Waterloo (1970)

Directed by Sergei Bondarchuk and starring Rod Steiger as Napoleon and Christopher Plummer as Wellington.

So often a war film does not give any idea of the scale of a battle. I remember watching Cromwell's recreation of the Battle of Naseby, and seeing what appeared to be a minor skirmish between a few cavalrymen, with the outcome hingeing on one simple ruse.

The logistics of creating a major battle between armies are so great, even with the assistance of CGI, that very often the film chooses to focus on the contribution of one unit. This technique also has the benefit of emphasising character and concentrates the drama. On reflection, Saving Private Ryan, for all its power and pyrotechnics, adopts this approach.

The Longest Day's huge scale is in fact a patchwork of individual human stories from all ranks of the military and civilian participants.

Movies which have made a serious effort to stage a realistic battle include Paths of Glory, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Alamo, Patton and Midway. But the best of the lot is Waterloo.

Forget character. Steiger is hammy, Plummer so understated as to be a caricature of the stiff-upper-lipped, haughty English aristocrat. There's a nod to the other ranks involved and one simple soldier is allowed to voice the one anti-war remark. Otherwise the dialogue is made up of carefully selected 'famous quotations' or vague, simplistic indications of what the hell is going on. 'He who wins the farmhouse,wins the battle.' Don't ask why.

But as a spectacle it is unsurpassed. Amid great columns of smoke, we see from a helicopter huge British squares attacked by hundreds of French cavalry, massive batteries of cannon, the sieges of Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte. Bondarchuk re-stages the famous charge of the Royal Scots Greys -'the finest cavalry in Europe, and the worst-led' - in the style of the paintings produced later, and likes it so much he lets us see it it slow motion. Napoleon staggers blindly though black smoke as the battle slips away from him.

Although the scale is huge, you won't come away from this film with much insight into how the Waterloo was won and lost. The absence of Grouchy, the arrival of Blucher, the impetuosity of Ney, the illness of Bonaparte all seem to be significant, but do not expect to know the strategies of the commanders, to understand the on-field tactics, or see individual initiative, heroics and blunders.

Nonetheless, Waterloo is magnificent. But, as they say, 'C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre' - nor a great film.