Label: Imprint Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: G
Duration: 132 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 & LPCM 2.0 (No Subtitles)
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Sergey Bondarchuk
Cast: Rod Steiger, Christopher Plummer, Orson Welles, Jack Hawkins, Virginia McKenna, Dan O'Herlihy, Rupert Davies, Philippe Forquet, Gianni Garko, Ivo Garrani
is directed by Russian Sergei Bondarchuk (War and Peace), a costly co-production between Italian producer Dino De Laurentis and Russian film studio Mosfilm. Originally cast with Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole, both of whom dropped out and replaced by Rod Steiger (The Illustrated Man) as the brooding French leader Napoleon, and Christopher Plummer(Dreamscape) as British Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley who brought an end to the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 at Waterloo, this is that story.
I am not at all familiar with director Sergey Bondarchuk I think his work here might be one of the finest lensed war films I have ever seen, each sequence looking like a painting of the Napoleonic Wars brought to grim and majestic life, with the help of talented
cinematographer Armando Nannuzzi. Nannuzzi
is an Italian cinematographer whose only other films I have see myself are Dino De Laurentis produced Stephen King adaptations
Silver Bullet (1985) and Maximum Overdrive (1986), and on that latter film he lost an eye when a radio controlled lawnmower went out of control and struck a block of wood,
sending splinters right into his eye, poor guy!
The film starts on the eve of Napoleon's defeat and banishment to Elba Island in 1814, and follows him through his escape shortly thereafter on through his meteoric return to power in France and then onto his final defeat in 1815 at Waterloo. Steiger cuts quite an imposing figure as the brooding Napoleon, but his portrayal comes off as a bit of a caricature as the heart of the film is more the glory of war than getting inside the head of the main characters, including Christopher Plummer as the smirky and smug Brit Wellesley, who manages to outmatch the mad-genius of Napoleon.
That said, this is a outright gorgeous film, it's so painterly in it's capturing of the era, as I said before, it looks like a Napoleonic Wars painting brought to life. These battle are so grand in scale, and keep in mind these are the days before a digital artist could paint an entire battlefield with pixels, it's a truly mind-boggling spectacle, every frame is crammed with so much Napoleonic eye-candy.
Emotionally I felt that the film falls short, though both Steiger and Plummer give enthralling performances, but just on a technical level the film is gorgeous and easy to enjoy as war time spectacle, with thousands of extras, apocalyptic cannon fire, and charging cavalries, it's an amazing
cinematic achievement.
Audio/Video: Waterloo (1970) arrived on region-free Blu-ray from Imprint Films, licensed from Sony Entertainment, framed in 2.35:1 widescreen in 1080p HD. Right from the start the grain structure looks great, there's plenty of fine detail in the period clothing and facial details, colors look excellent and skin tones are natural-looking. The black levels are solid, and clarity and depth are adequate throughout. Audio comes by way of both English DTS-HD MA 5.1 & LPCM 2.0, unfortunately there are no subtitles. Happily though the surround mix is potent during the battlefield scenes making for a titillating aural experience, I give it high marks.
The only significant on-disc extra is a new look back at the film by film historian Sheldon Hall who gets deep into the making of this period war film, it's a pretty great extra that runs 38-minutes. He gets into the genesis if the project, with Dino De Laurentis teaming-up with Russian based Mosfilm studio to co-produce the feature with Russian director Sergey Bondarchuk helming it. He gets into the massive set-design, some casting information including the near-casting of Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton, the convoluted multi-studio, multi-country financing and distribution of the film, the unsavory cruelty to the horses on the set which lead to several being put down, and addressing the rumored four-hour cut of the film. Also addressed is the film's performance at the box office and what factors may have lead to that, and how it's failure famously had the unintended effect of derailing Stanley Kubrick's long-planned Napoleon biopic. The disc is buttoned-up with a grand but VHS-quality 3-min trailer for the film and a brief Imprint promo reel advertising their first five Imprint Films offerings, all of which I've reviewed on the blog this week, so be sure to go tread 'em all.
The single-disc release comes housed in a clear Criterion-style keepcase with a sleeve of artwork with what looks to be a new design, my least favorite of the new designs for the first five releases, and on the reverse side is an image from one of the many epic battle scenes see in the film. It also comes with a limited edition (of 1000) slipbox with a glossy finish featuring the original illustrated theatrical poster, the disc itself features an excerpt of the same key art. The spine of both the sleeve and the slip features the year the film was released at the top of the spine and is numbered at the bottom, this being release number five from Imprint. As with the other releases I have reviewed from the first wave of Imprint releases this has great packaging and it looks great on the shelf.
Special Features:
- NEW Video Interview with film historian Sheldon Hall (38 min)
- Theatrical Trailer (3 min)
- Imprint Films Promo (1 min)
- Limited Edition slipcase on the first 1000 copies
Waterloo (1970) is a stunning historical war epic with gorgeous cinematography and massive battlefield skirmishes, and while I enjoyed the performances of both Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer the real reason to I adore it is the scope of the visual artistry of it all, as if a Napoleonic War painting had suddenly sprung to life in vibrant and terrifying detail, it's breathtaking historical. epic.
More screenshots from the Blu-ray:
Extras:
