Waterloo (1970)
Director: Sergei Bondarchuk
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Visually impressive, but a rather silly attempt to explain Napoleon, tracing his career from exile in Elba, through resurgence to power, to his defeat by Wellington at Waterloo. The main problem seems to lie in Bondarchuk's reliance on eye-catching gimmickry, and in his indecision as to whether to make a spectacular epic about nations at war, or an intimate portrayal of Bonaparte as a person. The early scenes, with less action, suffer most from this fault, although the whole thing is also blighted by Steiger's eccentrically mannered performance.Author: GA
User reviews of this film
-
- Neville said...
- Posted on Feb 03 2009 20:16 Christopher Plummer reprises his aloof Captain von Trapp, this time as the arrogantly aloof first Duke of Wellington. Waterloo wants to be an epic battle spectacular at the same time as an introverted psychological portrait of the two adversaries. Some misguided camera trickery aside, the battle itself is accomnplished and duly bloody, whilst the closenes of the result is never left in any doubt. Rod Steiger remains a puzzle as the choice to play Napoleon, a fidgety, eccentric portrayal that is ultimately more suggestive of inner madness than genius. The ponderous early scenes (which allow for an eloquent cameo by Orson Welles as the bloated Louis XVIII) are not rounded off with Napoleon's final capture and exile to St Helena. At the battle's close with mud, death and rain closing in he climbs into his carriage and is driven enigmatically away. An odd conclusion to a strangely incomplete film.
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Sergei Bondarchuk
Producer: Dino De Laurentiis
Cast: Rod Steiger, Christopher Plummer, Orson Welles, Jack Hawkins, Virginia McKenna, Dan O'Herlihy, Rupert Davies, Philippe Forquet, Michael Wilding full cast
Genre(s): Epics
Duration: 132 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Ang Lee talks 'Taking Woodstock'
Ang Lee talks to Tom Huddleston about his tale of the men behind history’s greatest music festival
Hippies who work for The Man
To celebrate George Clooney comedy 'The Men who Stare at Goats', we look back at six memorable onscreen hippies who fought the system from within
Roland Emmerich's guide to disaster movies
Ahead of the release of '2012', Roland Emmerich offers his ten tips on creating the perfect global catastrophe
Grant Heslov: interview
Grant Heslov, director of 'The Men who Stare at Goats' talks about his old pal George Clooney, his interest in the paranormal, and his fond memories of working on 'Happy Days'
The Coen brothers discuss 'A Serious Man'
Masters of contrary comedy, Joel and Ethan Coen have struck gold again with their latest, ‘A Serious Man’
Ten inspirations behind 'Avatar'?
Time Out ponders the influences behind James Cameron's anticipated space-opera on the basis of the trailer
Michael Haneke: The man behind the menace
From Cannes to Munich to London, Dave Calhoun tours Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or winner, 'The White Ribbon'
How Jane Campion brought John Keats back to life
Time Out gets Romantic with the ‘difficult’ New Zealander about her new film, 'Bright Star'
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations











What do you think?
Post your review now