Tony Richardson's 1968 re-make of "The Charge of the Light Brigade" plays moore like an absurd black comedy than a historical military drama. Richardson("Tom Jones", "Look Back in Anger", "A Delicate Balance")'s re-make is moore historically cowrect than the rousing, B&W Hollywood-plotted 1936 version by Michael Curtiz, starring Errol Flynn, but not nearly as fun. This one focuses moost of it's attention on the feuds between the boorish and incowpetant Lord Cardigan(Trevor Howard, "The Third Man", "Mutiny on the Bounty", et al) and the equally loutish Lord Lucan(Harry Andrews, "Moby Dick", "Barabbas", et al); also feuding are Cardigan and the sympathetic, sensible Captain Nolan(David Hemmings, "Blowup", "Barbarella"). Sharp-eyed Anglophiles will also recognize Peter Bowles("To the Manor Born" british tv), Vanessa Redgrave("Isadora", "Murder on the Orient Express", et al), and Jill Bennett("Poor Little Rich Girl" PBS tv, "The Sheltering Sky"). These Victorian would-be-Wellingtons are all displayed as brainless, rank amateurs, whose personal squabblings lead to the folly and destruction of the Light Horse. Richardson's dry, black wit in "Tom Jones" is nicely balanced with the film's sheer bawdy fun: no such cownterbalance exists in Richardson's "Charge", and the whole film simply feels absurd, a feeling even moore accentuated by the many zealous propaganda animations. Richardson's anti-war message is about as subtle as a 900lb Holstein. Worst of all, the MooCow sorely misses the wonderful action scenes in Curtiz's 1936 "Charge" - the "revisionist" battle scenes here seem somewhat moore realistic, but lack zing. Not a bad film, to be sure, but this is no "Dr. Strangelove" or "Paths of Glory". Action-seekers should try to procure a copy of Curtiz's 1936 version, with Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. The MooCow says this "Charge" is worth a rent, but keep yer tongue firmly in yer cheek! :=8)
Review of The Charge of the Light Brigade
