Taras Bulba

Taras Bulba  From Harold Hecht production comes the magnificent presentation of Nicholas Gogol’s undying story of the mighty chief charging against the Poles into strange lands of the steps . Taras Bulba with his tribes wager war through the long corridors of courage . At this time Polish rule over Ukraine , they join forces with the Cossacks to vanquish the Turks . One time are defeated they force to the Cossacks to live on bad lands . Taras Bulba (Yul Brynner) sends his sons (originally was hired Burt Lancaster but role subsequently was to Tony Curtis and Perry Lopez) to a Polish school . There they encounter hatred , confrontation , struggles but also love when Curtis is enamored with the daughter (Austrian actress Christine Kauffman , she met Tony Curtis on the set and later married him) of a Polish nobleman .

The film gets noisy action , adventures , romance , jarring burst of violence and results to be quite entertaining . Breathtaking battles well staged with thousands of extras displayed by Army of Argentina where was actually shot . Besides , it contains exciting rider races with bounds and leaps over cliffs as well as horses and men falling into the deep . Actors interpretation is more distinguishing , it features of otherwise routine spectacle . Brynner as a straight-talking , savvy chief leading his tribe is superb . He’s perfect as a proud , wise and stalwart leader . Brynner plays one of his usual oriental or exotic roles (similarly to Brothers Karamazov , King and I , Salomon , Ten Commandments). Tony Curtis turns a fine performance . Brynner and Curtis together for the first time , like father and like son in this exciting adventure . Tony Curtis plays Yul Brynner’s son, but Curtis was only five years younger than Brynner in real life . Perry Lopez and Curtis are also “college students” , when in real life they are about age of 37 . The secondary casting is frankly good such as : Brad Dexter , Sam Wanamaker , Guy Rolfe , Abraham Sofaer and Vladimir Sokoloff’s last film , among others . Spectacular and epic musical score by Franz Waxman . Colorful and glamorous cinematography filmed amid the splendor of its original locale by Joe McDonald . The motion picture was brilliantly directed by J. Lee Thompson (Guns of Navarone , Cape fear) , though in his finale career directed Charles Bronson vehicles . The Nikolai Gogol story titled ¨Taras Bulba¨ was formerly filmed in France (1936) , England (1963) and Italy (1963) by Ferdinando Baldi . The movie will appeal to Yul Brynner fans and costumer enthusiasts .