University of Virginia Library

Authenticity

The clash itself is staged with
marvelous authenticity. Director
Sergei Bondarchuk marches
swarming waves of troops over the
rolling countryside in thrilling
charges and staunch defenses that
evoke with convincing power the
awful glory of war. Bondarchuk,
one begins to think, missed his
calling; he should have been a
nineteenth-century general instead
of a twentieth-century director.