Review of Waterloo (1970) by Johari T — 29 Aug 2008

Waterloo is a film that everyone should see. It is an epic film the like that does not get made anymore.

Forget Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, this is a true epic, a story of the Emperor Napoleons final bid to restore his Empire on the bloody field of Waterloo in 1815.

Napoleon played by Rod Stieger is mesmerising as is Christopher Plummer as Wellington.

I certainly think that it would be almost impossible for a remake of this to better the sheer scale and drama of this epic....

Of course it's not perfect and there is some corny scenes such as Uxbridge -i've lost my leg ( he did say this apparently) amid others, but this don't detract from a great movie as men in this era did carry a sense of the dramatic.

Many who have'nt seen this film beleive that the Battle of Waterloo was an English victory. It was'nt! Only in the loosest sense of the term. Waterloo was a battle of three armies, with the Prussian army under Marshal Blucher playing a major part as this film shows, even though the film gives the impression that they only arrive at the last minute....

A 4 hour extended version of this film is said to exist somewhere. I'd love to see it.

To my mind this is the finest war film ever made and it's sad to see it so underrated as it deserves better.