Waterloo

1970
U
2h 12m

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

13K

YOUR RATING

Play trailer3:30

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Costume Drama Docudrama Historical Epic Period Drama War Epic Action Biography Drama History War

Facing the decline of everything he has worked to obtain, conqueror Napoleon Bonaparte and his army confront the British at the Battle of Waterloo.Facing the decline of everything he has worked to obtain, conqueror Napoleon Bonaparte and his army confront the British at the Battle of Waterloo.Facing the decline of everything he has worked to obtain, conqueror Napoleon Bonaparte and his army confront the British at the Battle of Waterloo.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

13K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 2 BAFTA Awards
- 3 wins & 2 nominations total

Trivia
At over £12 million, it was one of the most expensive films ever made at the time. Dino De Laurentiis had wanted to make it for 10 years, but his production company couldn't afford it. Then Mosfilm stepped in, contributing over £4 million, 20,000 soldiers, a full brigade of Soviet cavalry, and vast numbers of engineers and laborers to prepare locations and facilities for 48 days of shooting in the Ukraine. If it had been made in the West without the Red Army's assistance, it would have cost 3 times as much. To recreate the battlefield, the Soviets bulldozed 2 hills, deepened a valley, laid miles of roads, transplanted 5,000 trees, sowed fields of rye, barley, and wildflowers, and reconstructed 4 historic buildings. The production included Italian and Russian technicians, English and French advisors, Yugoslav stuntmen, and actors from America, Canada, England, Ireland, Italy, France, and Russia.

Goofs
When the Prussian troops appear, the music of "Deutschland ueber alles" can be heard. "Deutschland ueber alles" only became the national anthem of Germany in 1922. It was never used by Prussia.

Quotes
Duke of Wellington: Next to a battle lost, the saddest thing is a battle won.

Alternate versions
According to an article written by the film's editor and associate producer Richard C. Meyer, the longest version is the 132 minute version. This has been confirmed by Vladimir Dorsal, the film's First Assistant and later the head of Mosfilm in Moscow. He says that they only have the 132m version in their vaults and no longer 4 hours version ever existed. The myth may derive from an earlier part of Meyer's article when he states that the rough cut was 4 hours long - not unusual for a film of this scope and scale. But after much discussion the present length was agreed on. He also says he stupidly didn't make a dupe of this rough cut, a usual process in post production. So this 'cut' will never see the light of day. It is clear from the cast list that many characters were cut. The film was planned as a Road Show release but by 1970 the practice had lost favor with the studios. Columbia Pictures also shortened CROMWELL for the same reason. Richard Heffer who play a major featured role in the film says the script as filmed was much longer than the film that came out that many of the cast had huge chunks of their roles deleted.

Connections
Featured in The Man Who Saw Tomorrow (1981)

User reviews123

Review

Featured review

A timeless classic

There can be no denying that this is a great film to watch.

Pure historians may dispair at some inaccuracies, although in a previous review I notice that a reviewer has made a few mistakes of his own! Air burst shells were quite the norm in fact the RHA were firing over the heads of the British troops at Hugomont the shells exploding over the French, these balls were hollow in nature and fused, in addition to this (although not seen in the film) were the RHA's rockets, which although forbidden by Wellington, were also fired of lierally. A feature I like which is included but wrong are the cannons shown in infantry squares firing at the advancing French cavalry and the troops then closing rank again to fend of the attackers. At the time of making it was still widely believed this happened.

A fair chunk of the story derives from Victor Hugo's descriptions of the battle which in turn were wrong. Bottom line is that I was a much younger man when the movie first came out and it fostered a great interest in finding out more. I feel it is a timeless 'film of its time'. Naturally a re-make would be a wonderful thing in todays modern world but the original does convey some of the depth, noise and smoke of the day.