After visiting the Waterloo battlefield, I decided it is high time to fill a gaping hole in my education and watch the 1970 Waterloo movie. I can't believe I've missed it until now! It definitely climbs to the undefined top 5 of my favourite war movies of all time. Apart from a few cheesy moments the movie is a real treat. Christopher Plummer does an excellent portrayal as Wellington and Rod Steiger's Napoleon alternates interestingly (and overactingly) between despondency and inspiring enthusiasm, just as I imagine the Emperor did at that point. The battle scenes are simply epic with about 20 000 Soviet extras bulking up the scenes. There's a lot going on in the background and the fact that none of it is in CGI is humbling. The movie has aged very well and I recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone else who's missed it.
The next day I had an opportunity to end my two month long wargame-less season and with the battle of Borodino, no less! We sat down to play Columbia Games' treatment of the battle. The scenario was set up for the initial engagements at the Shevardino redoubt instead of the full battle. The French are only just arriving on the field and must capture as much ground and inflict as much damage to the Russians as possible, while maintaining cohesion. I got the role of Napoleon and set out to do just that.
The French columns advance towards Borodino, making sure to grab as much ground on the right as possible.
The French move into contact with Shevardino redoubt from two directions. Wait, did someone forget to secure the road on the French left?
Yep, Cossacks exploit the vulnerability by making a rush for the French supply area. The French have to make a desperate realignment to counter. In the center, there is an envelopment developing around Shevardino and the defenders are in the danger of being cut off. The French imperial guard reinforce the right.
The cossacks reach the supply point and block it. Against all odds, they repel all attempts to chase them off for three whole turns. Napoleon facepalms me from beyond the grave.
The noose tightens in the center, but both Russian block groups manage to repel attackers for one round before being destroyed. The French guard moves ahead on the right, but the French left is dangerously thin. The Russians exploit the situation and beat the French back.
The Russians, seeing they're one VP behind the French, make a push in the last turn. On the French right, the Russians send their Guard units to attack what they think is the Polish division. Instead they encounter the French Imperial Guard with a grand battery of guns and the Old Guard coming in from reserve. The result is bloody, spectacular and decisive.
The game ended in a three VP win for the French. In the center, I was pretty pleased with my envelopment around the redoubt where most of the Russian blocks were captured. On the right, the Imperial Guard was in a good position to defend the flank. On the left, however, I made that terrible tactical blunder with the cossacks and as a result, the flank was left in a poor state. The Russians were in a good position to punch through the thin line and managed to capture three blocks. In the end, nightfall saved the French left.
All in all, a good game with plenty of maneuvering and and bluffing. A good offering from Columbia games!
I don't deny this film is well made and Plummer and Steiger do the best with what they got (though Steiger probably gets too dramatic at times), but I honestly feel that is it. The film is not afraid to show the deaths of many men, but none of the deaths have much emotional resonance because they tend to befall characters we are not attached to – from a storytelling POV, it shows the weight of the situation, which is good (and a bold move as trying to make it anti-war), but while i praise the film for making bold choices in its violent moments and number of deaths … to me it comes across as simultaneously not so bold as no one you’re emotionally attached to gets killed – there’s no gut punch of a death, because I never got to know Thomas Picton, William Howe De Lancey, or James Hay, Lord Hay, which would have been fitting for a film of this tone and level of violence. Strangely, although they acknowledge Henry Paget, 2nd Earl of Uxbridge losing his leg, we never see him again. I also felt, considering we see the set up to the battle with Napoleon's return, an proper epilogue could even have sufficed, or just having Wellington and Uxbridge having a heart to heart, despite Uxbridge losing his leg, with Napoleon being exiled on St. Helena to live with the torment from seeing all of what his life has been leading up to being tossed away must've been devastating. It would be a torment to know that once again and this time, forever knew that his power was gone, and his life was bound to an island just as unimportant as him.. But alas no …It’s a shame, because the amount of work and research was well done, it is just that to me that you don't get to know the characters much to build attachments to them. Even more of a shame considering "Tora! Tora! Tora", a similar film which was made to be accurate as possible and tell it as was from both sides and presented the Americans and Japanese as real people, as the attack on Pearl Harbor happens, and trusted the audience to appreciate them as such.
I don't deny this film is well made and Plummer and Steiger do the best with what they got (though Steiger probably gets too dramatic at times), but I honestly feel that is it. The film is not afraid to show the deaths of many men, but none of the deaths have much emotional resonance because they tend to befall characters we are not attached to – from a storytelling POV, it shows the weight of the situation, which is good (and a bold move as trying to make it anti-war), but while i praise the film for making bold choices in its violent moments and number of deaths … to me it comes across as simultaneously not so bold as no one you’re emotionally attached to gets killed – there’s no gut punch of a death, because I never got to know Thomas Picton, William Howe De Lancey, or James Hay, Lord Hay, which would have been fitting for a film of this tone and level of violence. Strangely, although they acknowledge Henry Paget, 2nd Earl of Uxbridge losing his leg, we never see him again. I also felt, considering we see the set up to the battle with Napoleon's return, an proper epilogue could even have sufficed, or just having Wellington and Uxbridge having a heart to heart, despite Uxbridge losing his leg, with Napoleon being exiled on St. Helena to live with the torment from seeing all of what his life has been leading up to being tossed away must've been devastating. It would be a torment to know that once again and this time, forever knew that his power was gone, and his life was bound to an island just as unimportant as him.. But alas no …It’s a shame, because the amount of work and research was well done, it is just that to me that you don't get to know the characters much to build attachments to them. Even more of a shame considering "Tora! Tora! Tora", a similar film which was made to be accurate as possible and tell it as was from both sides and presented the Americans and Japanese as real people, as the attack on Pearl Harbor happens, and trusted the audience to appreciate them as such.
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