![]() Incidentally, the director Tony Richardson was married to the leading lady (Vanessa Redgrave). But the film is a sobering look at the futility of conflict and the refusal to learn from it. Also, some of the period phrases -“All this swish-n-tits has made me randified!” – may be confusing. The beginning half of the film, focusing on how the military worked and that society was structured, is rather slow, but worth the watching. The animated end credits, rolling over a dead horse, finally match the drawings to reality. The film is interspersed with animation, in the style of Victorian newspapers, illustrating the home front rhetoric about the war, which at times directly contradicts what the military leaders say. The enlisted men are uneducated and willing to be led, while the officers are more concerned about position and appearance and backstabbing, than about their own men. ![]() Made during the Vietnam War, the film is both a satire and condemnation of reckless militarism. The film plays up such scenes to constantly emphasize the stupidity of war. The ridiculous sight of a formation of men marching directly into flying bullets simply because their officers order it is both embarrassing and horrifying. His comment, “It will be a sad day for England when her armies are officered by men who know too well what they are doing- it smacks of murder” sums up the films attitude. John Gielgud plays the aristocratic Lord Raglan, who unfeelingly directs the battle from atop a nearby hill. Trevor Howard plays Lord Cardigan, the embodiment of stiff-upper-lip lack of compassion. Absent is the sense of honor or patriotism, or sense of duty we hear about it in the poem. The military is a place of commands and obedience, nothing more. Written (uncredited) by John Osborne ( Tom Jones) and directed by Tony Richardson ( Look Back in Anger, Tom Jones) the film presents unfeeling officers disconnected to their troops (and reality). ![]() The 1968 film of the same name (the third film made about the charge) focuses more on the absurdity and superficialities of ‘honor’ rather than heroic patriotism. While the poem confronts the horrors of war, it also lionizes the bravery of the brigade and the honor in serving one’s country. Despite public criticism and debate in London papers, the officers all absolved themselves of guilt and moved on.Īlfred, Lord Tennyson, then poet laureate of the Kingdom, memorialized the troops in his famous poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade”. He was later made Inspector General of the Cavalry. The leader of the Light Brigade, Lord Cardigan, went to his ship after the battle for a champagne dinner. The more than six hundred British troops that marched in were destroyed with 278 casualities and a number of prisoners taken. Trying to interpret this vague order, the Light Brigade took on a more difficult task than needed and entered into “the valley of death” with Russians on three sides of them and no escape route. In 1854, The Light Brigade of British Cavalry troops, fighting the Russians in the Crimean War, were ordered “to advance rapidly to the front, follow the enemy, and try to prevent the enemy carrying away the guns”.
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