"Waterloo: Making an Epic" Topic

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Mr Lewis produced the "Making of" extra on the recent "Waterloo" Blu-ray release so he knows his stuff. The book is massive – 600+ pages – and at first glance looks to be a fascinating read.

Will we finally solve the mystery/legend of the missing scenes?

Looked through a sample on iBooks. This appears to be a book about the movie from a filmmaker's perspective, not a wargamer or military history nut's perspective. That's a good thing, IMHO, so I think I'll buy it. That's not to say that the history is ignored. There is a chapter devoted to what they got right and what they got wrong.

There is a Facebook page……..same tile with it seems a clip or two (well one at least).got my interest

Brilliant! Order gone in to day. Many thanks indeed for the tip off.

This has been a great read.

The author is clearly an expert on cinematic film production and the evolving technology involved. This is purely about the making of the film and its critical reception. It is filled with anecdotes of the perils of filming in the USSR, of the personalities involved and their foibles and has much information on what was lost in the editing process.

My impression is that what was removed was largely best forgotten. There is a whole chapter dismissing the myth of the extended version (and TMP is even cited in the references). There is many a black and white image of deleted scenes, but the print quality is very disappointing indeed.

I found this "unputdownable". Best read in ages

deadhead
Did you have the typo on the book's spine?

looking forward to reading my copy!

Received my copy yesterday. The author was born in 1966 and lives in Wales. He was too young to have seen the longer version shown on American TV. It was shown over 2 nights and included many of the cut scenes. It was called Napoleon and Wellington. I know because I watched it. It was shown on NBC channel 4 in New York.

Not the History Channel's "Napoleon and Wellington"?

no. At the time there was no History channel. It was the same movie as Waterloo with the cut scenes added.

Just finishing this book. Amazing amount of detail. I especially enjoyed the chapter on Bondarchuk's epic "War and Peace." Lots of trivia; for instance, Rod Steiger went through 263 packs of chewing gum while making "In the Heat of the Night."

In the version I saw in the final scenes all the Prussian Hussars that charge are left handed! Or is the film projected the wrong way round??

Richard A, you are correct. The image was reversed during editing.

From Lewis' book, page 437: "In the script, Blucher leads a cavalry charge at Ligny, during which he is unhorsed. Rescued, he agrees to his subordinate's plan to withdraw to Wavre. Meyer moved this charge scene to the climax of Waterloo as the Prussians make their in-the-nick-of-time appearance. The shots appear to have been "flopped," so the cavalry charge from screen left to right (all the horsemen now hold their swords in their left hand; on average, most people are right-handed for what would be considered the sword carrying hand), this is in keeping with the allied attack which is depicted with the same thrust of direction."

I got half way through this before Christmas but have only just had chance to return to it. It's a superb book – I can't think of another book that has quite so much detail about a single film. The myth of the 'extended' version is finally laid to rest and we know what was actually shown in the US. It remains the classic film for the Napoleonic enthusiast and this outstanding piece of research simply reinforces that.