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Site created 12/15/97.
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Taras Bulba
Film appreciation by Robert Siegel of The Digital Bits One of three new Yul Brynner releases from MGM/UA Home Video, previously unavailable on DVD, is Taras Bulba, an epic in the old Hollywood tradition. In the sixteenth century, a Turkish army is overwhelming a Polish army when hundreds of Cossacks ride into the fray, drive the Turks over a sheer cliff and out of Ukranian history forever. In the forefront of victory are a Cossack chieftain, Taras Bulba (Yul Brynner - Kings of the Sun, Ten Commandments, The King and I) and his lieutenants, Filipenko (Sam Wanamaker - Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Private Benjamin), Shilo (Brad Dexter - How to Marry a Millionaire, The Magnificent Seven), and the old Stepan (Vladimir Sokoloff - For Whom the Bell Tolls, Istanbul). The Polish leader, Prince Grigory (Guy Rolfe - King of Kings) invites the Cossacks' overlord to a victory toast. But Cossacks dislike Poles almost as much as Turks. Contemptuous Taras Bulba almost spits on the poles. Treachery impends. |
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| When the film was ready to be cast, producer Harold Hecht had only one choice, Yul Brynner. Of Russian descent and familiar with the story's historical background, Brynner was ideal to play the lusty and legendary Cossack leader who fought to free his people from Polish oppression centuries ago. Brynner was born under Russian rule on Sakhalin Island in the Japanese sea. His father, a Russian businessman, had emigrated during the early 20's from the newly-created Soviet Union to Siberia. When they left, Yul was sent to Paris for his education. After 2 years in school there, the 13-year-old joined a group of musicians and began earning a living singing, but a gypsy urge in him was strong to pursue more and he became an acrobat with the circus. A serious fall from a trapeze ended this career. By now, Brynner knew the theater was to be his life and came to the United States in 1941 with a Moscow Art Theater group and stayed on in New York. During the next four years he directed and acted in experimental television and toured the country as a Shakespearean actor and appeared on his own half-hour TV show. His big break came in 1945 when he hit Broadway in Lute Song with Mary Martin. This break lead to his casting in the famous The King and I, and the rest is history. [Continued below...] |
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LEFT: Tony Curtis as he appears in his role of the romantic warrior. RIGHT: Yul Brynner plays the lusty legendary Cossack leader. |
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| Taras Bulba filmed with a cast of over 7,000. Director J. Lee Thompson, fresh from his success with The Guns of Navarone, searched the world for an area that would most closely duplicate the terrain of Ukranian Steppes, which is the story's setting. Their search was complicated by the additional need of thousands of men to portray Cossacks, which were the greatest horsemen of all time. A remote location deep in the Argentine answered both needs, and the Hollywood cast and crew spent several months on location in Salta, which is 700 miles northwest of Buenos Aires. Aside from duplicating the rugged Ukraine, the Argentine locale boasts an abundant number of the greatest horsemen called "Gauchos" - the native cowboy/farmers who work the Pampas. Oddly enough, the Gauchos had to be taught to unlearn many of the riding habits they had spent their lives learning so they could give authentic portrayals of the Cossacks in action. For this job, Hecht had a team of veteran Hollywood stuntmen spend more than six months training both horses and riders in Argentina. To prepare for some of the stunts involving both horses and riders Hecht had several tons of cork imported from Spain. The ground where the battle scenes were filmed was dug up and cork substituted, with a thin layer of earth covering the cork to minimize the effect of falls on the players. The mammoth operation of costuming the thousands of players in exact replicas of the 16th century Cossacks and Poles kept tailors and seamstresses busy from Paris to Rome and London. Brynner and Curtis' costumes alone cost $22,000, which at the time of filming was top dollar for a single Hollywood costume. Harold Hecht, the Academy Award winning producer, pursued a theatrical career as a dancer, dance director, actor and agent, then served for four years in the army. Upon returning, he founded his own agency and won his first client, Burt Lancaster by promising the actor that they would be producing their own films within five years. It only took one and a half. In 1959, Hecht became a fully independent producer. Among his first films were Separate Tables, The Young Savages and Birdman of Alcatraz (which starred Lancaster). Hecht flew with Thompson to Greece, Italy, Austria, Bavaria and Peru before they settled on the location for their next film, Taras Bulba. Salta, Argentina is an old Spanish colonial city of 120,000 in the foothills of the rugged, snow-capped Andres, some 800 miles northwest of Buenos Aires, which could only be reached by road. Salta, aside from duplicating the rugged terrain of the Ukraine, afforded the producer the opportunity to accept the offer of full cooperation from the Argentine army, which supplied the sites on the great Salta Military Reservations for all the locations within six or seven miles of the city. The calvary supplied 1,000 horses and riders to portray Poles. The Cossacks and Turks were portrayed by 10,000 Gauchos, who had been recruited through the powerful Gaucho Association of the Pampas from surrounding estancias, or ranches. [Continued below...] |
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A rarity. Famed cartoonist Al Hirschfield's conception drawing of UA's Taras Bulba. |
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| Production was not an easy task. One of the most unusual jobs during the shooting was that of the metal polisher. Juan Carlos Guiterrez was in charge of over 1,000 workers who kept the metal helmets and breastplates shining bright for the battle scenes. Norma Koch, costume designer, had one of the most monumental tasks of all. She had to design and had delivered to Salta more than 12,000 individual costumes to Buenos Aires for transhipment to Salta. One huge building and several tents were required to handle the great wardrobe crates of costumes and a separate cleaning plant was set up to keep them in perfect daily condition. The art director, Eddie Carrere, was sent to Salta months ahead of the cast and crew to build farm houses for the Cossacks, barracks and a giant 50-acre tent city to house the Gauchos, and huge corrals had to be build to house the 10,000 horses. An interesting note: The Governor of the Province of Salta in Argentina, officially named the 12,000 acre site where the film was shot "Taras Bulba." Formal dedication of the site and installation of a plaque, which is still there, was done on the final day of filming. Construction of a huge billboard proclaiming the new name of the area was completed by local artists and tourists came from miles around to see the sites when the film was released there. This was one of the truly great Hollywood spectacles of the 1960's. Music score fans take note that this score was produced by Franz Waxman, known for composing music to The Philadelphia Story, Madame Curie, Prince Valiant, Spirit of St. Louis, The Virgin Queen (another new DVD release) and over a hundred other Hollywood movies. He won the Oscar for his scores to Sunset Boulevard and A Place in the Sun. [Continued below...] |
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