@@thetankthatnoonereallytalk5933 The Russian military committed a total of 18,000 soldiers for the making of this movie. Every single man wearing historically correct uniforms and carrying real period weapons. It's the largest confirmed usage of extras in a movie. Not only that, but they used only practical effects. They didn't use any new technologies of the time. They wanted the battles to be as authentic as humanly possible. It's a masterclass of a movie.
@@thetankthatnoonereallytalk5933 yup! All Soviet soldiers retrained, redrilled and equipped in the Napoleonic fashion. The only other film that comes close to Waterloo’s use of Practical affects and historical accuracy is Gettysburg.
@JumboMceal Just letting you know the guy who directed Napoleon (Ridley Scott) is British. The British tend to portray Napoleon in a very negative and self-serving light, often to make their Duke of Wellington look good.
@madgavin7568 that may be true. However Ridley Scott also portrayed wellington as a crusty old man. I believe there goal was "let's make the most uncharismatic movie about Napoleon as possible"
@JumboMceal hey dawg, us Americans wouldn’t disrespect THE Napoleon Bonaparte, that job is carried out by the British ( like Ridley Scott, the director), stop blaming us when one of our worst historical movies is about our history (Gods and Generals). I do wish us America do Napoleon justice in the future.
we must imagine the poor soldiers walking side by sidr to the death it is the hidden face of Napoleon's wars millions of dead wounded and disappeared in Europe!
I just came here to wash my eyes from what they've seen with Scott's movie. Aaah, refreshing.
8 месяцев назад
The average age of an ‘Old Guard’ was 35-40,3 campaigns and 12 years service. Life expectancy in those times was 50-55.The last Guardsman (maybe Young Guard) to die was in 1898 (105ish)A Prussian died one year later.
It is too expensive to use so many real people in beautiful 19th century uniforms, real fireworks and real horses in battle scenes. Now they use CGI, and it looks horrible like cartoon. But it is cheap .
"La victoire est à nous" Une musique frissonnante qui va, s'amplifiant et vous saisit le cœur et l'âme et vous pénètre de désir de gloire. Vive la France.
Technically, their strategic plan did not fail until the Prussian arrived, so the Prussians are kind of the whole reason why the allied army wasnt defeated
@@eze2219 well if you want to be technical, their *tactical* plan was working until the Prussians arrived. Their *strategic* plan was to keep the Prussian army away while the British army was destroyed, which obviously failed.
@@zigomar-m2mthough, the day before Napoleon ordered Grouchy to search and engage the Prussian, that were retreating to Wavre. Therefore, Grouchy followed the road, as ordered. But the prussians had other plans, and Grouchy never received a counter-order.
@@christophermichaelclarence6003 for once, us froggies can unite with Wellington lovers, in the struggle against the butchering of history comitted by Ridley Scott
Can you imagine being a soldier and watching thousands of men, part of your archenemy's elite troops, veterans of many campaigns, march on you like that?
@eqw alle The Imperial Guard failed against the Prussians, not the British. The Prussians were the only reason Napoleon didn't crush Wellington's lines utterly.
@eqw alle fun fact it wasn't actually the old guard who fought in this battle it was the middle guard who weren't as experienced the old guard was used to cover the retreat of the french army and never actually fought the march would have been a lot different if the old guard actually marched in this moment
@eqw alle That's not true ;-) By the time the middle guards attacked Wellington's lines, Prussian units of the 1st Corps commanded by General Ziethen had long since occupied positions on Wellington's left wing, and it was only because of this that Wellington was able to withdraw his own troops there to reinforce his centre. At about the same time, the Prussians defeated the young guard in Plancenoit and the parts of the old guard deployed there, and Prussian cavalry flooded the battlefield and smashed everything that got in front of their sabers.
This is a nice movie. Even knowing how it all ends. When the guard charges, you have the sensation that Napoleon is close to win. The music, the angles. All very well done.
Napoleon died alone in exile thousands of miles from his home. Wellington became Prime Minister of his country and political leader of an empire that stretched around the globe.
@@hugovictor4651 If you want to worship the first modern dictator in history, fly at it, lad. I can assure you that the Spanish and the Portuguese remember Wellington fondly too. But the Russians laugh at the mention of Napoleon's name.
@@JohnCampbell-rn8rz This dictator put an end to the revolutionary “Terror” which itself put an end to the royalist dictatorship in the way you know. Weren't the English the first to behead a King? Which English monarchy must have been terrified at the idea that the peoples of Europe were following the path of the French Revolution. This can be understood... As for the Russians, they, shortly after, dethroned their Tsar who was no better, from a democratic point of view, than the French, English or European royalty of the time. This is why they can't really laugh at Napoleon. They ended up imitating the French Revolution...
Why not? The British have defeated the French for centuries. I haven't counted them up but I would guess that the win/loss record is higher on the British side of the scoreboard.
Excellent video however, The Old Guard did not march against Wellington……..Young and Middle did. Units of the Old Guard were sent to shore up Napoleon’s right flank against the Prussians and then covered the retreat of the French army.
ah, i think the inaccuracy on the director's part is for the best however. The old guard being the ones to die and flee is more dramatic and thematically fitting.
In fact, Napoleon sent Old Guard grenadiers against the Prussians. But also he added some Old Guard batallions to the attack of the Middle Guard against Wellington's center as a (morale) backbone but also as a threat for those who considered to waver or stay behind. When the emperor needed it he threw in his elite. The scene in this movie is, of course, exaggerating to portray Wellington's victory more glorious. Not only do we get the impression that the Allied army had to face the whole Old Guard but also Napoleon's whole army since there is no real order but an overwhelmingly thick mass of soldiers covering the whole screen. In the real battle, the Middle Guard advanced in squares because of fear of another devastating British cavalry attack or a very determined Prussian cavalry charge. This made them extremely vulnerable against canister shots and line musket fire.
From what I could gathered, Bondarchuk mixed two event : the rout of the middle guard, and the retreat of one of the old guard square that was retreating (therefore moving and not standing), where Cambronne apparently -he denied that statement for the rest of his live- "The guard dies but does not surrender". He was then knocked unconscious by a canonball and captured, his men leaving the field in good order.
It was the Middle Guard whose assault failed at Waterloo. The Young Guard fought valiantly at Plancenoit. The Old Guard performed rear guard duties during the retreat.
Great scene! Epic movie. There is a simular scene like this one. In 'Kingdom of Heaven'...'The Jerusalem has come.' When King Baldwin arrives almost out of nowhere.
Respect to Dino de Laurentis; he invested a lot of money to produce this masterpiece; sadly, it failed at the box office (1970, Vietnam era, totally US-USSR dominated).
@@InquisitorXarius" If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it” Lincoln. "“There is a terrible war coming and these young men who have never seen war cannot wait for it to happen, but I can tell you, I wish that I owned every slave in the south, for I would free them all to avoid this war.” " Robert E. Lee. Keep being a woke libbie on the web.
@@royale7620 Robert E Lee is a hypocrite in his own words as he practically incited the war when he and his fellow Dixie Subhumans murdered John Brown. If Lee was committed to freedom he would have never “bought” any enslaved Americans, nor would he keep any enslaved Americans he “inherited”.
@@royale7620 If Lee was committed to Freedom and Country than he would have never betrayed his country and sided with Tyranny, Elitism, and Slavery. If Lee was commutted to Justise he would have advocated for him and his fellow traitors to go to the gallows befitting those who betrayed their country for objective evils.
As a amateur historian, I still believe the Napoleonic wars were really the 1st world war. How different the world could have been if waterloo had gone to old Boney
Neither the Napoleonic Wars nor Seven Years War had anything like the kind of scale WW1 did. Media portrayals of WW1 really don't do justice to its enormous scope.
I know it should be well known, but this was the Middle Guard, the Old Guard were busy retaking plancenoit at the point of a bayonet, once they retook Plancenoit they went back into reserve and covered the retreat of the army after the middle guard broke.
an irresistible force (french old guard).....comes up against an immoveable object..(british line infantry)...the one thing wellington could be assured of......the thin red line, would hold its ground, and stand...unlike other contempory armies of the day
@@leonardogregoratti386 Afraid not, the bulk of the work was dne by the british Guards, 52nd Regiment a Brunswicker regiment of line and a Hanovarian regiemnt of line, the Dutch engaged the smaller of the 2 French guard columns with acouple of volleys, hardly a situation to claim sole victory for the event especially given there where more British troops involved. Wellinton i'm afraid didn't trust the Dutch very much they had spents 20 years fighting for the French so he kept them out of most of the fighting and out of the important strategic farm houses which he gave to the KGL and other hand picked units.
The Soviets, THE SOVIET UNION did a better more respectful presentation of one of the greatest enemies of Russia than the British did. ENGLAND BE ASHAMED!
@@88GAF ah my mistake. Bit unfair though isn’t it? To use one director to represent almost 60 million people. Another Englishman, Andrew Roberts, wrote a biography that was very favourable to him. I think Scott’s portrayal of Wellington was rather comical. Just sounds like you detest England and Scott is your excuse to make it clear
@@88GAF Well... French are talking here with the British accent (which is way better, than in Ridley Scott's French talking in English with the French accent, btw). The British themselves are talking with a London accent (if I'm not mistaken). So, there is some difference in how both sides' English sounds. The story was written by the Irish H.A.L. Craig. And was filmed in Ukraine. The Wiki says "The cast consisted of Russian, Italian, Irish, American, Canada and British actors who were all required to speak their lines in English." I mean... it's not only the Soviets. Yes, all the battle stuff was done by the soviets, but you can't just say, that the movie was made entirely by them.
The facts are Ridley Scott did a bad job showing a accurate portrayal of one of the biggest figures of history which is hurts to say but that’s what we got, at-least (1970) Waterloo is one hell of a good film which shows napoleon as the charismatic tactician he was while showing the Duke of wellington in the same light I see little to fight about in this film.
I loved this movie, but always wondered what the huge explosions in the background of this scene were all about ? Exploding ordnance ? fireworks / What ? Any explanations ?
Cette scène est grandiose mais improbable. La garde Impériale qui s'élance n'était pas aussi nombreuse puisque les 2/3 de la garde combattait déjà sur la droite de Napoléon.
@@FlagAnthem atleast they weren't killing each other cause of shit like "religion" or "Oil" or "Political beliefs". it was simply He attacked my Friend so I'll attack him but then his friend will attack me and my friend which was essentially how WW1 began to some degree. either that or its "Expand for the glory of your kingdom and people Vs Defend the invaders and keep your independence" or "he is growing too strong we must gang up on him now"
that was his strategy, which worked extremely well for him; Waterloo was the most blatant catenaccio in military history. 0-0, then 0-1 in the 92nd minute.
Im not a fool. I dont beleive I was born in the wrong century and I missed a "glorious" spectacle of warfare. I do however lament the fact I wasnt able to see Waterloo, Spartacus or Zulu on the big screen. My dad saw all three at the cinema and I cant imagine what am experience it must of been to of seen these films in all their glory on the big screen.
For the movie they had just under 17,000 soldiers. Napoleon had around 72,000 in 1815. If Napoleon had as many soldiers as Bondarchuk, there wouldn't even have been a battle.
Think about the logistics of making that scene. I don't know how many days were needed but if more than one day, then they needed food and water, sleeping facilities, cooks, transportation, portable toilets, etc for all those men as well as the film crews, and a staff to manage everything.
