Synopsis
Taras Bulba (1962) is a Hollywood historical epic you can watch online on iFILM, directed by J. Lee Thompson and adapted from Nikolai Gogol's novella. Yul Brynner plays the fierce Cossack chieftain who has raised his sons for war on the Ukrainian steppe. Tony Curtis is Andrei, the younger son whose loyalty fractures when he falls for a Polish noblewoman during the 16th-century Cossack-Polish wars.
His elder brother Ostap follows the father's code without question. Andrei cannot choose between blood and desire — and that split drives the story past spectacle into something bleaker. Large-scale battle sequences were filmed on location in Yugoslavia, giving the production a physical scope that holds up well for its era.
Christine Kaufmann plays the Polish woman at the centre of the conflict. Brynner brings the same controlled ferocity he'd shown in The Magnificent Seven; his Taras is a man incapable of yielding to anything — enemy or feeling. Stream Taras Bulba (1962) in high quality on iFILM.
Starring
Recommendations
Comments 0