposure shots and some nice music flourishes accompanying the piano. The actresses play the death scene very well and Natasha comments that he is already cold and the episode ends with a shot of his face and her asking "Where is he now?"
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