Taras Bulba (1962)

Director:

J. Lee Thompson

Writers:

Nikolai Gogol (novel)
Waldo Salt (writer)

Release Date:

19 December 1962 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Romance | War

Tagline:

A Love Story of Flesh And Fire!

Plot:

A "Romeo and Juliet" story that takes place in the late 16c. Ukraine. Taras has settled into comfortable...

Plot Keywords:

Cossack | Battle | Ukraine | The Turks | Poland

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Tony Curtis	...	Andrei Bulba
Yul Brynner	...	Taras Bulba
Sam Wanamaker	...	Filipenko
Brad Dexter	...	Shilo
Guy Rolfe	...	Prince Grigory
Perry Lopez	...	Ostap Bulba
George Macready	...	Governor
Ilka Windish	...	Sofia Bulba
Vladimir Sokoloff	...	Old Stepan
Vladimir Irman	...	Grisha Kubenko
Daniel Ocko	...	Ivan Mykola
Abraham Sofaer	...	Abbot
Mickey Finn	...	Korzh
Richard Rust	...	Capt. Alex
Ron Weyand	...	Tymoshevsky

Runtime:

122 min | 124 min (TCM print)

Country:

Yugoslavia | USA

Language:

English | Latin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track | Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | UK:U | West Germany:12 (nf) | USA:Approved (PCA #20294) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Disney Ranch, Santa Clarita, California, USA

Company:

Avala Film

Trivia:

Tony Curtis met Austrian actress Christine Kaufmann on the set of this film and later married her.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The cossacks' "scalp-lock" is not on the back but the front! Only the old cossack is the one that has it correctly. Also Yul Brynner's scalp-lock is very unnatural. It looks like a pony tail and it has too much hair for being only the remaining hair from shaving the rest of the head.

Quotes:

Natalia Dubrov: I love you, Andrei, I will always love you. You know that. I love you. But I can't let you fight against your own people. I can't do it. You're a Cossack, Andrei.
Andrei Bulba: I'm a man before I'm a Cossack.
Natalia Dubrov: Don't let them use me.
[they kiss]

Movie Connections:

Version of The Rebel Son (1938)

Abundance of mass scenes

This was one of the first movies I've ever seen; and as a child I was deeply impressed by both the story and the spectacular horse riding. Nowadays these mass scenes, of which you'll see an abundance of like in no other film, would be generated in a computer. Back then they were made possible by the Argentinian cavalry. Though the film lacks the extra touch that would put it on a par with "Love and War", Yul Brynner is outstanding and inimitable. The story bears the stamp of the inevitable catastrophe of a Russian drama, but it hasn't been worked out by the script writers as it should have been.