Waterloo 1970

Weak 9 innit. The sheer scale of this work (15,000 dressed extras!) makes it one of the great Period War films ever. It was also one of the most expensive of its time, and is probably why many western studios refused to finance it. Some of the ADR really grinded my gears but hey what do you expect for 1970 and huge (verging on biblical) battle scenes shot on location. Steiger's narration in particular tickled good parts of my brain (Plummer's wasn't bad either), as I watch more and more films I learn that my ratings live and die on the quality of the voiceover delivery (if there is any).

As is often the case with my 9's, Waterloo's backstory really affects how I think about this film. Reading about what the Soviets did to recreate the Battle of Waterloo is astounding, just check the Wikipedia article. I doubt private companies would have gone to such lengths. Sergei Bondarchuk and his crew really foiled Kubrick's plans to make his own Napoleon film (he would instead go on to make Barry Lyndon, which as it so happens is another 9 in my book). I wonder if Ridley Scott was inspired by this in the early stages of his career... certainly he committed gargantuan effort to his own Napoleon film (which I am looking forward to watching) last year.

I do very much enjoy the anti-war undercurrent throught, I must say. There are no "good guys" here, just carnage and soldiers screaming for mercy (in the final battle).

A majestic piece, influential on almost every war film to follow in its wake. If you want to see what LotR epic battle scenes would look like without CGI, just put this on.