In my opinion, the coolest scene in Waterloo (1970)

the terror on the old guard's faces...

[@audition8170]

the last great epic movie, no cgi. 17000 extras, amazing

[@entertainmentforthedead]

there is another really cool historical film made in Bulgaria I only know the Bulgarian name: Хан Аспарух it depicts the Battle of Ongal in 680 AD that led to the establishment of Bulgaria as a nation and was directed by a history teacher they supposedly employed at the time 60,000 Bulgarian Communist Troops to portray the warring armies and there was absolutely no CGI the Battle was between an army of about 10,000 Bulgarians and allies against a Eastern Roman/Byzantine Army of 25,000-50,000 troops I remember from looking up the film in the past they even changed the geography of the entire area you see in the film even leveling out a small hill. unfortunately the budget wasn't too great so a lot of the uniforms especially Byzantine ones aren't accurate to the time but I believe some of the Bulgarian ones are. you can see scenes on youtube just by looking up the name of the battle.

[@davidmurray5399]

What the Guards and the 52nd Lights took advantage of was how the battalion columns of the Imperial Guard advanced to contact. The advancing French columns could place about 50 muskets in the front rank to fire, the British battalions were in two-rank line formations, which could bring 200-300 muskets to bear in an exchange of fire. The British lines also outflanked the advancing French columns, so they could fire into flanks of the French columns and the French files on the outside of the column really couldn't respond to the British fire, except by falling dead or wounded, or turning and fleeing, which is what most of the sensible Imperial Guardsmen did.

[@khankrum1]

The front rank of a column could only fire once ans mort of the itheres fired into the air ! The Columns main purpose was to intimidate the enemy into breaking before any contact was made, and it mainly worked, until they met the British Line who did not bread but maintained a constant " rolling volley" by companies, A bit like slow machine gun fire at the time! The Cads!

[@joebloggs7514]

How dare you sir, the Guard never flees or surrenders.

[@dolsopolar]

column is more of a melee attack formation, something grenadiers would be already specialized at. and it was definitely wider than 50 men

[@albinprzyby5897]

And where the hell are the tirailleurs?

[@chuckcolburn8931]

Novelization of the script had major role for 52nd flanking action. Don’t know if that was filmed or not but would like a release with deleted scenes. One of the great historical epics. Only grows in stature in comparison with recent films like Napoleon.

[@robnewman6101]

Now Maitland! Nows Your Time! Fire!

[@harding10B]

Actually they fired a rolling volley by half companies from right to left by the time the last half company fired on the extreme left of the line the extreme right half company had reloaded and was ready to continue the volley. The effect was forty or so balls hitting the head of the column every second the equivalent of a sustained fire machine gun.

[@Alfie-ft3bx]

Really impress

[@verdun16]

My favorite scenes of the movie were the Middle Guards attack on Hougoumont farm and the La Haye Sainte skirmish. I mean obviously every single part of the movie is amazing, I just loved these parts especially.

[@mikefranklin1253]

If there was one thing the British Army excelled at, it was volley fire.

[@gosling4391]

Didn't happen like that irl, but guess it looked cool

[@alessiodecarolis]

There was a limit to what also seasoned soldiers such as them could afford, the volley's fire discipline of the british troops was really frightening.

[@counterfeit1148]

I really don't understand why the ranks would stand up from back to front, wouldn't the ones at the front have a harder time knowing when to get up and fire?

[@robnewman6101]

🇬🇧✊👑

[@jeanpatrice3548]

moi c est celle avec les lanciers......

[@doctorcrafts]

Dumb

[@pancakemacbuttery9142]

0:13 you can see Ney falling from his horse behind the guards

[@MX_8585]

What surprises me about this movie is that it only got 30% on rotten tomatoes

[@benkenobi180]

Tottaly agree, wished you had included Ney trying to urge them on ;)

[@williamt.little1972]

Fascinating scene! But wouldn't you want the front rank to stand and fire first - then go to ground to let the ranks to the rear fire?? Might keep the front ranks from getting shot in the back of the head...

[@plymouth5714]

My thought exactly, I've always thought the scene would have been much better if they fired slower, in real life half of their shot would have hit the early stander-uppers in the forward ranks!

[@brunozeigerts6379]

I understood that the column was more effective in melee combat, but more vulnerable to fire. Just like the square was a superb way to defeat cavalry, but an easy target.

[@Exotic3000]

Wow. Looks like the British … gave em hell! ❤

[@randallbelstra7228]

My favorite is when Blucher arrives.

[@ripvanwinkle6557]

"Onwards, my children!"

[@paulsynnott2709]

Except that the movie depicts it as only happening near the end. whereas in fact the Prussians had been engaging the French right flank and taking an infantry corps and half the Imperial Guard infantry out of the fight against Wellington for hours.

[@elcidgranada3549]

If im correct majority of the cast who acted as troops were all russian.

[@1960dave1960]

That guy looks so like a Frenchman it’s incredible…..

[@GarySpeight-cv5sw]

Coolest scene is where Napoleon speaks to his Generals after Livgny. Or maybe the end of the Ball, Russian messenger arrives and Wellington has a council of war. Anyway it is one of my favourite films.

[@plymouth5714]

I think the messenger was Prussian - but I loved the expression on his face as he searched the dancers looking for Wellington, desperation to find him!

[@tomservo5347]

Always wondered why the British volleys sounded like a Vickers machine gun hehe. But otherwise, great scene.

[@robland3253]

That’s 40 shots a second for you

[@Lancer-12]

This is also my favorite scene

[@Firedrake-f4g]

The tragedy of that battle is it would have benefitted from some CGI to show a broader view of the clashes. For example, when the Guard Column faltered it was because of the flanking manoeuvre but the Brits what was simply lost in picture. The narrower front of the Column was enfiladed by the Brits hitting them on two sides.

[@stoopsolo1479]

The line of the British Guarda was only two deep

[@CaptainStyle427]

I am proud that as a German, we saved the British in this battle