#THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE MOVIE HOW TO#

These two figures, both of them proud and stubborn in their way, clash immediately through Cardigan's outrage at Nolan's Indian manservant, a racial contempt he holds not just for non-whites, but any British soldier who served in India. Unfortunate representative of this old guard view is the above-mentioned Lord Cardigan (a superb Trevor Howard), a figure whose loud vocal bluff, archaic prejudices and singular way with the English language paint him as someone trapped in a colonial past and only a few steps shy of barking mad. Right from the start, Nolan is portrayed as the single determined progressive in an army mismanaged by daft old codgers and daffy upper-class fops, military men whose viewpoint is narrowed and hopelessly out-of-date.

#THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE MOVIE HOW TO#

Scripted by Charles Wood (he of The Knack.and How to Get It and Help!) from a first draft by celebrated playwright John Osborne (who is not credited) and directed by Tony Richardson (co-founder of the Free Cinema movement and the man behind Look Back in Anger and Tom Jones), the resulting film is a rich blend of historical truth, political satire and factual game-playing.Ĭentral to Wood and Richardson's approach is Captain Louis Edward Nolan, played here with fiercely confident conviction by David Hemmings. The inspiration here was likely not Tennyson's poem but Cecil Woodham-Smith's The Reason Why, a detailed and meticulously researched study of the events leading up to the infamous charge and the personalities involved. Thirty-two years later, the story was retold from a rather different perspective, by a major British filmmaker making a statement about the futility of war at a time when the conflict in Vietnam had created an audience receptive to just such a message. Any relationship to historical truth was purely coincidental. Inspired, no doubt, more by Tennyson's verse rather than factual records, the 1936 Hollywood version of the story turned disaster into heroic spectacle and had Errol Flynn leading the charge in revenge for the barbaric massacre of British women and children.

The charge itself, made at Balaclava against superior Russian forces in 1854 during the Crimean War, was an unmitigated military disaster, a gallop to death triggered by a combination of poor judgement, personal grudges, arrogance, misdirection and misunderstanding. It's famous opening verse is, however, a tad more foreboding:Īnd we're into the second verse before the suggestion is made that maybe, just maybe, those at the top may have made a mistake or two:Īs those with an interest in history will be aware, the word 'blunder' doesn't really cover it. It's an image enhanced by the final verse of Lord Alfred Tennyson's popular poem of the same name: That extraordinary little speech comprises the first spoken words in The Charge of the Light Brigade, the barked-out thoughts of Brigade commander Lord Cardigan in a film whose title inspires visions of triumphant heroism, dashingly dressed horseman galloping to victory in the Queen's good name. Ten thousand a year out me own pocket I spend to clothe 'em! A master cutler sharps their swords and I keep 'em tight stitched, cut to a shadow! Good! If they can't fornicate they can't fight, and if they don't fight hard I'll flog their backs raw, for all their fine looks!' 'I do not propose to recount my life in any detail, what-is-what! No damned business of anyone, what-is-what! I am Lord Cardigan, that is what. In the jaws of death and the mouth of hellĪ UK region 2 DVD review of CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE by Slarek

The charge of the light brigade movie