MovieChat Forums > Waterloo (1970) Discussion > Cavalry

Cavalry

posted 17 years ago by kaneous
10 replies | jump to latest

Isnt the film highly inaccurate?

The british heavy cavalry charge for instance, in the film they charge forward, get owned by the french lancers and thats it.

At waterloo one cavalry brigade charged down the hill to the centre, routed the french curiassiers, then went on and destroyed a french infantry brigade.

The other cavalry brigade charged down the left destroyed 3 french infantry brigades, captured 2 eagles, then carried on to napoleons "grande batterie" and although they didnt destroy it, they disabled about half of it, then the french lancers came along, but the british cavalry was not destroyed like in the film, only pushed back.

Being quit an important part of the battle, why was this not portrayed in the film?

[–] jl201 17 years ago

Because they wanted to capture the essence of the legendary reputation of the French Cuirassiers.

Since we're on the topic of the cavalry. Ney's fool hardy charge at the British infantry squares damn near destroyed the British infantry. Had Napoleon ordered the old Guard to follow through on Ney's charge to finish off the British infantry, Wellington would have been screwed. For some reason Nap was more hessitant in this battle perhaps indicating his age and his sickness.
A younger Napoleon of 1806 would not have hessitated. At waterloo Napoleon was certainly an exhausted man.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] chrismahon2005 17 years ago

Also i reckon why we did not see the brit cav destroy the french inf divison,is because it would have been very hard to do right,the attacks on the squares were great,but to show cav crashing into inf and wrecking the divison would be very hard to film right.

[–] teacher_tom516 16 years ago

At least until the days of Braveheart and Lord of the Rings ;-)

"It is not enough to like a film. You must like it for the right reasons."
- Pierre Rissient

[–] No-Id 16 years ago

I think Ney screwed it up by sending mass cavalry to the squared infantries, I think that was a big mistake...

Perhaps if they had more field guns, they would've destroyed squared infantries easily...

[–] teacher_tom516 16 years ago

Baron Christian de Ompteda IIRC. The young frog really shouldn't have been more than a figurehead commander.

Squares weren't invincible - there were more than a few tense moments at Quatres Bras when the squares were in deadly peril from French horse. The Black Watch lost its colonel, Macara, when some French lancers were caught within the square they were trying to form. Confusion in the ranks left another battalion, the 69th out of square formation and it was savaged - in the movie, when Ney throws a regimental colour at Napoleon's feet and tells him that 'Wellington's on the run', that's supposed to be (I think) the one taken from the 69th. When Wellington's old regiment, the 33rd Foot saw what happened to the 69th, they broke and ran for cover.

Ney's charge, though, really wasted the French cavalry force and the heavies of the Dutch Belgian heavies, the British light dragoons and Somerset's Household Brigade were still there to see them off.

Tom516

"It is not enough to like a film. You must like it for the right reasons."
- Pierre Rissient

[–] teacher_tom516 16 years ago

The problem is the film draws too heavily on Victor Hugos FICTIONAL novel, Les Miserables often in the face of actual research. Les Mis's Waterloo chapter is chock-ful of historical errors but it's a fun read.

The filmmaker wanted to emulate the famous Lady Butler painting SCOTLAND FOREVER but did this at the cost of not showing the successes of the heavies before they overextended themselves and were driven back by fresh French cavalry.

There's actually a lot not portrayed in this film - nevertheless it does stick relatively close to the historical facts, isn't distracted by a dumb and unnecessary lovestory and is fun to watch ;-)

Cheers,
Tom516

"It is not enough to like a film. You must like it for the right reasons."
- Pierre Rissient

[–] DracenWolfe 16 years ago

There was also the safety factor about a cavalry charge into a mass of extras.
During the French cavalry charge of the British squares, the Red Army conscripts forming one square panicked and broke formation (the trivia section? on the homepage), which when I saw the film mistook for the fictional breaking of a square (no British square at Waterloo broke). Imagine a horse charge coming over the hill at those same Red Army extras climbing that hill. There was too much danger of massacring those extras!

He who lives by the sword will be shot by those who can't

[–] syntinen 16 years ago

That anecdote doesn't surprise me a bit. Even in re-enactment, things can suddenly get a bit too real and spook people into panicking. I was at the re-enactment at the 1995 anniversary of the battle, which was traditionally a bit tricky because you got groups coming from literally all over the world, some experienced and some not, and all having different standards of discipline and safety. At the end of the battle one group which was really more a marching band than a battle re-enactment unit, not used to the smell of powder at all, found itself being advanced on with the bayonet by the Black Brunswickers, all black plumes and death's-head badges. They simply broke and ran, the standard-bearer dropping their eagle. Now one of the rules of battle-re-enactment is that you never ever take another unit's colour or standard (it makes for bad blood between units, and the next time they meet on the field things can get nasty), so the Brunswickers picked it up and chased after them trying to give it back, but they only ran all the faster....

[–] mawo333 11 years ago

back then it was not really possible to shop cavalry destroying an infantry square.

maybe with a lot of closeups but still, it would have been very difficult to shoot without looking like some cheesy fake fight.