Read the background to this magnificent movie in WATERLOO-MAKING AN EPIC by Simon Lewis. Available on Amazon in print and E-Book.

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This full HD version is taken from a PAL TV transmission and therefore runs slightly faster. Using stills and exerts from the script to indicate four short scenes that never made the final cut of the film.

Some notes

Scene 1. The battle of Ligny. Looking at the script, the french army marching past the windmill used later in the film, looks like it was meant to be used as the battle of Ligny. Blucher is on the march! The Prussian cavalry charge used later in the film was almost certainly meant to be used earlier. In the film the images are ‘flopped’ so the charge goes from left to right, to maintain screen direction. In the battle scenes the french generally attack right to left and the allies left to right. This is good film direction. The scenes were almost certainly moved later to beef up the Prussians arriving at the end of the battle. In the Fan cut the ‘corrected’ charge then goes to a still of Blucher unhorsed. This explains why he is wounded a few scenes later.

Scene. 2. Wellington and Mercer discuss why his guns are aimed at a hollow in the ground. This explains why the french horses appear to fall over a crevasse in the next scene.

Scene. 3. In the script a messenger rides to tell Napoleon that the farm house has fallen, then promptly dies. These pictures appear to be that scene. Certainly Napoleon looks very similar in the next scene.

Scene 4. Wellington and Blucher meet. Cutting this scene into the film it was very obvious why it was cut. The triumphalism seems at odds with the sombre mood created in the finished scene. That said it does payoff the narrative of Napoleon nemesis.

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