Tony Richardson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade"

Head Librarian Gender: Number of posts: 2308 Registration date: 2008-07-30

After the false heroics of previous cinematic treatments of this subject, Richardson finally tells something approximating the truth of this famous military disaster.

A sense of social history; a good dose of irony; a great cast; accurate period detail and dialogue; innovative use of graphics.

If I have a quibble, I'm not sure that the character of Captain Nolan is accurately presented:

1. Didn't the famous "Black Bottle" scandal in Cardigan's officer's mess involve quite another officer?

2. What factual basis is there for the love traingle?

But these are minor quibbles, mostly resulting from the need for dramatic narative compression.

Great movie.

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The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas

King of Pop Gender: Number of posts: 3131 Registration date: 2008-05-05

As President, I declare that the Errol Flynn version is superior, because it horribly mangles the facts of the Crimean War. Thank you, and God bless "They Died With Their Boots On."

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The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without.

Last edited by Eddie on Tue Nov 10, 2009 1:05 pm; edited 1 time in total

President Obama wrote:

the Errol Flynn version is superior, because it horribly mangles the facts of the Crimean

Indeed, yes.

Didn't the studio relocate the famous charge to the North-West Frontier (i.e. the Afghanistan/Pakistan border), rather than the Crimea, because they had a job lot of cheap sets mouldering in the scenery dock?

I suppose, in a way, it was a curiously prescient choice.

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The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas

King of Pop Gender: Number of posts: 3131 Registration date: 2008-05-05

I think the movie isn't as well known now because hundreds of horses were killed and maimed during the production, and hippies don't like that sort of thing. A similar fate may have befallen Luis Bunuel's Land Without Bread, since in that picture an ass-ton of goats are hurled off cliffs to their goaty doom.

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The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without.

Head Librarian Gender: Number of posts: 2308 Registration date: 2008-07-30

I understand that no goldfish were harmed in the making of the Armageddon-themed satanic thriller THE OMEN.

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The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas