Waterloo (1970)
Dino De Laurentis decided to make Waterloo ten years
before filming began, but not even his large production company
could take on the mammoth project alone. Other film companies he
approached were unwilling to accept such a huge gamble until he
began talks with the Russians.
As a result, the Mosfilm organisation joined him in the vast
undertaking. They contributed more than £4,000,000 of the costs,
nearly 20,000 soldiers of the Red Army, a full brigade of Soviet
cavalry, and vast numbers of engineers and labourers to prepare
the location and facilities for 48 days of battle filming outside
Uzhgorod in the Ukraine.
Costing over £12,000,000. Waterloo was at the time one
of the most expensive films ever made. But had it been made in the
West - without the Red Army's assistance - it would have cost
three times as much.
 To
recreate the battlefield authentically, the Russians bulldozed
away two hills, deepened a valley, laid five miles of roads,
transplanted 5,000 trees. sowed fields of barley, rye and
wildflowers and re-constructed four historic buildings.
Months before filming commenced, 16,000 men of the Red Army
began their training. They had to learn 1815 drill and battle
formations, as well as the use of sabres, bayonets and the routine
for handling cannon.
A selected 2,000 additional men were also taught to load and
fire the early 19th century muskets used at the battle of
Waterloo.
The crack Moscow Militia, cavalry renowned throughout the
Soviet Union, portrayed the Scots Greys in their remarkable charge
to glory and destruction. Day after day they rehearsed each move
for scenes in the film that are deeply memorable for their
sweeping visual beauty. Five Panavision cameras filmed the scene
simultaneously - from trucks at ground level, from 100 ft towers,
from a helicopter and from a railway built right across the
location. Other cavalry scenes in the movie employed Soviet riders
or Yugoslav stuntmen.
 The
Red Army men enjoyed their film work. During the making of the
battle scenes they lived in a huge encampment near the recreation
of Waterloo, which Russian technicians had built on the rolling
farmland outside Uzhgorod.
Each day, after an early breakfast, they marched to the film
set, picked up their French, Allied or Prussian uniforms from the
huge wardrobe building, and 15 minutes later were in position with
their units. They were commanded by officers who were given
movement orders by Director Sergei Bondarchuk via walkie-talkie.
To communicate with actors and technicians during filming, the
Director had four interpreters permanently at his side: one each
for English, Italian, French and Yugoslav.
While the international cast and Red Army men were toiling in
acres of mud (made by six miles of underground irrigation piping
laid specially for the film), the camera crews were often
sweltering in the sun, with temperatures soaring to 95 degrees
Fahrenheit. Trees that had been planted for the film offered
welcome, if sparse, shade.
Visitors to the battlefield location found it difficult to
comprehend that the softly-spoken, tall, grey-haired main in the
floppy hat and galoshes was, in fact, Sergei Bondarchuk,
internationally famous Director, idol of Russia's stage and
cinema, and a much-read philosopher. He looked more like a farmer,
and worked without rest from dawn until late at night.
One moment he would be climbing up a 100 ft tower to check a
camera angle, the next he would be discussing a finer point of
Napoleon's character with Rod Steiger - or swapping colourful
jokes with the men of the Red Army.
 Obviously
at his best when dealing with complicated sequences of mass
action, Bondarchuk completed 28 weeks of filming on Waterloo
with only 16 days' delay - principally due to bad weather.
There are the inevitable historical inaccuracies, but
considerably fewer than in films such as Cromwell.
The incident during the night of 17/18 June when Wellington
catches a soldier of the 27th Inniskillings with a looted pig in
his knapsack could not have happened. Wellington spent that night
writing orders in his main headquarters in Waterloo village, three
miles away, and the 27th did not arrive anywhere near the
battlefield until well into the morning of 18 June. In any case,
Wellington would not have promoted the man – his views on
looting were well known.
At the beginning of the battle, Napoleon is seen pointing at
Hougoumont Farm and ordering a diversionary attack there.
Hougoumont tied up far more French troops than it should have, all
day and to no avail, precisely because Napoleon could not see the
farm from his command post and was not aware of what was happening
there.
The famous charge of the Union and Household heavy cavalry
brigades against d'Erlon's French corps is exciting and dramatic
– although it seems that only the Scots Greys took part – but
they were certainly not galloping on the day.
The previous night's rain had produced so much mud that no
horse would have been capable of more than a slow canter, and that
for a short distance only. The same point applies to the French
cavalry charges against the Allied right flank – wonderfully
filmed and a choreographic and organisational triumph. In reality,
by the time the French came over the Allied ridge, they were going
at no more than a laboured trot.
The end-result was a visually stunning film of absolutely epic
proportions. Sadly it was a commercial flop at the box office. It
deserved much better.
Waterloo was produced at the same time as Stanley
Kubrick was preparing a film on the life of Napoleon. When Waterloo
failed at the box-office, Kubrick's backers bowed out and his film
was never made.
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