"Favorite 'Waterloo' quote?" Topic

Napoleon at the start of the film "I am unable to enbrace you all" saying good by to the Old Gaurd.

Wellington: "This man knows how to defend an impossible position, raise him to Corporal!"

Wellington on being asked for reinforcements:
"I can only give General Lambert my best wishes".

Ashenduke – My guess on the word Ney uses is 'wheel ass', by which I suppose he means artillery horse. Not that it makes much sense.

Earlier in the film, at the ball Wellington says "Charleroi, by God that man does walk…" walk on what? Still can't work it out.

At the ball Wellington said "By God that man does War Honer"

Not sure of the spelling of the word Honer but Wellington did say that.

Wellington: "This man knows how to defend an impossible position, raise him to Corporal!"

A great quote indeed – but does it have any basis in fact? I would have thought Wellington much more likely to hang a plunderer than promote him.

What the Blucher character actually says in the movie is:

"Raise high the black flags, my children. No prisoners. No pity. I will shoot any man I see with pity in him."

"If you meet a cuirassier, knee to knee, you'll be lucky, if you bring away your life with you, never mind his helmet! Boy! You'll learn the art of fighting, from the French!"

I'm also glad that I'm not the only one who has some trouble with parts of the dialogue.

You can not attack with Cavalry… without Infantry support.

Regards
James

"But maman – you chose such big ones!"

OK, Let's be honest. Those of us who are 60 (ish) saw this on the wide screen (in my case in Leicester Sq ) without the extra 90 secs or so that we now get on DVD ..

and have watched it so many times that it is hard to see Boney as looking unlike (but not sounding like) R Steiger.

or Wellington sounding like (not looking like) young C Plummer.

It's a great movie that could have been so much better. Sergei B should be languishing in the lower bowels of Dante's Hell for his crimes. For what he was given, the facilities that any contemporary director would want (dream of), there is no forgiveness. But it is better than W and P or Q Flows The D…he was a truly awful contributor to the motion film industry………..

Quote? "Give me night…or give me Blucher."

Brilliant idea for a thread. Mine, as the only time the film (indeed, most UK history) admits that the Prussian lads marched miles, through mud, fought a confused battle (like Q B )where units drifted in exhausted and turned a brilliant defence into a total rout.

I ask again. Does anyone believe DoW would have marched from Mt St Jean to Wavre, leaving one corps behind, to save Blucher, had Napoleon moved slightly further east?

I ask again. Does anyone believe DoW would have marched from Mt St Jean to Wavre, leaving one corps behind, to save Blucher, had Napoleon moved slightly further east?

I do. Wellington and Blucher were personally committed to cooperating with each other, and so dragged their less enthusiastic underlings along with them.

The more ad hoc nature of his army may have made it move more slowly, and so it may have arrived too late, but I think he would have tried to help were he in a position to do so.

That is an interesting point. DoW might have tried it and yet not succeeded…because a heterogenous army of British/KGL/Hanoverians/DBs and Dutch/Nassau/Brunswickers….(makes you realise does it not?) would have been harder to hold together, than Blucher's lads.

DoW strikes me as a cold, calculating, (by 1815 politically astute) general….(nothing wrong with that, we could still do with more) who might have thought……….hmmmm screen Brussels, preserve my army, recognise there are other larger forces only weeks away…and not risk everything on muddy roads, very muddy roads, to salvage an army that I do not totally trust.

Hang on. Blucher did just that.

Is it just me who just cannot see DoW on that road through Lasne, Mt St Lambert etc to Wavre? Blucher is sitting there saying "Give me night or give me Christopher Plummer"……….

"Wellington is in the woods. I made one mistake. I should have burnt West Ham United FC Boleyn Ground (actually….not a bad idea……..will happen soon anyway )"

Is it just me who just cannot see DoW on that road through Lasne, Mt St Lambert etc to Wavre? Blucher is sitting there saying "Give me night or give me Christopher Plummer"……….

You may want to consider how many times Wellington stuck his neck out in the Peninsula for his uncooperative Spanish allies before daring to suggest he would have left Blucher in the lurch…

Now that I had not considered…………and he did nearly come a cropper there on several occasions. OK……..

Was there far more at stake in 1815? He was up against Nap himself and mainforce, but I do take your point, that DoW should not be seen as a defensive, behind the ridge commander.

Still cannot see him heading East, I'll be honest. Blucher is slaughtered to a man. "Allied" forces intact to cover Brussels and Russians/Austrians etc en route. If he had moved across…..and it had gone pear shaped…well we are quoting the movie, what they will say in London?

My lads, who are studying history, now tell me "what if" history is not academically respectable…but heck, it's fun!

Of course its fun! And I would have thought it academically useful in demonstrating an understanding of the contemporary factors at play and an insight into the personalities of the day…but what do I know, I only have a Bachelors…(First Class Honours, natch!)

If Napoleon had moved east and destroyed the Prussians, would Wellington have been able to defend Brussels for weeks waiting for other allies to arrive? Napoleon would have attacked him next and he may have been forced to retreat to the Channel. So Wellington in that situation might have calculated that the better option was to move east and attack the French left flank, despite the risks. I freely admit that I have never studied history and speak from a position of ignorance.

Just a few of my from favorite from: link

Ney – "They will chain you like Prometheus to a rock, where the memory of your own greatness will gnaw you".

Lord Uxbridge: "By God, Sir. I've lost my leg."

Duke of Wellington: "By God, Sir. So you have."