W is for "Waterloo"

 

For the letter W, I have chosen one of the best epic battle movies. 

 

“Waterloo” is a Soviet/Italian production released in 1970 and directed by Soviet Sergei Bonderchuk. He used 15,000 Soviet soldiers and 2,000 cavalrymen. 50 circus riders were employed for the numerous horse falls. It was a big budget epic that did poorly at the box office. The battlefield was sculpted by bulldozing two hills, transplanting 5,000 trees, and reconstructing four historic buildings. "Waterloo" exemplifies the ability of war movies to reenact famous battles in an entertaining way. It also shows how famous generals use tactics to fight battles.

 

Here is the review: Waterloo 

Austerlitz (1960)

 

            The recent “Napoleon” included the Battle of Austerlitz as one of its big set pieces.  Ridley Scott covered the battle in just a few minutes which concentrated on the famous artillery bombardment that caused the drowning of many Russian soldiers.  It is possible that a lot of the battle was cut from the theatrical release and the director’s cut will do more justice to Napoleon’s masterpiece.  If justice is to be served, the director’s cut will need a lot more minutes because the battle was complicated and needs an entire movie to itself.  We do have a movie just on the battle.  It was directed and co-written by Abel Gance.  Gance was the renowned director of the silent classic “Napoleon” (1927).  Originally, Gance planned on a six-part series, but only the first episode was made, covering Napoleon’s childhood up to the invasion of Italy.  Decades later, Gance decided to restore his career by filming what would have been part 3.  It became the movie “Austerlitz” (also know as “Battle of Austerlitz).

            The movie opens in 1801.  Napoleon (Pierre Mondy) and Josephine (Martine Carol) are in a marriage where neither is faithful.  He visits a mistress (who has another lover hiding in her bureau).  Josephine is having an affair with her hair dresser.  Napoleon attends a ball which includes Brits Charles Fox and Lord Cornwallis.  The movie has a load of famous figures.  At the ball, Napoleon scolds his sister Pauline (Claudia Cardinale) for being a tramp.  The dances include a silly one where the men carry torches!  Napoleon is appointed Consul for life.  Meanwhile, the Treaty of Amiens is breaking down as the British are interested in round three with the French.  The British are so unnerved by Napoleon that they try to assassinate him.  Napoleon is gathering an army to invade England.  Robert Fulton (Orson Welles!) shows up to entice Napoleon with his steamboat.  In 1804, Napoleon is crowned Emperor.  Oddly, Gance decided not to stage this famous event (unlike Ridley Scott).  In 1805, the Third Coalition is created by the United Kingdom.  It included Austria and Russia. 

            Napoleon preempts an invasion of France by marching his Grand Army to meet the Austro-Russian army.  A map shows his path to the Battle of Ulm.  After this defeat, the allies are unsure of how to counter the French.   The capable Gen. Kutusov commands the allied army and urges caution, but the arrival of Czar Alexander and Austrian Emperor Francis results in his demotion.  They insist on going on the offensive.  Kutusov’s chief of staff Weyrother (Jack Palance!) leads the chorus of the overconfident.  In the other camp, Napoleon’s subordinates think he is nuts to offer battle against the superior enemy forces.  Napoleon knows what he is doing and has preplanned a battle at Austerlitz.  At one point, he recons the area and is almost captured.  Later, he has an encounter with a sassy French soldier named Alboise. 

            In the battle, Kutusov warns about moving off the Pratzen Heights, but the allies descend anyway.  This leads to disaster.  One of Napoleon’s subordinates tells him (and us) what is taking place, but it’s hard to visualize.  Gance did not have the budget (or the CGI) to show key moments in the battle.  He did manage to stage a few shots of cavalry charges.  Alboise leads an infantry charge up the heights, on his own initiative, and it fails.  I guess he didn’t carry a marshal’s baton in his backpack.  A French general on the allied side tricks a French unit into going into a marsh by having a French bugle call replicated.  When the fog dissipates the allies are shocked to find the French are marching to cut their force in half by taking the Pratzen Heights. There’s some cavalry clanging.  Some Russians retreat across a frozen marsh.  Napoleon’s artillery breaks up the ice.  The movie concludes with the usual body-covered battlefield and a band plays “La Marseillaise”.

            “Austerlitz” is not in a league with Gance’s “Napoleon.”  In that earlier film, Gance revolutionized movie making with hand-held cameras, superimposition, and multi-screen panorama.  Little of that is evidenced here.  It just looks like a typical 1960s war movie.  One area where it tops his first movie is in its vibrant technicolor.  Those multi-colored uniforms really splash.  The most obvious comparison is to “Waterloo” and it comes up way short.  The action is small-scale and it spends too much time getting to the battle.  The battle doesn’t kick in until well past the two-hour mark.  In this respect, it goes back further for its background than “Waterloo.”  It includes more historical persons almost to the point of name-dropping.  The scenes leading to the battle are entertaining if you are a fan of the Napoleonic Wars.  In fact, it helps to be a fan because it can be confusing if you are not knowledgeable.  The narrative could have used a good map and a narrator.  If you want to learn about the Battle of Austerlitz, you would be better served with a YouTube video.  Actually, it is good advice to watch one of those videos before viewing the movie

            The combat is not impressive.  While “Waterloo” was expansive, this film is soundstage-bound.  Much of it takes place the night before the battle when the darkness could better hide the soundstage fakeness.  Periodically, an outdoor shot, usually of cavalry charging is thrown in.  Movies sure love their cavalry charges!  There is some attention to uniforms, but this does not help much in figuring out who is who in the melees.  The cannons do recoil, but the results are just special effects explosions on the ground.  The cinematography is disappointing considering it is a movie directed by Gance.

            The movie is best viewed as a character study.  Mondy is great as Napoleon.  The screenplay has him tugging on soldiers’ ears which was a trait of his.  The movie does a good job making a case for Napoleon being a great leader.  At one point, he dictates six different letters at one time.  He rattles off orders.  He’s a step ahead of the enemy and his own generals.  Napoleon is also portrayed as a man who was willing to accept criticism.  He allows subordinates to complain about his plans with no repercussions.  He does not come off as a thin-skinned megalomaniac.  However, the movie makes a strong case for Napoleon’s masterpiece being more a loss by incompetent fools than a win by a military general.  The main fool is Weyrother who is played with scene-chewing verve by Palance.  It's casting like that which makes the film more watchable.  Weyrother is not the only fool.  On the allied side, only Kutusov comes off well.  It’s a very command-centric movie, but we do get one common soldier, Alboise, to give a taste of the pawns.  Napoleon meets up with this crusty Old Guard on three occasions.  The first time, Alboise calls Napoleon “Shorty” and is cynical of his leadership that gets so many men killed.  When Napoleon tries to tug on his ear, he points out that he lost it at Marengo!  Napoleon takes the carping good-naturedly and calls him “grunt.”  He promotes Alboise to sergeant.  The other running comic relief character is Napoleon’s steward.  He has to break in Napoleon’s hats and there is a series of references to Napoleon’s height.  Later, the night before the battle, Napoleon sleeps on a stool rather than wake up his servant who is asleep in his bed.

            In some ways, the movie comes off as a play.  Most of it takes place on a stage, so to speak and it is very much dialogue driven.  That dialogue is well written and compensates a bit for the lack of action.  Since we get more inside Napoleon’s head and see him in a variety of roles, Mondy’s Napoleon captures the man better than Phoenix’s Napoleon.  Phoenix may be the better actor, but Mondy is the better Napoleon.  He is a multi-faceted character.  He can be petulant and bad tempered, but he also shows some humor and really cares about his men.  The family dynamic is clearer with Josephine, Pauline, and his mother getting their due.  Most importantly, this movie is much better at showing why Napoleon was a genius.  He sees the battlefield like he is clairvoyant.  He is able to rattle off orders shifting units without looking at a map.  He predicts his opponents every move and plays them like a fiddle.  In fact, at the end, Kutusov yells “He played us!”

            There have been some good movies set in the Napoleonic Wars.  These include Gance’s
“Napoleon”, Bondarchuk’s “War and Peace”, “Waterloo”, and “The Duellists”.  There have been a few good naval films like “Captain Horatio Hornblower”, “Damn the Defiant!”, and the Hornblower TV series.  The Sharpe TV series is excellent as well.  I would not put Scott’s “Napoleon” in with those films, nor would I include “Austerlitz.”   But I would say if you want to watch a movie about the battle, Gance’s movie is more informative and accurate than Scott’s.  And it features a much more entertaining Napoleon.

GRADE  =  B

HISTORICAL ACCURACY:  The film is fairly accurate in a simplistic way.  Napoleon and Josephine did cheat on each other and Pauline was a tramp.  Napoleon’s relationship with

Britain was as depicted.  Britain was not interested in a lasting peace.  British agents did come close to killing him with a bomb.  Robert Fulton did try to sell Napoleon his steamboat.  Its sinking on the Seine nixed any deal.  Napoleon did march his Grande Armee to the Rhine to take the initiative against the Third Coalition.  His army was now organized into corps which were units bigger than divisions that included infantry, artillery, and cavalry.  They were capable of fighting an enemy army until other corps could arrive.  Napoleon would send his corps on different roads for speed and foraging.  When one made contact with the enemy, Napoleon would bring the others to the site or onto the rear or flanks of the enemy.  This allowed him to surround and destroy an Austrian army at the Battle of Ulm.  The way Napoleon allowed his corps to appear to be disunited tempted the allies to take advantage of what looked like a mistake.  The movie assumes the audience knows about the corps.  It is fine in showing the overconfidence in the allied camp.  Weyrother takes a beating in the movie, but he was not the only leader who thought the battle would be easy.  Emperor Francis demoted Kutusov because he wanted to retreat further east to combine with the Prussian army.  Nobody agreed with that degree of caution.  Napoleon recognized this overaggressiveness and fed it.  He did feign interest in an armistice as the movie shows.  His brilliant use of the Pratzen Heights is woefully overlooked in Scott’s film (although hopefully not in the director’s cut).  He gave up the strategic position in what appeared to be a panicky retreat.  He left his right wing weak to invite attack.  The battle opened with an allied attack on the town of Teinitz and later on the town of Sokolnitz (which has a battle scene).  Both towns changed hands several times in serious fighting.  Meanwhile, Davout’s corps was on a forced march to get to the right wing.  The film gives a major shoutout to Gen. Friant whose exhausted cavalry were thrown in against great odds to slow the enemy attack on the right.  The Austrians had taken the abandoned Pratzen Heights and Kutusov wanted to stay put.  However, the Czar insisted he march off it.  Napoleon sent Soult to take the hill.  There were still some allied units on it so the fighting lasted two hours before the French were in control and had thus cut the enemy line in half.  A huge cavalry battle broke out in the center of the battle with the French eventually prevailing.  I assume some of the cavalry footage was intended to depict this part of the battle.  Napoleon sent a force down from the Pratzen Heights to support his embattled right by hitting the Russians from behind.  Some of the fleeing Russians tried to cross some frozen ponds.  French artillery opened fire and some soldiers were drowned (the French saved some of them) and some cannons were lost.  Napoleon exaggerated the disaster by claiming about 2,000 were killed.  In actuality,  it was probably closer to 200, but the legend persists to this day.  The movie does not imply that thousands were killed, but that might just be because of its small-scale rendering of the incident.    

THE 100 BEST WAR MOVIES #79. Waterloo (1970)

 

                “Waterloo” is a Soviet/Italian production released in 1970 and directed by Soviet Sergei Bonderchuk.  He got the job because Mosfilm helped finance the film.  He used 15,000 Soviet soldiers and 2,000 cavalrymen provided by the Red Army..  It holds the record for most costumed extras in a movie.  50 circus riders were employed for the numerous horse falls.  It was a big budget epic that did poorly at the box office.  The poor performance was one reason why Stanley Kubrick’s planned biopic on Napoleon was shelved.  The battlefield was sculpted by bulldozing two hills, transplanting 5,000 trees, and reconstructing four historic buildings.  Acres were planted with wild flowers, rye, and barley.  It was the largest battlefield ever used for a film.  It was located in Ukraine where 48 days of shooting occurred.   It won BAFTAs for Costume Design and Art Direction and it was nominated for Cinematography.

            The movie opens in April, 1814 at Fountainebleu Palace.  Napoleon’s council explains to him the dire situation as the allies close in on Paris.  They all recommend that he abdicate.  Napoleon (Rod Steiger) has mood swings from despair to optimism to rage to resignation.  At one point he talks strategic nonsense in front of some maps.  The whole scene has a “Downfall” vibe to it and someone should think of using it for a new You Tube series.  Napoleon finally sees reason and says goodbye to his Old Guard in a speech that shows his charisma and why his soldiers worshipped him.

            The movie then jumps several months to Napoleon’s return from exile.  King Louis XVII (Orson Welles looking like Humpty Dumpty) sends General Ney (Dan O’Herlihy) to arrest Napoleon.  The encounter between Napoleon and his loyalists and Ney’s larger force is suspenseful.  Napoleon’s forceful personality wins the day.  The blimp flees and Napoleon is back in power.

            In Brussels, the British are holding a dress ball attended by Wellington (Christopher Plummer) and his officers.  There is much pomp with period costumes, dancing, and music.  There is romance in the air including a fictional one between the Duchess of Richmond’s daughter and a dashing aide named Lord Hay.  Will her fiancé survive the battle?  Word arrives that Napoleon has stolen a march on the allies and has crossed the border.  Coincidentally, the doors are thrown open by a sudden storm.  Get it?

            The Battles of Quatre Bras and Ligny are aftermathed.  Standing amidst the detritus of Ligny, Napoleon scolds Ney (who reports directly to him) for not vigorously pursuing Wellington and then instructs Marshal Grouchy to tail Blucher’s Prussians.  The night before the battle, it’s dueling councils as Napoleon and Wellington discuss strategy.  Wellington has an encounter with a pig-stealing soldier (earlier he had described his enlisted men as “scum, beggars, and scoundrels”) who he promotes for his cheekiness.  A reference is made to Napoleon’s health problem, but it is not specified what is ailing him.  If it wasn’t based on fact, you would think Bondarchuk was setting up an excuse for (spoiler alert!) Napoleon’s defeat.

            The day breaks clear after a very rainy night, but the mass of mud causes Napoleon to postpone his attack.  The battle begins at 11:35 (the movie labels key events) with artillery fire which sounds authentic, but the cannons have no recoil which cancels the sound effects.  Napoleon launches a diversionary attack on the farm house Hougomont and the action begins.

            The action shifts to the center and features a magnificent charge by the Scots Greys.  Multiple cameras give every view imaginable.  There is slo-mo and moments of silence other than the sound track.  It was inspired by Elizabeth Thompson’s 1881’s Scotland Forever painting.  Bondarchuk uses his full kit.  One of the principles, Lord Picton (Alex Hawkins), meets a quick death that replicates his actual demise.  The flaw is the cavalry encounters no enemy until they reach the French artillery and then they are counterattacked by French lancers.  (The lack of a charge into infantry is because the extras, although Soviet soldiers, would panic when the horses approached, so it was cut from the film.)  The movie is excellent in getting the audience to arch its back in anticipation of being speared from behind.  The leader of the Greys, Gen. Ponsonby, also has an accurate death as his exhausted horse is ridden down in the mud.

            The movie briefly updates us on Grouchy as he stubbornly refuses to march to the sound of the guns and continues to simply dog Blucher.  These little touches aid the audience in following the big picture, but it definitely helps to have prior knowledge of the battle.  Napoleon collapses due to the stress of wondering where Blucher and Grouchy are.  While he recuperates, Ney mistakes a rearward movement of the British center to take refuge from cannonading as a general retreat and orders a massive cavalry charge.

            What follows is one of the great scenes in war movie history. The multiple cameras come into play again, including aerial views.  The British get into squares and weather the storm of thundering hooves.  There is a brief reappearance of the pig-stealer, but the grunt that makes the most impression is one of his mates who bizarrely leaves the ranks to rant about the inhumanity of the killing.  This heavy-handed sermonizing mars the action.  The pompous music also detracts, but it is still an awesome rendering of one of the seminal moments in cavalry history.

            From Ney’s disastrous waste of the cavalry (one is left to wonder why Napoleon forgave Ney for his Louis XVIII flirtation), the movie alludes to the French capture of La Haye Sainte in the center but foregoes the potential for some hard core infantry combat.  (In fact, the movie is very cavalry-centric which is odd considering the cavalry units mostly embarrassed themselves in the battle.)  The moment of decision has arrived as Napoleon can see the Prussians approaching on his right flank.  He orders the Old Guard forward to break the spine of the British Army.

            The French march ominously forward, but the British are prone on the reverse slope.  Upon orders from Wellington, they rise and deliver volleys which break the Old Guard and send it reeling.  “The Old Guard is broken!”  Wellington is giddy (for him) and won’t let the delimbing of Uxbridge faze him.  “By God, sir, I’ve lost my leg.”  “By God, so you have.”  No better example of the clicheish British stiff upper lip exists in movie history.

            The chaos of a battle epilogue is rendered and capped with the refusal of the Old Guard to surrender.  Their “Nuts!” is “Merde!” (which means not “go to Hell”, but “shit”).  The cocky response is met by massed cannon fire that was over in a blink.  All that is left to be shown is the ignominious carriage escape by Bonaparte, the civilian scavenging, and the obligatory victorious general solemnly traversing the corpse-strewn battlefield.  “Next to a battle lost, the saddest thing is a battle won.”

ACTING:                      B

ACTION:                      A  8/10

ACCURACY:                 B

PLOT:                          A

REALISM:                    B

CINEMATOGRAPY:      outstanding

SCORE:                        average

 

BEST SCENE:  the cavalry versus the squares

BEST QUOTE:   Lord Uxbridge:   By God, Sir. I've lost my leg.

 Duke of Wellington: By God, Sir. So you have.

 

                “Waterloo” is one of the most accurate depictions of a major battle ever put on film.  None of the major events are contemptuous of history.  However, there are some key events and exposition that are left out.  For instance, the movie glosses over the mistake made by the French of feeding more troops into the attack on Hougoumont in what was originally conceived of as a diversion.  The handling of the charge of the Scot Greys is also shortchanged by eliminating any contact with French infantry.  The pummeling of the British infantry by Napoleon’s batteries is not depicted well.  In fact, the withdrawal that the movie Ney mistakes for retreat actually occurred earlier in a response to French artillery  (Not enough is made in the movie of Wellington’s famous “reverse slope” tactic).  Ney’s faulty decision was most likely a misreading of casualties withdrawing.   The fight for La Haye Sainte is completely skipped.  Much of this was probably logistical decisions, plus the desire to control the length of the film.  What is less excusable is the handling of Blucher’s arrival.  The movie has him arriving unimpeded on the French flank.  In reality, the Prussians had to fight their way to the position shown in the movie.  Not a big deal for a movie that has built up good will up to this point.  The only ridiculous moment comes with the destruction of the Old Guard.  They did fight to the last man, but were not mown down by artillery in less than a minute.

            There are a few sloppy mistakes that bear mentioning.  I did not see a single reloading of a musket or cannon in the film.  There is no use of the bayonet.  I already mentioned the lack of cannon recoil.  However, once again, the little details make up for these errors.  These details include French drummer boys, the British rum ration, the use of snuff, and the bagpipers.  The rain, smoke, and mud show the attention to environmental details.

            “Waterloo” is a worthy attempt to recreate the most famous battle in history.  The scale is appropriately epic.  Bondarchuk literally had an army to work with and the non-CGI battles benefit from this.  In spite of the quantity of soldiers, the movie is very much a command-oriented film.  All of the main characters are not only higher command, but also upper class.  We have to take Wellington’s famous word that his men were scum because we learn little of them.  The decision to concentrate on command can be debated, but the movie is strong in getting in the minds of Napoleon and Wellington. Literally, because we hear their thoughts.  Thankfully Bondarchuk  does not abuse this conceit and it is effective.  The movie reminds of “The Longest Day” in its back and forth coverage of the two generals.  It really is a duel  of masters of war.  The movie is more interested in strategy than tactics and it does a good job of the big and medium picture.  I already knew a lot about the battle, but I think an average viewer could learn the basics from this film.

            One flaw is the acting.  Steiger and Plummer dominate, which is not surprising given the weak supporting cast.  The appearance of Welles is a Brando in “Superman” stunt.  Steiger chews the scenery, but so did Napoleon so I think the criticism of his performance has been too harsh.  He certainly did a better job of portraying Napoleon’s personality than Rivers Phoenix.   I actually was less enamored with Plummer’s take on Wellington.  My reading has not given me the impression that the Iron Duke was the witty, bon mot fellow of this movie.  I don’t think he smiled as much as Plummer does.  It doesn’t help the actors that some of the dialogue is a bit pompous, but many of the lines are direct quotes.

            The cinematography is eye-opening at times.  There is a wide variety of views.  Early scenes have plenty of close-ups, especially of the eyes.  The battle is noted for multiple angles from the five Panavision cameras.  Bondarchuk used a elevated railway constructed across the battlefield and a helicopter.  The two cavalry charges stand out.  The sound effects are well done, but the sound track is bothersome.  The movie has long stretches of no music, so when the standard epic war movie score kicks in it is jarring.

            After seeing Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon”, one must respect Bondarchuk’s “Waterloo” even more.  First, Scott would have been wiser to have chosen a smaller time frame than Napoleon’s entire career.  “Waterloo” covers just the Hundred Days and this leaves about half of the movie for the battle.  Second, for a large battle like Waterloo or Austerlitz, you are better served with extras than CGI.  Scott’s Waterloo is laughable in comparison to this.  And Bondarchuk does not make Napoleon an action hero. 

            “Waterloo” is a battle epic that could not be made today.  Since CGI had not been invented, it used real people on large numbers to recreate the battle.  When compared to the battle scenes in “Napoleon”, it is clear that actual people are preferable.  It is more appropriate to compare it to “Gettysburg”.  “Gettysburg” has a similar structure of intercutting between the commands of both armies and it uses large numbers of reenactors.  “Waterloo” comes up short because its cast is not as strong and soldiers playing soldiers of 150 years ago are not as good as civilians whose hobby is playing soldiers.  However, although it has its flaws, “Waterloo” does a good job bringing one of the most famous battles in history to audiences in an entertaining and informative way.