Anyone who hears “431 minutes of War and Peace” and imagines an airless museum exhibit passing itself off as a film has another thing coming. The adaptation set a new standard for “epic,” capturing all the passion and tragedy of Napoleon’s clash against the Russian aristocracy in its seven-hour sprawl. The story of its production, of a man moving heaven and Earth to realize a staggering vision, boggles the mind to this day. Having said all that: In any serious, sober-minded discussion about what could be selected to exemplify the farthest reaches of cinema’s capabilities, War and Peace - Sergei Bondarchuk’s largely unseen adaptation of Tolstoy’s literary classic - would have to be on the table. And even some voracious readers are guilty of seeing the writings of Leo Tolstoy as an essential chore. Good critics avoid hyperbole as a rule, and declaring a single film to be the greatest ever made makes a professional sound like an undergrad who just saw Citizen Kane for the first time.

Instal the new War and Peace