Not only was the movie terrible but my cinema was freezing. At least I felt very immersed in the retreat from Moscow for the 20 seconds it was on screen
Amazing factoid. The senior officer here killed is William Ponsonby, allegedly for being unwilling to risk riding his best and fastest horse in the battle. Horses are precious indeed. Also, his kinsman Frederick Ponsonby also fought at Waterloo and famously was sabred, lanced, left for dead in the mud, used as a firing stoop and robbed of all his clothes and gear [like many others among the wounded] but did not die and lived for years afterward, rising to general. The Ponsonby family had a tough day.
@@Erpes2 His fate was used for the fate of a character in the 'Sharpe' novels too; Lord John Rossendale. Rossendale is an antagonist of the books, and his fate is not nearly so lucky as Fredericks was.
His name is Jan Hunyadi, his other name is Don Quixote he has taught his men to kiss the hands of ladies from horseback. Oh insane cavalry! Both foreground and background must be correct for the cavalry to attack, for colour and romance are their reserves. Gathering blueberries at sunset, then riding forth, against the gray steeds of Krupp, as though death were a lady, to kiss her hand - Gunther Grass, translated, paraphrased, and misremembered
Polish lancers were with Napoleon until the very end of the war. Polish cavalry very often won clashes with the enemy. Their long lances wreaked fear among the English cavalry .
@@Delogros But those Dutch lancers were earlier based on the Polish lancers, even wore the Polish style "rogatywka" shako. Though this is true, there were few Polish lancers left, I think about 300 by the time of the battle.
@@aleksandersokal5279 Sure but the OP specified polish lancers not Polish styled lancers... I'm not sure how many where at Waterloo as I am unsure of any losses sustained at Ligny. though I thought there where 180-225 at Waterloo
"STOP THAT USELESS NOISE! You'll hurt yourself" The Duke of Wellington was known for doing stuff and like that and even cried after the battle of waterloo after he discovered the death toll
The scene is extremely beautiful and enjoyable. But historically It's rather weak. Look at this charge! Depicted as extremely costly and completely useless. Only one French soldier dies by a British handgun. In real this charge brought the big French infantry attack to a collapse. D'Erlons corps was destroyed. After this failed attack, Napoleon had no real idea how to win this battle. And: The devastating cavalry attack was one reason (apart from the threat of Prussian calvalry) that the final attack of the French guard was executed in squares as protection against another devastating cavalry attack. But we know how vulnerable infantry squares were against effective British line infantry fire or cannister.
What it doesnt show is the Union bridge smashing through D-erlons infantry division. They didn't see it coming, so didn't form squares, they were cut to pieces, and the division was no longer effective for the battle. It is said to be one of the most effective cavalry charges ever. However they carried on far too far, most of the cavalry did manage to get back to British lines, assisted by the light cavalry, but were mostly spent for the rest of the battle, though Napoleon didnt know this, he could still see them in reserve, so it effected his further decisions. .
@@philldavies7940 Exactly. The French infantry was so busy with attacking the Allied line and annihilating trapped units that they didn't notice the cavalry timely. But it's interesting that the cavalry charge is depicted so negatively here. Was this done to highlight Wellington's superiority even more? Because when Wellington gives a direct command (in the end with the order to Maitland's infantry), this is very effective in contrast to the actions of Picton and Ponsonby. Bad move by the writers/director then. And one correction here: The final French guard attack was executed in columns, a formation designed to break through the enemy's line and provide more protection against cavalry than line formation.
One of the greatest war/battle movies of all time. The amount of extra's required to pull this off. The realism of all the extra's really makes this movie. imagine trying to do this today.. CGI just doesn't quite cut it.
Poignant - I think you're meant to reflect on the loss of life. A very early example of such a scene - it's been copied many times but never bettered. I find this to be more touching than anything in Saving Private Ryan tbh.
3:20 "You'll hurt yourself." Wellington realised he was rude to the soldier and corrected himself without having to admit a mistake. A proper Gentleman.
There were also some English and Irish regiments in the two British brigades, such as the 27th Irish dragoon’s. Of which napoleon complimented and even Wellington said he wouldn’t have one the battle without!. Poland was also Frances ally but this cavalry charge was made up of mostly Scottish cavalry, and the counter charge was mostly polish lancers
@@tamik7168 Sorry, it was french lancers. There was only one squadron of polish lancers at Waterloo, 120 men, who had been with Napoleon at Elba and at Waterloo as a part of the Old Guard, and they fought well, but wasn't part of this counterattacke.
@@tamik7168 Yeah there was not much Poles in the guard by the time of Waterloo, so majority of the lancers were French and Dutch. Though their formation was inspired by the Polish lancers.
I would argue that Bondarchuk's War&Peace is much better although military historians have commended Waterloo for its historically accurate depiction of the battle
Beautifully filmed, but it is a sore shame the charge looks pointless in the movie; in reality they were used to charge D'Erlon's corps, who were in danger of breaking the Allied line. This they did succesfully, sending the French corps into a retreat, but got blood drunk and overextended. This itself is portrayed accurately (Hence Soult's 'worst lead' comment; British cavalry were well known for their 'charge and be damned' attitude) but not the entire reason they charged in the first place. Waterloo is a great movie, but it does miss stuff out. Also maybe someone can correct me if I am wrong, but i don't think British heavy cavalry carried pennants into battle in this period.
I’m glad you pointed that out. Having gone to such trouble to portray the charge in such detail, I can’t understand why they depicted it as apparently pointless and self destructive when it actually achieved an important objective, wreaking havoc amongst the French infantry, and capturing two eagles, of the 105th and 45th Ligne before riding on too far. It also misses another detail, that despite riding too far across the French lines and their horses being blown, the remainder of the depleted Union Brigade was saved thanks to the intervention of the Light Dragoons and of Dutch Belgian cavalry.
It's probably supposed to be a seld defence weapon as it seams a bit small for a pistol of those times but some calvary did carry pistols as far back as the English civil war.
the Scots greys were annilated at water loo as were the French lancers when they encountered the British firing squares you can imagine if heavy calibre machine guns were used the carnage .
as a child i loved seeing these huge battles but now as a 50 year old it only saddens me at the complete senseless loss of life to both men and those poor horses .
The one aspect of this scene that's not really shown from the battle is the huge number of French infantry the British heavy brigade slaughtered. It was possibly one of the best deployments of heavy cavalry of the era.
What is not shown here is in the process of moving forward to support Pack's Brigade which was beginning to break they totally trashed a French Column and after that being totally disorganized was still going to attack another French Column that was better prepared for them, but while focusing on the Scot's Greys opened up their flank to the 1st Royal Dragons which broke that column. Also one Sergeant Ewart captured a French Eagle (which was a very big deal) and was later promoted to Ensign. The Regiment took around 50% losses during this charge having suffered 104 dead and 97 wounded and lost 228 of the 416 horses. As for General Ponsonby he was actually captured initially but some Scot's Greys attempted to rescue him and the Lancer who had captured him then killed him and then used his lance to killed three of the rescuers. Now that is one individual who knew how to use a lance.
@@AdrianAnimates28Many horses were killed and injured during filming including horses that got drugged to the point they die to make it look realistic
This is so beautiful in it's production and epic. It's taken me around 15 years since I first watched it to realise that the portrayal here of the Scots Greys charge is utterly pointless however - they literally charge blindly across the battlefield and then just before they reach anyone are recalled and killed. In reality they did great damage to the advancing French and caused a significant rout, capturing an eagle (with a second being captured by the 1st Dragoon Guards), before a smaller number lost control and charged too far into the French line to attack the cannons, and were then destroyed as they were on blown horses on the wrong side of the valley. Napoleon 2023 is unrealistic, but is consistently so - whereas this version of Waterloo feels like it had the ability and resources to make the Charge of the Scots Greys quite realistic, but chose not to - more happy to recreate the "Scotland Forever" painting, really! A great film regardless!
I have a large a large framed print of Lady Elizabeth Butlers "Scotland Forever" over my work bench in my garage. Sometimes I find myself stopping what I am doing, staring at it and saying "Now Scots Greys,Now.
As beautiful as its inspiration: Scotland Forever! by Lady Elisabeth Butler, amazing painter. You can compare the painting and 0.16, 2.15, 2.30 or 2.36. Those horses, beauty I can hardly bear it.
The charge of the Household and Union brigades, due to the nature of the ground; muddy, broken by farm tracks and hedges, probably kept the British cavalry from attaining more than a fast trot. It had the advantage of the slope, gradual as it was, and the advance was screened to a degree by the thick powder smoke that covered the field. Two of D'Erlon's divisions, which were already disordered, partially broke and the Cavalry's advance did carry into the French gun line. Most of the French gunners scampered off in the confusion, and were able to return to their pieces, though ammunition had become a problem and sniping from KGL Lights and the 95th did whittle away some of the French artillerymen. French cavalry from several different regiments did counter-charge the British brigades, who were now on blown, exhausted horses and the British cavalry lost about a third of it's men and more horses, rendering them hors de combat for the rest of the day.
I believe the British cavalry was still able to field 3 squadrons after the charge but this was used in a counter charge not long after their efforts to drive away D'Erlon's corps, I believe against dragoons. By the end the entire British heavy cavalry only had enough men and mounts to field a single squadron. Appalling casualties.
In the movie, William Ponsonby, the man who led the scots greys, is having a conversation with the earl of uxbridge, the dude who later lost his leg. Ponsonby mentioned that his father had died after his horse had got stuck in a mud pile and was killed by the French. Ponsonby later got stuck in a mud pile and was stabbed by French lancers.
No other scene in movie history so viscerally channeled the earth-shaking, terrifying sound and speed of a cavalry's charge in such numbers. I can't imagine the number of people, and horses, that were injured in the making of this film. There'd be far too many animal cruelty violations for anything like this to be made today. Napoleon even calls them 'terrifying' and I think that's the perfect word to sum them up - absolutely terrifying.
Master and commander has a similar feel to this film. In that a number of scenes look like they're straight out of a painting or could be a painting. That's film making, that's great. When the lancers @4:08 are riding down on Ponsonby, that moment could be a painting. Horsemen of Death charging in. Imagine an impression or abstract piece of that moment, riders coming in hard and fast for the kill, tools in hand. When you read descriptions of moments in battles and things sounds otherworldly in their descriptions, that's exactly what they're trying to convey. Trying to escape death, the thought of what happens if those guys get a hold of you. Other thing about the filming is there's nothing epic about how people get got, they got him and moved on. May not be gory but it's cold and brutal.
It was the soldier's from 1 cavalry division led by Jacquinot who killed Ponsoby. It was 2 brigade 3 and 4 Regiment of Lancers and a little desciption. General's horse stucked in the mud, the french lancer shouted to him surrender, when he denied and a frenchman saw 5 soldiers running towards him: In a flash, the Frenchman killed the general and his major with 2 blows of his lance then charged the oncoming dragoons striking down 3 in less than a minute. The others abandoned the combat completely incapable of holding their own position"
From what I remember it wasn't so much that he refused as it was that he didn't understand what they were saying, so he kept trying to fight them until they gave up and killed him
@@jarosawsobieski2044 No, by this point there was only 100-300 Polish lancers in the Guard, majority of the lancers by this time were French and Dutch.
The duke knew EXACTLY what he was doing, he threw 2 brigades at the point of the french attack, a massed heavy brigade of scots greys, galloping downhill, and welsh and english dragoons with lances to back up the flanks of the scots, they captured 2 french eagles as a result, and is often reffered to as the turning point of the battle.
The whole damn field of battle was muddy. They never 'charged' like we see in the famous painting nor this movie. The Scots Greys never made it to a full gallop at any point in their actions that day.
@@FraserFir-sb4lk . They went back and forth through a French column at a moderate canter. Much slower than many people like to think a cavalry charge is.
@proodjjuice-hz5sn Theres a number of disadvantages including a higher mortality rate in some battles and the cost of the horse which you would ahve to cover plus I think the sword, not an issue in the infantry.
@proodjjuice-hz5sn You do indeed, also horses arer big targets and all the infantry have spears so unless you win the suprise loteryyour likely to get roasted
Only Russian film director Sergei Bondarchuk can make such historical scenes with the real actors (the same was in War and Peace), now days it is only computer graphics. At that time it costs a lot, but it was great. I was told that for War and Peace Mr. Bondarchuk has to mobilize several Red Army regiments, and at that period the government kept only one cavalry brigade in the Army just for the filmmaking.
In the film, fifteen thousand Soviet soldiers were involved in crowd scenes, portraying infantry units. In 1967, on the initiative of Semyon Budyonny, the Eleventh Separate Cavalry Guards Cinematic Regiment was again created. Soldiers who served in the ranks of this regiment took part in the filming of battle scenes. They had to be able not only to ride a horse, but also to jump on it at full gallop, overcome obstacles, and perform various tricks. Naturally, those who trained in equestrian schools and participated in horse racing before serving had more skill in all this. Each squadron rode horses of a certain color, for example, the first squadron had brown horses, the second had dappled horses, the third had bay horses, etc. And, depending on the change in lighting, director Bondarchuk gave a command to the riders, which color should be performed at one time or another.
These were not Polish lancers but Jaquinot's 1st Division French lancers. It's a common mistake made because in this movie the lancers are dressed as Polish lancers. Polish lancers were present at the battle of Waterloo but with the Imperial Guard. They made such an impression on the British during the battle that to this day the Queen's Royal Lancers wear Polish dress with Rogatywka (Squared) headress. However Polish lancers did not fight against the Scots Greys during the battle of Waterloo. One final point is that the death of Ponsoby is portrayed in a rather savage manner. in such circumstances an officer would have usually been captured, in real life he died in a melee before the Greys were recalled.
@@ChampChamp2024 "Had the Poles not stood with us in those days, the candle of freedom would have been snuffed out" - Queen Elizabeth II, and yet Poland was sold off to Stalin by her ally. It's Britain who should count herself lucky and owes a debt to Poland.
@@ChampChamp2024 Oh dear. Please educate yourself and read some history books.. Danzig.. i.e. Gdansk, a historic Polish city built by Poles and ruthlessly Germanised in the 19th century, a city that barely grew under Prussian rule and simply had its Polish population illegally evicted over time by Prussian edict. You can start with a book called "For Your Freedom and Ours" by Olson and Cloud. Oh and put down Mein Kampf please...
@@jbol2454 waffle Danzig was German. But I like how you know what I’m talking about. You can call it all you want you want to push the narrative they was bad, they was a leading in engineering and science, but all of a sudden wanted kriege with others nah, it was pushed.
Having watched this scene many times, I can't decide wether the charge of the Heavy Brigade of the Scots Grey's was either incredibly brave ... ... or, once the Lancer's counter-charged, incredibly stupid ... One could say it was one of the few mistakes made by Wellington's side that day ...
What other choice did Wellington have, Napoleon was quite fond of his artillery and used it often, I believe it was a good choice to send in the Scots greys but then the Lancers offed em.
Well, the movie does not emphasize that they dispersed and decimated the advance of the Entire French I Corps, which was on the verge of breaking through the Allied line. They dispersed and demoralized about 25% of the French infantry, leaving Napoleon nothing but his own cavalry and the Guard to use in futile attempts to crush the British before the Prussian reinforcements arrived in force. This was an effective use of the British cavalry.
'Waterloo' the film was an epic production. Am I right in saying the lead officer that was surrounded in the mud and lanced to death was Lt. Col. James Hamilton? There are many memorable scenes in the film, one which I remember, I don't know why, is when Napoleon is taking breakfast, after a disturbed sleep. He looks at the dishes on offer and merely points and says, 'That One'.
The 92nd (Highland) Regiment of Foot charged with the Greys, the men holding on to the stirrups of the saddles. It is one of their greatest historical traditions. I suppose the filmmakers couldn't get enough stunt men to duplicate this.
"Now Scots greys, now, those men on grey horses are terrifying, they are the noblest cavalry in Europe and the worst led, that may be, that may be, but we'll match them with our lancers"
British Cavalry were the best trained with a sword and in individual horsemanship. Wellington considered a single company a match for two French companies. However, rarely could they be fielded in large enough numbers due to the increased difficulty in transporting enough horses. Also, they lacked the training in large field maneuvers in substantial numbers, so as the number of riders increased, Wellington believed that the advantage swung to the French, who were trained in large scale cavalry maneuvering.
I thinks Prussian or French cavalry were better, they had a better reputation and had better commanders like Murat, Ney or Davout. The french horse grenadiers guard and the polish lancers were the elite of the cavalry of their time and this scene prove it.
Amazing scene, but where is the part where the cavalry first obliterates the infantry, and captures 2 eagles?? That major part is totally glossed over? Am I right? Or did I miss something? Please feel free to comment
So there*s a "funny" moment while all this happened Bijlandt's Netherland brigade, and Pack's brigade advanced in support of the cavalry and completed the roundup of prisoners. Due to confusion the British infantry fired on the Netherland troops, whose blue uniforms resembled the enemy's. Shortly thereafter, having realized their error, they mistook French troops for Netherland troops and let them get away
