The Charge Of The Light Brigade [1968]
£18.99
You ve Lost the Light Brigade. - Even in its abused, neglected state (hence the four-star rating instead of five) Richardson s Charge of the Light Brigade is still a fantastic piece of cinema and a sadly overlooked classic in the same league as the wonderful Oh, What a Lovely War. At a time when most modern young British directors regularly churn out terrible mockney gangster flicks, wet rom-coms or stagnant period dross it seems such a shame that this bold example of British cinema should suffer such a fate. Sir David Puttnam even recently stated how extremely angry he was that Light Brigade remains completely ignored as the quality piece of cinematic art that it obviously is.Richardson himself had planned this film as his masterpiece but became so disillusioned with the reaction to his work that he mercilessly hacked out huge amounts of footage (including a sequence showing the charge by the heavy brigade) that had editor Kevin Brownlow weeping in frustration. In an age when tons of utter cinematic bilge is showcased in sparkling new prints with dolby-surround sound and released on DVD with hours of documentaries, trailers and director s commentaries it is about time that Charge of the Light Brigade was rescued, restored and re-issued in all its full FOUR hour glory (if all that extra footage still survives of course). I want storyboards, interviews with cinematographer David Watkin (who scoured dusty old camera cupboards all over London looking for period lenses that would add a Victorian patina to the terrific photography). Add in all the production artwork that s fit to print, a whole section dedicated to Richard Williams magical animated segments and other documentaries that span two discs. Maybe then some long overdue justice can be done in honour of this brilliant film. The BFI should hang its collective head in shame.
A truly great film on a disappointing DVD - The Charge of the Light Brigade is one of those films that disappointed me on a first viewing (like many, I was expecting an epic adventure film) but which I love more each time I see it. Charles Wood s delicious use of language makes the dialog a joy to listen to, and for the most part the performances do it justice - not just the likes of Trevor Howard, Harry Andrews and John Gielgud s delightfully vague Lord Raglan, but also the smaller roles like Norman Rossington s broken Sergeant and Alan Dobie s impoverished officer Mogg, who makes up in jovial and ignorant arrogance what he lacks in wit. It s an astonishingly ambitious film, and for the most part succeeds, painting a portrait not just of a time and place but a whole state of mind - it s not just the bungles of the Crimean War and the casual cruelty of the army in Richardson s sights but the blind stupidity of Britain s entire Victorian class system. The film is even brave enough to have its nominal hero, David Hemmings Captain Nolan, be as inadvertently unsympathetic as the superiors he rails against - he might seem more enlightened, but he ll still thoughtlessly finish off his men s breakfast (in one of several scenes cut for this DVD) or push away a wounded soldier. As careless with his men as Raglan is, you can see his point when he dreads the day when professional soldiers like Nolan will run a modern army - It will be a sad day for England when her armies are led by men who know too well what they are doing- it smacks of murder. Perhaps it s that lack of someone to root for that helped kill the film at the box-office (along with Richardson s refusal to have press screenings because he felt critics were not intelligent enough to appreciate the film), but I d still love to see the four-hour rough cut footage emerge from its prison in the BFI s vaults some day. Several stills exist of deleted scenes (such as Cardigan s encounter with Russian troops on his return from the charge: they let him go in respect of his rank in reality) and although his part as a Russian Prince was otherwise completely cut, Laurence Harvey can still be briefly glimpsed in the theatre scene (along with Donald Wolfit playing MacBeth). What gaps were left by the cuts and budget restrictions (not that the film isn t genuinely spectacular) are admirably filled in by Richard Williams stunningly imaginative and witty animation - old woodcut prints come to life as the British lion puts on his policeman s helmet to stop Russia assaulting Turkey - and John Addison s magnificent score. Amazingly, the pity of it all is not lost under the wit, with the starkest of endings as the generals argue over whose fault it is while flies buzz around dead horses. A truly great film. Sadly, this is not a great DVD. The transfer is for the most part fine, but the animation sequences and the all but unreadable credits do suffer. What really disappoints is the fact that, like the previous laserdisc issue, this is a heavily cut version missing some 6-7 minutes. The ommission of Vanessa Redgrave s horrendous singing may be a merciful release, but the ommission of a reel from the Crimea scenes (including the flogging scene of a sentry who inadvertently shot at Raglan and Cardigan subsequently rewarding the flogged man for his bravery) are definitely not. The only extra is a trailer. Sadly, it appears that despite releasing a video of the longer version (minus a few seconds of vicious horsefalls), the BFI s R2 DVD is the same cut version, albeit with slightly better extras (an interview with Richard Williams and a silent version of the Charge). Very disappointing.
Do NOT buy this DVD!! - Tony Richardson s Charge Of the Light Brigade is a truly great movie in every regard.The screenplay is brilliant, the performances superb and the cinematography is breathtaking. Sadly the British Film Institute have seen fit to issue the film in a truncated form either through ignorance or laziness. The UK version of the movie both theatrically and on video was the length the director intended however in the US the movie was cut by 7 minutes at the time of it s original release and it is this issue which the BFI have released. Presumably they simply used the same master as the American DVD release on MGM without doing any research (great job BFI!) which is odd as one would have expected that someone or maybe a number of researchers at the institute are paid for doing that very job and that another someone would have to approve the release. I had imagined that a BFI release was a stamp of quality similar to the Criterion collection but it would seem this operation has more in common with Delboy Trotter than I could have imagined. Hopefully a label more passionate about the art of film making than the BFI will one day issue this film as it deserves to be seen.
Charge of the Light Brigade - I would have given this 5 stars, had it not been for the fact that this film has been quite severely cut, with various scenes edited out from the original cinema release. This was presumably done to include the extra 28 minutes of extras such as the irrelevant 1912 featurette. This is a great shame, as this film should have been shown in its entirety as it is a film deserving of recognition. A missed opportunity
Disappointed fan - Was very sorry to see that this edition was not released in 5.1 format and no information was provided to say what kind of sound quality might be expected.Surely we are to expect better in 2004. Otherwise the film is a classic and a cinematic treat for any light-hearted history buffs.