Captain Nolan is a flawed, human character, too.

I decided to write a new blog rather than answer the one below, "Captain Nolan is an ass".

It wasn't the intent of the 1968 movie's filmmakers to glorify the old British empire and the old British Army, both of which were products of the old, rigid, caste conscious British civilization. Contrary, the filmmakers, probably possessing a socialist sympathy, intended to denigrate the greatly flawed British civilizatio of the 19th century with all of its wretched Dickensen-like poverty, social injustice, decay, stagnation, lack of opportunity, illiteracy and abandonment of the lower British classes. But you don't have to be a socialist to comprehend or appreciate this viewpoint. You only need to stay awake in high school history class.

The filmmakers clearly intended to portray the contemporary characters as flawed men leading a flawed military campaign. But it is not surprising as all humans possess some shortcoming or flaw which makes us human by the very definition. The filmmakers showed that when a human is also endowed with political, economic, or military leadership stature, these very human flaws in us can be magnified many times over, to ultimately bring tragedy to other human beings.

Captain Nolan was a product of his time and society's Victorian era values. Outwardly he can depict the upper class aloofness with which he was borned and raised. But the man senses inequality and injustice around him and it deeply troubles him. Nolan is born ahead of his time when his way of progressive military thinking would have been better served had he been living in 1940 instead of 1854. The movie strives to portray Captain Nolan as progressive for his time yet conservative in social outlook. Yet he doesn't believe in flogging soldiers as was still the military custom in the British Army at the time. But under the strain of the ineptly-led Crimean campaign, Nolan is depicted as reaching some sort of breaking point and is borderline psychotic.

The common British people of the later 20th century came to despise the injustices, inequalities, and oppression of the old British empire, for which is glory and immense wealth were built upon their bent backs and broken bodies, that benefited but the highest upper social class. The British empire may have been great and it may have been grand, but it was not all that good.

The filmmakers did not intent to glorify the old British empire nor to magnify the attributes of the old British Army. They meant for you to be appalled by it. And in this respect I believe they succeeded. After watching the 1968 Charge of the Light Brigade, you come away shaking your head. You wonder how such an unequal, unjust 19th century civilization and incompetently led grand army could one day defeat Germany in two world wars, and after World War II, was for a very brief time actually classified as a superpower next to the United States and the former USSR.