I first saw THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE in the late 1970s when it was broadcast on the Sunday night " Film Of The Week " slot . I liked it as a young child , then saw it several years later and wasn't quite taken with it mainly down to the fact that the first half is very slow and the second half is grim and depressing

After just seeing it again about ten minutes ago I still hold my second opinion . I will congratulate ( With reservations ) the production team for making a very British type of historical epic , this is far more accurate than say ZULU which was ironically directed and co-written by a Hollywood film maker for a Hollywood studio and in that film Cy Endfield showed that perhaps you have to rewrite history ever so slightly to make a classic epic movie based upon actual events . Unfortunately by being as accurate as possible as a history lesson THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE resembles the critically panned ZULU DAWN rather than ZULU which is in many film critics top ten movies including mine

We learn that many British officers in the Victorian British army bought themselves their rank causing serious friction with officers who were totally professional soldiers who achieved their rank through talent . We learn how calvarymen train , we learn what goes on in the officers mess , we learn that the Crimean war was the first conflict to get major press coverage but all this does tend to hold the story up . It may run for just over two hours but the movie feels much longer .

A cast member ( I can't remember which one ) was interviewed several years ago and she mentioned the production team's eye for detail so much that many of the cast honestly thought they'd been transported back to the mid 19th century . She also mentioned packed crowds watching the film in cinemas on opening night but the crowds had totally disappeared within a couple of days . You can't help but feel the attention to historical detail had everything to do with the poor box office . I guess the audience were expecting something in the vein of ZULU

As I said I will congratulate the production team for their accuracy in fine detail but bewarned it is top heavy with social comment and if you have little interest in history you might want to watch the latest Hollywood blockbuster instead

Let's make it very clear from the outset, this version of The Charge of The Light Brigade is in no way a remake of the Errol Flynn film that Warner Brothers did in 1936. This is a factual account about how several hundred of the best of that generation in the United Kingdom met their deaths in the Crimea.

Great Britain from the end of the Napoleonic Wars until the beginning of World War I was only involved in two formally declared conflicts. Although many British folks will cite various colonial enterprises, the only two major wars the British were involved in were the Crimean War and the Boer War. And it was only the Crimean War which involved them with and against other European powers, in this case Russia.

It all was about propping up the Ottoman Empire and keeping the Russians from getting a hold of Istanbul and an outlet to the Mediterranean Sea for their fleet. The problem was all the powers were woefully unprepared for such a war, British included.

The Charge of the Light Brigade as no other film explores the incredible ineptitude of the British Army at that time. Today it beggars the imagination that field grade officers simply purchased their commissions. It's true though, it's the reason why Lord Raglan, Lord Cardigan, and Lord Lucan a group of Colonel Blimps if there ever were, got in charge of things.

It's how it was done, the high army positions were reserved for their aristocracy. The Duke of Wellington had died in 1852, three years before the Crimean War and the charge. He also purchased his commission back in the day. It was just dumb luck that he happened to be a military genius. Lord Raglan who is played by John Gielgud was an able staff officer for Wellington, but as a strategist was hopelessly out of his depth.

Howewver the main two blunderers were a pair of quarreling in-laws, Lord Cardigan and Lord Lucan played by Trevor Howard and Harry Andrews. They would rather have sent their armies against each other than the Russians.

A lot of the best of that generation died charging the heights of Balaclava that day to get to Sevastapol because of these two mutts. In any kind of system based on merit these two would never have gotten to be sergeants let alone generals.

The Crimean War which basically ended as a stalemate because the Russians were as inept as the British led eventually to reform of the army. That reform came in the first ministry of William Gladstone (1868-1874)and his very able Secretary for War Lord Edward Cardwell who finally got Parliament to abolish purchase commissions and promotions were based on merit after that. Good thing too, because it staggers the imagination to think of the British Army going into World Wars I and II and the Boer War under the old system.

The charge at Balaclava gained its enduring legend through the popular poem of Alfred Lord Tennyson who was smart enough to romanticize the Noble Six Hundred instead of their inept leadership The movie that Errol Flynn and Olivia DeHavilland starred in back in 1936 was a romantic story inspired by that poem.

What Tony Richardson and the cast he directed in 1968 bring you the real story of the charge. It's a graphically accurate account and military historians should love this film.

In 1936 Errol Flynn appeared in a film called THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, directed (at Warner Brothers) by Michael Curtiz. It was a box office smash, guaranteeing the greatness of Warners adventure star Flynn in a series of swashbuckling films that would last until 1941, and would remain imprinted on his career until he began to age too much from drink and debauchery. But the history presented about the most infamous blunder in British military annals during the Crimean War was mushed up. Elements of the Sepoy Revolt were tacked on, to build up an understandable motive for the Russian - English confrontation in the Crimea.

Yet for all it's mush, most people in 1936, or even today, enjoy THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE with Flynn. It holds a kind of stately dignity to most people because Flynn represents a type of bizarre honor at all costs type that we admire. The film is, of course, named for Tennyson's poem about the Charge. Yet the Tennyson poem is not totally quoted, and only pops up on screen during the last seven minutes, inter-cut in the background of shots of the charging British cavalrymen. For a poetry lover the effect is not what one could wish.*

(*Lord Tennyson was criticized about twenty years after writing this poem by a member of the larger unit, "the Heavy Brigade" that was also at the battles of the Alva and Balaclava in October 1854, but followed the correct orders, lost few members, and successfully carried out it's assignment. Tennyson took it to heart, and wrote - believe it or not - a poem called THE CHARGE OF THE HEAVY BRIGADE. If you get his complete poems you can find it. It is a competent poem (one can hardly expect an incompetent poem by Tennyson), but it is totally without any merit in comparison to the earlier work. It is not quotable. I have put a copy of this poem down separately on the thread.)

In the meantime, Cecil Woodham - Smith wrote THE REASON WHY, a book (whose title is lifted from Tennyson's line, "Their's not to reason why. Their's but to do or die.") that documented the generally bad leadership of the Light Brigade and the British Army in the 1840s and 1850s, leading to the debacle at Sebastopol. The villains were James Brudenell, Seventh Earl of Cardigan, his hated cousin George Bingham, Earl of Lucan (great grandfather of the missing Earl/murderer from the 1970s), Lord Raglan (the General-in-Chief), Lord Airey (Raglan's second in command), and Captain Louis Nolan. Between these five geniuses the blunder occurred.

Woodham - Smith pointed out that Cardigan was an insufferable perfectionist and snob. He made the Light Brigade a crack fighting and riding group. But he sneered at non-aristocratic officers from India like Louis Nolan. Ironically Errol Flynn's character would have not risen far in the Light Brigade under Cardigan! There were a series of scandals involving this snob, one of which (the "black bottle" affair) is shown in this film. An illegal duel that resulted in Cardigan's trial for attempted murder before the House of Lords in 1841 (he won acquittal on an aggravating quibble regarding the name of his dueling opponent) is not in this film.

Cardigan might still have performed reasonably well if Lucan had not insisted on being put over him as head of Cavalry (Lucan, who lived to be 91, would eventually be a Field Marshall). The two kept on sniping at each other. The Duke of Wellington had died in 1852, and Raglan, his gopher, inherited his post as commander in chief. Raglan constantly wondered how the Iron Duke would have handled every situation, thus blinding his own powers of thought. Airey was even more of a non-entity. As for the angry, hot-headed Nolan, he was desperate to prove himself in battle to show up Cardigan and his snobs.

It was a recipe for disaster. The spark was the stupid, vaguely worded order that Nolan delivered to Lucan who sent it (without comment) to Cardigan, to take the Brigade to "the guns". It is believed Raglan meant the British guns . Nolan got into a fit of temper with Cardigan and Lucan, and pointed in a way towards both the British and Russian guns. Cardigan, shrugging his shoulder, started after the Russian position. Two thirds of the 600 men were lost, but to Cardigan's credit they did seize the Russian guns. Cardigan himself survived (he would later have to explain this - did he leave his men to die in the battle when they reached the guns?). Nolan was killed trying to stop the insane charge when he saw the error he caused.

Trevor Howard is wonderful as the snobbish, ego-maniacal Cardigan - also quite a womanizer, and jealous of preserving the appearance of a fine figure (watch Peter Bowles trying to hastily push Howard into his girdle before battle). Guilgud is wonderful as the vague, out-of-it Raglan, who barely notices his men are being killed too easily. Hemmings plays Nolan well too, as we sympathize with a fairly intelligent officer being wasted, who makes just one rash mistake too many. Harry Andrews is only in the last half hour of the film, but his bull in the china shop character bodes nothing good for the situation.

Howard would repeat the character of Cardigan, under a different name, in the comedy THE MISSIONARY with Michael Palin and Maggie Smith, where he was a reactionary old general who was the richest man in England (and who liked the sound of the word "flog" - so would Cardigan for that matter). Also note the use of 1850 political cartoons from PUNCH that are animated in the film at several points.

"No,though the soldiers knew someone had blundered!"