A Quick Rant About: Sharpe's Waterloo (1997), La Haye Sainte
Вставка
- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
- Literary Sources:
D. Hamilton-Williams, 'Waterloo: New Perspectives, The Great Battle Reappraised', Brockhampton Press, (1993)
(A few other sources I seem to have mislaid at the time of editing!)
Online Sources
'Struggle for La Haye Sainte', Waterloo Association: www.waterlooas...
'Battle of Waterloo: Two Armies vs One', Napoleon, His Army and Enemies: www.napolun.com...
Clips and Audio
'Sharpe's Waterloo' (1997)
'Sharpe's Rifles' (1993): • Sharpe Gets A Battlefi...
'Sharpe's Eagle' (1993): • Sharpe Fights Against ...
'Waterloo' (1970)
'Goblin Slayer' (2018)
'Zulu' (1964)
'Here's a Health Unto His Majesty'
Music from Sharpe
All sources used belong to their respective copyright holders. If I have missed anything, then please comment below and I will amend accordingly.
My Patreon: / thelaughingcavalier
Pointing out historical inaccuracies so small most people can't even see them let alone would actually notice them?
..."THAT'S soldiering"
1IbramGaunt so small .. like English rather than Germans?
@@patricklnolen more like individual soldiers having the wrong badge on their Shako?
Laughing Cav: "Here's fourteen minutes of me bitching."
Subs: "Outstanding!"
I love the Sharpe series, both the books AND the show, grew up both watching and reading it with my late father. Always knew it was never that historically accurate but, like Hornblower or Master & Commander I do think it's historical fiction done correctly, a love-letter or tribute TO the history if you will, and at the same time a genuinely entertaining and pretty well-acted TV series with a great soundtrack and amazing characters and settings, so I still love it just as much coming back to it years later 😊 eeeeven if I CAN, it must be said see the inaccuracies and slip-ups (and occasional sheer tight-fistedness and laziness) a lot more clearly now than then
Horn blower is actually quite accurate, forester did a superb job, master and commander is based on the USS Constitution but made a french ship probably for the sake of American popularity. Still brilliant though.
@@sirhumphreyappleby8399 oh no arguments here, don't get me wrong I love Hornblower and Master & Commander just as much and in some ways they ARE indeed a lot more accurate while just as entertaining 🙂 I also enjoyed stuff like the old Gregory Peck Hornblower movie from the 50's (can't seem to find that to watch online anywhere now though, annoyingly)
@@1IbramGaunt I was about to protest your statement...
@@horatio655 well I'm glad to see you changed your mind sir as I was about to "congratulate you on your perspicacity" 😂 as it is though always fantastic to hear from a RN legend! lemme know if you fancy a game of Whist and a tot of rum sometime sir
Sharpe is kinda like the star wars the clone wars version of the Napoleonic wars.
Napoleon after his Egyptian Campaign: "I don't like sand. It's course, rough... and it gets everywhere"
given its budget, I treat Sharpe as nothing but good old patriotic fantasy giving tribute towards this era
Oh and he does say 'make ready' as well as 'present', 'fire' a few times, during the final battle with the Old Guard for example. See what you mean though
As a Historian I too noticed these inaccuracies. But Sharpe is still one of my guilty pleasures. Of course I understand its historical fiction and made by ITV on a shoestring budget. So I'm willing to give it some slack. It must be hard trying to recreate Waterloo with about 100 extras lul. But there are some things that are unforgivable. The ones you mentioned. Talking about thousands of "Lancers" when theirs about 10 Cuirassiers. Lul. Oh and the Prince of Orange. Wow.
Still love Sharpe and Sean bean tho. And the musical score. Its lovely.
I think the real problem is that someone got confused between La Haye Saint and Hugemont.
The novel it's based on has Sharpe & Harper at Hougoumont at the start of the battle where the Guards make more sense. Why the Sharpe series screenplay writers decided to make this La Haye Saint is beyond me.
@@celston51 Yeah read the book many times. Reading around the real battle gave me an appreciation of how much effort Cornwell went to to be accurate. With the screenwriters it's probably something daft like they couldn't spell Hugemont ;)
Sharpe was awesome but damn, it had a budget smaller than a local elementary school's stage show.
I mean this is Waterloo, why there 's barely 50 or so people?
Well, Sean Bean didn't die here so i guess that's a plus.
I do wonder if someone who did everything Sharpe was shown doing in the books would have had THAT hard a time getting up in life. Seems like the universe was determined to kick him down with all the bad luck he had to the point of absurdity.
Whilst I loved the Sharpe TV series (will definitely get around to reading the books one day) I always felt that the show became a little too reliant on the ‘inept nincompoop/popinjay’ archetype at times when depicting officers.
Indeed, though no doubt eliciting intended laughs from viewers it did sometimes feel ‘posh buffoon of the week’ to me, with perhaps diminishing returns. The arguable nadir of this trend must be _Colonel Bamfield_ from ‘Siege who could arguably be considered borderline _retarded_ such was his (somewhat implausible*) predilection for buffoonery!
*Yes, I’m well aware of the character’s backstory explaining (again, not entirely plausibly) just how he had acquired his lofty rank. ;)
If you read the original books there is usually an appendix pointing out where historical detail might have been changed to help dramatic flow of the story and giving the actual historical facts as best known. The Waterloo book combines stories associated with both Hougoumont and La hey Sainte and this is explained by Cornwall in his appendix.
I take off my hat to the Sapeur de la Garde! THOSE GUYS MEANT BUSINESS!!!
’ Meanwhile, the second French column - Aulard’s brigade - approached the farm from the south-east, advancing ‘obliquely . . . over the fields as well as down the high road’. It quickly cleared the barricade on the road. Lieutenant Graeme and the other men holding it beat a hasty retreat into the courtyard via the main gate; Corporal Withelm Wiese recalls the bullets ‘whistling around their heads’.’
I am quoting from Brenden Simm’s The Longest Day, which is solely about the defense of La Haye Sainte and it shows a barricade was there the defenders used before escaping into the farm. They did then secure the entrance so effectively the french gave up and decided to bypass instead.
I think that might be referring to the barricade next to the south wall that was across the road: erenow.net/ww/waterloo-battlefield-guide/waterloo-battlefield-guide.files/image064.jpg (best map I could find at short notice). I guess when they made this they heard there was a barricade but since they move the direction the French attack from, they moved the barricade as well to the front of the gate rather than its actual location a bit further down.
Very good research and ngood spots of tiny errors- yes they had a low budget ( as someone years ago, claiming to be on the crew mentioned to me on YT in another similar video ) , the redcoated troops came later.
6:15 - typically, before an attack goes in, the drummers are supposed to fall back behind the attack.
6:40 - Historically the garrison's barricade outside just to the south of the main gate was not much of an obstacle - among the items used in making it, was a French unusable gun carriage. It wouldn't take long to throw aside if set up around the main gate.
- And in the early hours of the battle, yes, sometimes in quieter moments in between major French assaults, a few defenders were charging outside and up to little adventures, taking prisoners, sniping, getting taken prisoner, in one case helping a wounded French soldier, and in another, looting a dead French soldier before just escaping back into the farmhouse in time.
Another good source for the La Haye Sainte battle is 'The Long Afternoon', by Brendan Simms - I think he has a YT video up of the LHS fight too.
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Thank you, your content so good and fun. You made my night, I know you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in England but.
Happy Thanksgiving, from an Native American to a English chap. (Btw send more colonists, we have eaten them already!🦃🦃)
Wait... you ate the colonists.
Dr.Who1980 Productions won’t be first time we ate some lol.
for me though the action was set at La Haye Sainte it events are what took place at the Chateau of Hougoumount which was attack first at around 11.30 am, which the french broke in and a Scottish officer call MacDonald closed the gates
for the staff officer call the time 11.30 La Haye Sainte was not attracted to at least 12.30 /1pm
Yeah, the main defense for many of these episodes is the incredibly low budgets they were forced to work with. I certainly had my issues with the writing in later episodes (a lot of Cornwell's books were COMPLETELY rewritten) but I remember this one being better than most of the later ones.
Agreed, it's a lot better than the ones they made in India at least, not that that's saying much lol
The other main defense? "Yeah but it's Sharpe though and I like Sharpe" haha
@@1IbramGaunt Best one I've heard. Well at least Sean Bean doesn't die in these :)
@@Shadowman4710 "The Chosen Men. The only crew tough enough to actually keep Sean Bean alive for an entire TV series" 😂
@@1IbramGaunt And so say we all :)
It was a tv show and not an attempt to make the battle authentic!
Ladders? If they couldn't build them out of available wood, they would visit the local big box home supply store. It worked for Denzil.
You would think they could've flipped the footage of the farmhouse sequence to make it more accurate.
I remember seeing this show back in '97 and enjoying it as Historical Dramas such as this were really sparse here in the States back then. Usually you only saw programs like this on A&E or PBS. SW was a fun movie and provided some entertainment. The problem with Historical Dramas are that they are so expensive to mount. Especially back then when ratings were not as a rule that high for a Historical Drama like this. I'm afraid this show was a product of it's times.
Bernard Cornwall also wrote an excellent book ‘Waterloo- four days, three armies, three battles which is an excellent telling of the events.
As for the next videos you're doing, much as I'm looking forward to Waterloo part 2 I hope you've not forgotten about the Six Wives series or Sink The Bismarck 😁 don't ask for much do we haha
Will definitely return to them, although I hate having to deal with copyright claims from the BBC over the Six Wives series!
@@The_Laughing_Cavalier no rush mate, no rush, just so long as you eventually do and keep churning out such quality content I don't give a damn about the upload speed 🙂 but yep 'the Beeb' are well known for being complete arseholes about copyright so good luck, you'll need it
@@1IbramGaunt Haha.
@@The_Laughing_Cavalier but I definitely DO want to see copyright purgatory... as long as it's only copyright lawyers who are condemned there! 😎
Enjoyed this one, despite the obvious budget limitations.
It is great hearing these. BUT we should ensure to support these shows and films that generally beat the sh1t out of today's guff on TV
It appears that you are criticizing the attack on La haye sainte, which succeeded eventually, with the attack on Hougemont, which failed. The KGL were at La Haye sainte and the guards at Hougemont where the french giant broke in the gates and the drummer boy was the only survivour of the french attack.
No joke this show got me into history, this along with horrible histories and time team. I love this shows and the books are quite good as well (I'm only on book 4).
Dear Laughing Cavalier, would you be so kindly to review a couple of really good though disturbing parts of TV movie of BBC's Gunpowder, Treason & Plot of 2004? It is an example of good production with minimum budget and viciousness of the age, despite liberties taken. Also I would recommend you TV-series of Elizabeth I (2005) with Helen Mirren. If you will agree I would like to draw a doodle of yours on my Deviantart account. Toodle-pip!
I vaguely remember watching Gunpowder, Treason and Plot years ago, can't remember it too well other than Mary being blonde for some reason (although the actress was French which was a bonus) and her rehearsing her execution, which she did not do (that was Katherine Howard over forty years earlier!). I am currently writing the script for a quick review of the Helen Mirren series and may or may not mention it in the upcoming 1000 sub special. Yeah sure, I don't mind with the doodle thing :)
Sharpe weren't from Sheffield. After that, all other stitch counting becomes irrelevant. ;)
Is it just me or do the French speak complete gibberish? I'm dutch but speak English and a little French, and I'm quite sure the only actual French words they say is "Vive la France". I do assume the budget was the equivalent of what a janitor gets annually (€24,316, £20,409 i think.), so they couldn't afford to teach themselves French. But at least just speak English if you can't speak the actual language!
My ancestor Peter Hagelstrom fought there, he was a member of the kings German legion he received a medal. Very cool video. Rule Britannia.
Next you’ll be saying things like Old Nosey didn’t actually say “What are you waiting for? Forward, and complete your victory! Don't let them stand, see them off our land! - Your battalion, Mr. Sharpe! “
Finding very minor historical discrepancies, and making a 14 minute video about it , that’s Soldiering !
Your rant is pretty much spot on, except where you moan about the barricade outside in the road - which the KGL DID out there, as they attempted to defend the orchard, road and kitchen garden. The barricades were there
Erm, but I mentioned that. They did not have a barricade outside the front gate though, that was my point.
@@The_Laughing_Cavalier no, the KGL did have a barricade outside, two technically. And they were only a few yards from the dovecote gate. One was roughly level with the pond.
@@CrichtonNo5 I have read they had a barricade covering the road, NOT directly outside the gate in a u shape like Sharpe depicted, that was my point.
It would have looked something like this (pardon the warlord games image: cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0255/0949/4864/products/lhs1_fcc3a04b-3145-4ac3-99ca-28316c09ad30.jpg?v=1575566045
That is not the same as what Sharpe had and was my point in the video.
Fair dos. For what it's worth in the Sharpe episode I don't think it's directly outside the gate, maybe that's to do with the camera angles etc. At one point it looks adjacent to the end of the barn, but I could be wrong
@@CrichtonNo5 I think the problem is is that they appear to have got everything backwards with their set compared to the real life farmhouse (like the barn and farmhouse itself seem to have swapped places from what I remember, haven't seen the episode recently so would have to go back and look) I expect the gate has moved position as well compared to irl, don't know why they did that. Either somebody printed off the reference picture backwards or there was some budgetary reason involved (or perhaps it was easier for filming the scenes?)
Probably more than 20 guys at Waterloo as well
Did you ever get to do the Fall of Eagles series?
I haven't done a review of it yet. I have seen it a few times and own it on DVD, but I think I will wait a while before doing some quick reviews of it since I have some other videos lined up before then.
@@The_Laughing_Cavalier Okey Doak
I’ve been following this series but I ran into a problem that I can’t overlook, WHY is hakeswill still alive in sharpe’s company??? Sharp threw him in a damn snake pit earlier in the series
It’s driving me insane that they even changed the reason for sharpe’s Flogging
Were you in the 44th? I was a drummer there for a short while as a youngster
I was indeed! c.2008 to 2013. Technically till 2016 but I had to stop attending events in 2013 when I went off to university but I still kept my membership going till then from what I remember, I still have all my old stuff though!
@@The_Laughing_Cavalier oh awesome! I must have overlapped with you because I was there around 2010 ish
Sharpes Waterloo should have been the best, it ended up being the worst, Director so was poor 🙃 itv also had a lot to answer for regarding budget, it's embarrassing that the had to use stock footage from sharpes Eagle at the end 😕 oh and also during the battle the ground is completely dry..... 🙈🙈🙈
If you were at the filming you would realise that they didn’t really go for historical accuracy. They just went with we will get away with that. Low budget stuff.
I mean a bit nitpicky eh? None of that stuff really matters.
HOI4 live stream for 1.00k subs?
I would love to do that but my PC is a potato when it comes to playing games I am afraid!
@@The_Laughing_Cavalier *pain
Sharp is bollocks.
..................................................................
Who cares? It was a great series. My only moan is that Harris and Hagman died.
Nah, another historical nitpicking channel to ruin our immersion... Well, I better subscribe, then.
Thank you, your content so good and fun. You made my night, I know you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in England but.
Happy Thanksgiving, from an Native American to a English chap. (Btw send more colonists, we have eaten them already!🦃🦃)
And so we shouldn't lol. A Native American living in England and proud of heritage
Well from just an average northern-English history enthusiast (but with American friends and family), cheers 🙂 hope you enjoy the festivities then
1IbramGaunt thank you, happy thanksgiving 🦃