MovieChat Forums > Waterloo (1970) Discussion > A bit overdressed...

A bit overdressed...

posted 14 years ago by Torchecul
17 replies | jump to latest

Now don't get me wrong here, I love this film, and admire it's superb accuracy, but of course it is a movie, and some things, perhaps deliberately, are wrong.
Much is made of the battle being fought by "dazzling dressed" troops. This was not the case in real life. The uniforms depicted in the film are very accurate reconstructions of the full dress uniforms of the period, but on campaign and in battle things were different.
The French army invariably marched and fought in long drab colored overcoats and loose trousers, their headgear protected with cloth covers, their tassels and plumes safely tucked away in their knapsacks. The British, though resplendent in their redcoats, similarly covered their shakos and other headgear to protect the adornments from damage.
An exception was usually the French Imperial Guard, especially the grumblers of the Old Guard Grenadiers.On the march their bearskin hats were stowed away in cloth bags strapped to their knapsacks,replaced by black felt bicorne hats, they wore dark blue overcoats and trousers, rather than the full dress white breeches and high black gaiters. But when committed to battle, usually as a decisive blow at the end of the fray, they would be wearing their dress kits, carefully brushed up and put on before the attack.
But not at Waterloo. They weren't given time to prepare, and launched their attack still dressed in their marching garb. The men of the Guard took this as a bad omen, and they were perhaps right about that, considering how things turned out.
But the film makers decided to go for the more impressive dress, and maybe they were right. It does look spectacular, and makes it easier for the viewer to distinguish the different units.
War is never a pretty thing, even in the age of Napoleon.

"Savage stuff, Ponsonby!"

[–] Flanged 14 years ago

Interesting information, thanks.
.

[–] rosarypliers 14 years ago

Interesting, indeed. Did you know what guys like Napoleon or Wellington used to wear during battle? I mean, they didn't roll in the mud themselves.
In the movie, it is depicted that an enemy (from Napoleon's POV) officer recognizes him from far away with his telescope thingy — it is implied that he either wore distinctive clothes and/or rode a distinctive horse.
Speaking of horses…Steiger was not a good rider. When the movie crew had finally hoisted him onto a horse, the horse started to move…and he hit the ground. Eventually, they made him sit on a sawhorse, and Steiger commented: "Now this is my idea of a horse."
I'm a lifelong equestrian, and what many people don't know is that some modern riding instructors actually teach their students how to sit properly on a horse using wooden horse dummies.

[–] silentyawn 14 years ago

The O.P knows his onions! a large amount of the French infantry were ill equipped and a large number had no uniform at all,save for the aforementioned greatcoats,the Cavalry however were fine looking solidiers..i can tell you that Wellington rarely wore military uniform in battle if he could avoid it,preferring the typical attire of a Lord of the period.

He was doing very well last night! Maybe someone around here gave him lessons!

[–] Mad Dog McLagan 14 years ago

Napoleon had his own uniform as Emperor that was quite distinctive, along with his distinctive bicorne hat. Wellington generally wore a blue jacket in battle as depicted on film, although he probably would have been in full dress uniform at the Duchess of Richmond's ball as he wore his uniform in official functions, such as when parading his troops.

I suspect the problem is that you have too many paperclips up your nose

[–] pe81171 14 years ago

I agree. Napoleon was usually hard to miss on a battlefield wearing his famous hat, gray coat, and green Guard uniform.

Frank: Just a man.
Harmonica: An ancient race.

[–] booviemuff 12 years ago

And sitting on his white horse

[–] Gerdevil 12 years ago

With one hand in his coat, no doubt!

[–] blaine3-2 12 years ago

No doubt indeed! Napoleon wore the green uniform of a Colonel of the Grenadier Guards. While his Field Marshals were allowed to be peacocks in their splendor he choose good politics, good PR, to show that while he was emperor he was not that far above his soldiers, and still embodied the egalitarian ideals of the revolution. Indeed Marshal Ney who was in control of the army under Napoleon at Waterloo, himself was the son of a barrel maker in Brittany, Napoleon promoted not by birth but by ability.

[–] Maglir 11 years ago

Very true.

Napoleon habitually wore two uniforms at different times,both of the Imperial Guard, the blue coat of his beloved Grenadiers à Pied, and the green coat of the Chasseurs à Cheval, who provided him with his mounted escort. Both were private soldier's patterns, but impeccably tailored and made of finer material than the ones worn by the enlisted soldiers.He was the Emperor, after all. :)

[–] syntinen 10 years ago

While his Field Marshals were allowed to be peacocks in their splendor he choose good politics, good PR, to show that while he was emperor he was not that far above his soldiers, and still embodied the egalitarian ideals of the revolution.

Not really; the absolute height of self-display by the top banana is not even to bother to wear all that bling oneself but have one's underlings wear it for one!

[–] gregorioos 10 years ago

Wellington was nicknamed the Beau because he liked to be well turned out, but he wasn't overly concerned as to how anyone else dressed. When his Peninsular veterans went off to fight in America, they complained that their new commanders expected them to wear the correct uniforms and said that as long as they had 40 rounds in their ammunition pouches and stood their ground, the Duke didn't care what they wore.

[–] syntinen 10 years ago

Very true; and although he didn't care much what the junior regimental officers in the Peninsula wore either. One subaltern remembered that although on campaign none of them could help becoming fairly ragged, many of them deliberately acquired and wore bizarre garments and cultivated eccentric hairstyles.

As I'm sure you know, the only thing the Duke drew the line at was the carrying of umbrellas on active service - "The Guards may in uniform, when on duty at St James's, carry umbrellas if they please; but in the field it is not only ridiculous but unmilitary." Just another problem for poor old Picton.

An afterthought: traditional British rules of behaviour absolutely forbid the carrying of an umbrella by a gentleman (except a clergyman) in the countryside. Everywhere else in 19th- and 20th-century Europe, well-bred men carried umbrellas and used them whenever they were out of doors; but in Britain a gentleman carried his umbrella only in town, and when it rained in the country he just got wet. I've often wondered whether Wellington was enforcing this rule, or whether he even invented it. He was influential enough in Victorian Britain to have created this shibboleth virtually single-handed.

[–] rogerneon 10 years ago

You've made me think of something else, and that is the fact that in paintings that were done in some cases years after the battle, everyone is in clean, brightly colored dress uniform.

[–] syntinen 10 years ago

Although in this case, the British at least would have been wearing clean new uniforms, because they were overwhelmingly new recruits - the experienced battalions form the Peninsular War having been shipped off to America to fight the War of 1812. (There was a lot of bitterness among the Peninsular troops that a bunch of raw recruits who had fought in only one battle - and in some cases had simply stood around in reserve during that battle - got a medal to swank around in, whereas they had nothing to show for years of hard campaigning. It wasn't till 1847 that a medal was awarded for service in the Peninsula, and of course many - most? - of the Peninsula veterans didn't survive long enough to get it.)

[–] cineastral 8 years ago

I am no expert on this subject, but I have read that the French uniforms at Waterloo were immaculate, as if the soldiers were going on a parade.

[–] stevekaczynski 7 years ago

It rained on the night before Waterloo, and this was responsible for the battle starting late as the ground needed some time to dry out. I doubt whether the soldiers looked immaculate - fairly muddy, by all accounts.
Philip Haythornwaite, an expert on Napoleonic uniforms, reckoned that quite a few French soldiers were wearing civilian clothes under military greatcoats because there was no time to give them uniform tunics. Napoleon had to put his army together rather quickly.

"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."

[–] stevekaczynski 7 years ago

That applies to depictions of a lot of older wars, in particular. In the American Revolution, British soldiers and even officers seem to have deviated a lot from the 1768 uniform regulations, judging from contemporary descriptions and those paintings and drawings that did not show them in full dress back in England. One British officer in 1777 depicted himself sarcastically saluting captured Continental officers in a watercolour. They are all rather shabbily dressed, the British officer's hat looks like a wide-brimmed slouch hat rather than a regulation tricorne, he is unshaven, he has not powdered his hair and he even looks like he is wearing trousers.

"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."