WATERLOO
Italy/USSR, 1970, 125 minutes, Colour.
Rod Steiger, Christopher Plummer, Orson Welles, Dan O' Herlihy, Virginia Mc Kenna, Jack Hawkins, Rupert Davies, Michael Wilding, Terrence Alexander, Donal Doneley.
Directed by Sergei Bondarchuk.
Waterloo is principally the film of the famous battle. Almost half the total running time is taken up with the battle.
The centre of interest in the film is Napoleon and there is a brief prologue describing sketchily the events prior to Napoleon's re-assumption of power after his escape from Elba. Rod Steiger looks the part of Napoleon and gives a studied performance. But Christopher Plummer as Wellington is an equal adversary to Napoleon. His studied and urbane performance highlights the contrast between the cool British and the emotional French.
The battle scenes are extraordinarily spectacular. The strategy can be followed fairly well and the impact of battle and its suffering are not underestimated. Sixteen thousand Russian troops took part in the filming of the battle on reconstructed locales in the Ukraine. A documentary on how the battle scenes were staged and filmed would be of great interest.
Sergei Bondarchuk is a noted Russian actor and director. To English speaking audiences he is known as the director of the two-part War and Peace (in which he himself played Pierre). Battle scenes were a feature of those films too. He is more successful in Waterloo.
1. What were your first impressions of Napoleon? How strong was his confidence in himself?
2. How do you explain his return to power after his escape?
3. What did Napoleon do for France? Was it moral, according to principles and according to the mentality and needs of the time?
4. Napoleon appeared as great but very human. He was capricious, vain. How much does one man direct history -or does chance always intervene, e.g. Napoleon': illness and the arrival of the Prussians at Waterloo?
5. Was Wellington an equal opponent for Napoleon - as a personality, as a general?
6. How does the film compare and contrast the personalities of the two leaders by careful cross-cutting, having one comment on the other and having both comment on the same situation?
7. Contrast the French character and spirit with the English and Scots. Contrast Ney and the French leaders with Uxbridge, Picton and the British. How successfully did the film present the battle itself, as well as the strategy used?
How did human details of the battle contribute to the overall impression -the planning, waiting, Ney's charge, the mud, clocks, flag on the roof, Napoleon's sickness, the ordinary British corporal, Uxbridge's leg, the old French veterans, the blond soldier who raves and asks why this slaughter?
10. How did these battle scenes affect your views on war and fighting?
11. Napoleon and exile - what had he achieved?
12. Wellington says - "The saddest thing after a battle lost is a battle won." How does this sum up the film?
