NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA has almost everything to be a successful epic: distinguished cast, impressive sets, good production values; the only thing missing is a real epic feeling. In emphasizing the personal story of the imperial couple, the director neglected the epic grandeur of the tale and period to the point that the result resembles a claustrophobic stage play full of talking heads rather than a real movie that shows EVERYTHING that happens in the story=thousands of soldiers, thousands of civilians, the endless landscapes of Russia, etc. This is a Shakespearean tragedy that demands GRANDEUR, but is instead filmed as if it were one of those bourgeois plays by Chekhov about silly provincial families wasting their time and lives in silly provincial towns. There are so many opportunities for GRANDEUR: the astounding Battle of Tsu Shima--one of the grandest battles in naval history--which ended the Russo-Japanese War; the huge battles of the Great War--Tannenberg, the Brusilov Offensive--; the civil war between the Reds and the Whites=all these would have made dynamic and exciting cinema! Apparently the budget for the movie was exhausted in hiring the all-star supporting cast, for the epic events of Nicholas' reign are merely suggested by symbolic gestures: a few soldiers marching here, a few civilians demonstrating there, photographs of Wilhelm II and Franz Joseph I to represent the enemy at World War I, etc. Franklin Schaffner evidently thought that he was directing a stage production, where representing mighty battles and broad vistas was impossible. How could that happen?! The director of such perfectly exciting movies as THE WAR LORD, PLANET OF THE APES (1968) and PATTON should have known better! All in all, a sadly wasted opportunity; what could have been a brilliant epic worthy of David Lean turned instead into a solid but stolid plod.