Tarass Boulba

This is of course much inferior to the Yul Brynner version of the same year. What an awfully bad synchronisation to make parallel films on the same story at the same time in both Italy and Hollywood, the Italian version being entirely without stars, while both films have that in common that they have totally distorted Nikolai Gogol's dramatic story and made a sentimental sob intrigue the focus of the film! What is better in the Italian version is the music by Guido Robuschi and Gian Stellari, which offers a lovely melody you will not be likely to forget. The Italian Taras Bulba is more rowdy in coarse exaggerations completely lacking the dashing style of Yul Brynner. The fighting sequences is another advantage here, while as a whole it lands hopelessly in the shadow of John Lee Thompson's Hollywood splendour shot in the wild plains of Argentine. There has been a number of screenings of Gogol's famous novel, both as silents and in the 30s, the story is irresistibly great and dramatic, but both these films have failed miserably in living up to Gogol's standard, although Yul Brynner at least makes justice to the character.

I saw this film on TV in 1979 under the title Plains of Battle dubbed into English. It was distributed by Universal at that time. In my opinion, it is a superior film to Hollywoods 1962 treatment of Taras Bulba except that the Taras Bulba in Il cosacco seemed a bit old. Yul Brynner was a more dynamic Taras Bulba in the Hollywood treatment than Vladimir Medar in Il Cosacco. This is, in my opinion, one of director Ferdinando Baldi's best films.Excellent battle scenes are what I remember best from this film. Its been many years since I saw this film and it is not available on VHS or DVD at this time. It appears to have disappeared without a trace. I believe this film was released on VHS in Germany years ago but I need a confirmation.