In Part III of War and Peace, the emphasis is on the war: it is 1812 and Napoleon’s armies are crossing into Russia. Nobles discuss politics at their opulent tables as violence rages elsewhere. Pierre visits the battlefield as a casual observer and finds himself in the midst of chaos, while Andrei rediscovers his love of life through yet another brush with death. Bondarchuk moves between the carnage on the ground and the abstract view of battle from the air, taking in the vast geometry of troop formations and the corpse-strewn landscapes they leave behind.