Odd that this was such a hot property - Robert Aldrich tried to make it for five years. It's got spectacle but it's not too hard to find spectacle stories, surely. I suppose it has three decent leads - the imposing Cossack Taras, who loves his sensitive son but turns against him when his son falls for a Pole.
That is a strong simple conflict that should work. And this film has its moments - some spectacle, the horse duel over a cliff. Christina Kaufman is pretty. Yul Brynner is idea in the title role and Tony Curtis gives a good performance. But Curtis is simply spectacularly miscast - he's like twenty years too old for a role that needed someone who was clearly Brynner's son. I could've handled Curtis as a Cossack - I've gone with him being a Viking and a Persian prince - but not Brynner's son and that is the heart of the piece.
He's also too old for a role that requires someone callow. They would've been better off getting some teen idol - or cast Brynner's part a lot older.
The drama is muted. The character of the brother, played by Perry Lopez, is wasted (what's his dramatic point?). Curtis' mother character is wasted. Guy Rolfe's villain feels undercooked - oh for Frank Thring to have played this. Kaufman feels too young for Tony - I get they hooked up in real life, but he's too old for the character as written.
It doesn't feel real. Films have to make their own reality. This feels odd with its colourful costumes, and Cossack dancing and singing (sometimes it's like it's going to spill over into a musical).
Also the Cossacks just feel dumb. The opening scene Guy Rolfe tricks Brynner into defeat. They have a silly dispute resolution process where they jump over a gap - it's an exciting scene but it makes you worry about the stability of this society.
I admit I'm influenced by knowing nothing about this period. Maybe if the storyline had been changed to say the Goths and the Roman Empire.
I do think having cast Brynner and Curtis they should have changed it so that they were brothers rather than father and son.
Still, it is a big expensive Hollywood epic set in medieval Russia so it has points for novelty. And a gorgeous music score.
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