It takes me a while to build up to these
things; for some time I’ve been aware of the Pen & Sword series of Napoleonic DVDs, but I was rather put off
by some unenthusiastic customer reviews on Amazon. Eventually, I had a careful
think about the matter (prompted by a reduction in price, I admit) – if we are
sensible about such things, I am not looking for a piece of great art, and I
have previously bought and enjoyed the Pegasus
series of ECW films (notwithstanding their cheerful, home-movie quality and the
guy in the dodgy fake whiskers playing Charles I), so I decided to order some
up.
I bought all four of the Waterloo
Collection volumes, plus the newer one about Salamanca. Thus far I have watched
the first two of the Waterloo items, and I am very pleased with them – I found
no trace of the sound problems which came in for such harsh criticism on Amazon
from Napoleon Fan, of Hants, UK, and
quickly got into the feel of the presentation. This is not the History Channel
– thank God – we do not get constant reminders (in case we have forgotten in
the previous 10 seconds) that “he is now in great danger – if a bullet hits him
in the head he could be deaded” – and the pace and style are fine. I warmed to
the affable chaps (all professional battlefield guides, apparently) who walked
us around the various locations and described the action sensibly and in a
manner calculated to enable us to get a good feel for how the battle developed.
I felt, whilst watching, that a film presentation can have definite advantages
over actually being there; that is not to say that I would not like to go
there, but watching the film gives a valuable overview and covers more ground
more quickly than a walking tour could, for example. All right – go there, but
watch the films first.
All very positive then – provided you
approach this in the right spirit, I would recommend these films wholeheartedly
(this is based only on having watched the first two, of course) – they are
intelligently done and very informative – well, I found them so. A few minor
themes occurred to me on the way:
(1) the film makers have gone to a lot of
trouble to correct the traditional British downplaying of the role played by
the Dutch-Belgian and German troops in the Waterloo campaign, which is welcome.
(2) the many inserted clips of re-enactors
add colour and a lot of authenticity, but most of the participants, strangely,
seem unable to stand up straight, never mind march convincingly. A real
sergeant would have given them all a right shouting-at. I’m sure the buttons and
lace are correct, but it would be nice if they looked like soldiers, too,
rather than like self-conscious office workers dressed up. That may have been a
very elderly thing to say – I’ll think about that.
(3) the presenters’ grasp of French
pronunciation is so universally, well, crap, that at first I almost thought it
must be a joke. I have no wish to appear precious about this, but if I were
making a film about a battle involving a lot of people and places with French
names (to show on the telly, like), I think I would have taken a little more trouble
to get the hang of this – especially if I claimed to make my living at
battlefield tours, and thus, presumably, to travel in Belgium a lot. It is not
even up to the WW1 soldiers’ “san-fairy-anne” standard – at least that was a
phonetic approximation. No, this is a literal, schoolboy reading of French words, mispronounced
with the most English of English accents, avoiding all traces of any (embarrassing?) foreign-sounding inflection. Did they coach them specially? Did
they agree this strange assault on the French tongue, as a matter of policy, before
they started? Interesting. Poor old General Reille is referred to by a number
of versions of his name – none even slightly correct. In the general flow of
things, General Drouet d’Erlon morphs into General Drouot, who I believe was a
different bloke altogether. Not to worry – it grates a bit, but I got used to
it.
Not put off by any of this, I look forward
to watching Part 3 tonight. Very good on a dark evening, with a glass of
something.
Reading further, I see that the same team
have produced a further two titles on the Peninsular War, one being a history
of the 95th Rifles and one entitled The Keys to Spain, which I believe is a discussion of fortresses
and sieges. I am intrigued to see that these are available only in the American
NTSC format (that’s “Never the Same Color”, I am told) and are Region 1, so
will not play on European TV equipment. Somewhere in my library of software I’m
sure I have something which will convert video files into other formats, so I
must look further in to this. Maybe they are available in a more UK-friendly
format, and I just missed them.
Anyway, if you’re prepared to approach
them in the right spirit, these DVDs would make a nice little stocking filler.
God – is it that time already?
I had not seen any of this series before. Appreciate your review and your recommendations. I may give them a try!
ReplyDeleteIf Vol 3 is a stinker I'll let you know!
DeleteThanks Foy. I'll keep an eye out for these at the local library. Ref your point 2, it may be an elderly thing to do, but sounds true. I was an American Civil War reenactor in my 30s and early 40s. Most of us were wannabes with no time in a real military and so no knowledge of dress, deportment, or physical fitness. Many of us had waist sizes in the high 30s and up (actually, the size 38s were considered slender). We couldn't drill much, we couldn't march far, and had StonewallJackson's foot cavalry ever seen us,they would have punched us all in the face and taken our shoes. And to think tourists looked at us and thought it was history. As you can see, confessing my sins now is bringing me some peace. :)
ReplyDeleteMichael
Michael - I think I mentioned this before in some post or other, but apparently when Ridley Scott (and his brother?) did the History Channel TV version of Gettysburg there was some trouble because they insisted that all the fatties among the re-enactment units had to stand at the back, out of picture, since it was felt that an army which patently was too unfit to march would make the film ridiculous (and it is not too great, even without that, imho). I can't remember how they got away with it, but they did, they got their way, and there was a lot of harrumphing about alleged lardism, or whatever. I also read somewhere about someone making a movie about WW1, and they had a problem, since everyone that wanted to be an extra in the film had perfect teeth - they had to get the make-up people to give people authentically rotten, crooked teeth for 1915.
DeleteCheers - Tony
I got an interesting email from Martin P, who reckons that battlefield guides may, like him, have first learned their Waterloo history from magazines as a kid, long before they heard the names spoken, or learned any French, and the names stuck in this ancient, sacred form.
ReplyDeleteMartin - I've thought about your theory, and I reject it. Thanks.
Interesting, though.
The whole set has been doing the rounds of the lads while we've been on the 100 Days Campaign thing. You don't have to watch, just listen while you paint. I think they are all very good indeed. I may splash out on the Salamanca one.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I'm enjoying them.
DeleteHave now watched all the Waterloo Collection, and if anything they got better as the series went on. Some things in there which were new to me - never seen much about the Battle of Wavre, for example. Very good.
ReplyDelete