1812
About 1812
The picture follows Mikhail Kutuzov through the 1812 campaign. Barclay de Tolly starts a delaying retreat and Kutuzov continues it. The army stands at Borodino. Moscow is burned rather than handed over intact. Cossacks hit French supply lines, and peasants fight foragers. Alexander refuses a peace with Napoleon. The French fall back through Maloyaroslavets and the Berezina. Semyon Mezhinsky plays Napoleon opposite Aleksei Dikiy's field marshal.
Cast & crew
More about 1812
Vladimir Petrov directed. Vladimir Solovyov wrote the script. Mikhail Gindin photographed, with Boris Aretsky also credited on the Russian record, and Vladimir Egorov designed the sets. Yuri Shaporin composed the score. Mosfilm shot it in 1943. The release date on record is March 13, 1944. The Russian title is Kutuzov. Running time is 113 minutes.
Themes
Background
Released in 1944, while the Red Army was pushing west, the film retells 1812 as a model of retreat, scorched earth, and no separate peace.
Making
Petrov stages the retreat, the burning of Moscow, and the river crossing as a wartime patriotic picture, with Dikiy playing Kutuzov as Suvorov's pupil.
Look
Mikhail Gindin shot the battles and the retreat. Boris Aretsky shares the camera credit on the Russian production record.
Music
Yuri Shaporin composed the score.
Preservation
A print of the feature survives.
Notes
- Sergo Zakariadze plays Bagration. Nikolai Okhlopkov plays Barclay de Tolly.
- Sergei Blinnikov plays ataman Platov. Mikhail Pugovkin plays the soldier Fedya.
- The film was made at Mosfilm during the war and released under the campaign title as well as Kutuzov.
- English listings often date it 1943, the production year. The March 1944 date is the recorded release.
- Shaporin's score sits under the Borodino and Berezina sequences.
Scenes
- Kutuzov takes over the retreat Barclay had begun.
- Moscow is set alight rather than left to the French.
- The army does not make peace, and the French reach the Berezina.
