Poppa! You have George Washington’s wig on your head!
Taras Bulba (1962) follows the eponymous character (Yul Brynner), a Cossack leader who loves the steppes, women, his sons, and fighting, and the escapades of his sons, who are sent to live among and learn from the Poles, the hated Poles who have betrayed and fought them over the years. Besides the casual cruelty of the Poles, one of the sons (Tony Curtis) falls in love with a young Polish noblewoman, for no particular reason that I can see, beyond a purported beauty. Eventually, he finds that he must choose between his beloved people and steppes, and the love of this woman, and inexplicably picks the woman, a choice which leads to his destiny.
This is a fairly lightweight movie – it’s not easy to discern any particularly compelling themes. While I was diverted by scenes of exotic dancing, testosterone, orgies, testosterone, the plague, more testosterone, and some impressive facial hair, I was distinctly put off by the lust, the infatuation for a strange woman who, honestly, is nothing more than pretty, a lust-ridden chase which endangers a collection of Cossacks who had shown great loyalty. It feels like an artificial subplot tacked on to a movie which lusts (but fails) for an epic historical quality.
To say it’s lightweight is not to suggest the plot lacks some complexity. Neither the Cossacks nor the Poles lack in calculation, deception, and resources, as they struggle for dominance on the steppes, and that has some value. The back and forth is certainly an important element in any plot.
But, in the end, between the lack of a compelling theme and the slack-witted lust of the son, the movie leaves one to admire the individual acting performances, and the wardrobes and makeup, while more or less avoiding the mass battle scenes and wishing the story line had a little bit more going for it.
