Yul Brynner is Cossack tough guy Taras Bulba who along with his son Tony Curtis plan to kick the Poles out of the Ukrainian steppes. Instead Curtis falls in love with vapid German actor Christine Kaufmann playing a polish princess. Curtis turns against Yul and decides to fight for the Poles which pisses Yul off.
This is a large scale action adventure epic filmed in Argentina of course. The film may be the final word in macho posturing performed on a large scale budget. We have guys lifting horses, riding off of cliffs, getting whipped and lots of guys on horses waving swords in the air. About the only thing they don't do is eat nails for breakfast.
Films like this aren't really directed by anyone, the technicians pretty much run the show. The 2nd unit directors stage the action and the stuntmen and special effects guys do their thing. The fact that Yul Brynner can even make an impression is sort of impressive. Pretty boy Tony Curtis and Christine Kaufmann are completely hopeless as the young lovers.
Tarus Bulba is fun to watch just to see the sheer number of people used in the large scale fight and riding scenes. Towards the end the film ventures into Monty Python silliness with the immortal "bring out your dead" and burning witches as the stake scenes.
The macho nonsense gets a little tiring after a while.
122 minutes.
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