BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Martin Bradley A look at the behind-the-camera credits of "Taras Bulba" and you might think you are watching, if not a masterpiece, then at least one of Hollywood's greatest and most intelligent spectaculars. So what went wrong? The director was J. Lee Thompson, fresh from a trilogy of terrific action pics, ("Ice Cold in Alex", "Northwest Frontier" and "The Guns of Navarone"), and one great thriller, ("Cape Fear"). Waldo Salt was one of the two scriptwriters, Joe MacDonald photographed it in Panavision and four of Hollywood's top editors had been merrily snipping away. In front of the camera we had Tony Curtis and Yul Brynner; okay, neither of them was Olivier but Brynner had an Oscar under his belt and Curtis had done "Sweet Smell of Success" and "Some Like it Hot" so we knew they could act and yet this rubbish is, if not quite a total disaster, neither memorable nor of interest. In fact, the best you can say of it is that it's no better, and probably a lot worse, than many a large-scale and totally anonymous western with its large cast putting on funny accents and pretending to be Cossacks, (except, of course, for the Brooklynese Curtis). It just about gets by as entertainment and is certainly no-one's finest hour.

kosmasp ... even as a Coassack! Seriously though Mr. Brynner can play everything, as far as I'm concerned, and that in a very convincing manner, too! But although the film is called "Taras Bulba", it's actually son Bulba, who's playing the main character here (portrayed by Tony Curtis).I had the opportunity to watch the movie in a (blow-up) 70mm copy. Unfortunately the colors had faded away, but it still looked great. The battle scenes are especially good. But it's the nature of the movie that I liked, the depiction of a small group of "rebels" that tried to go a different way (if you see the movie, you'll know what I mean). There's a great quote from "Bulba Sr." (Brynner) about having faith in poles, just awesome!

Psalm 52 This film is not as impressive as some IMDb reviewers hint. It has overall poor production design and even worse set design. The Kiev sequence reeks of studio backlot and it shows. The matte drawings have a cartoon-like way of NOT helping set the era of the story. Waldo Salt's script is terrible. The casting of Brynner is brilliant, but then the casting of Curtis truly wrecks the film. The direction has a by-the-numbers feel to it that robs battle sequences of drama and the horses/soldiers going over the cliff is done w/ toy horses/soldiers KILLING any illusion of reality. Then again it was made in 1962, but still ... epics were an established genre and this is not an epic film. The Curtis/Kaufman love subplot is unbelievable. There's one scene near the end when Brynner and Curtis face off and it's a textbook example of serious acting (Brynner) and matinée idol posturing (Curtis). Skip this film if at all possible.

ma-cortes 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 .