Tonight with friends: a fight scene like you’ve never seen before and will never see again!

After escaping from the island of Elba, Napoleon returned to Paris. He decides to attack the English and Prussians in Belgium at Waterloo. But the arrival of Commander Blucher inflicts a crushing defeat on the French, ending a gigantic massacre…

After discovering Ridley Scott at the Theater Napoleon, there are many disgruntled minds (not to mention historians…) who were completely taken aback by the filmmaker’s artistic vision, suggesting radical biases and taking them as such, but for some it was. , pure and simple heresy.

We still don’t know if there is a version of it Director’s Cut which he just announced and streamed on Apple+ (at least in the US…), moving his film to 3h25 will fix things up spectacularly (or not), just like he did with his extraordinary Director’s Cut version. of the heavenly kingdom.

While we wait to see that version, and also to console ourselves a bit, we’re excited to delve into one of the best Napoleon movies ever made: Waterloo by Russian filmmaker Sergei Bondachuk. It appears for free Cinema Cinemas Youtube channelWith French subtitles and good quality as a bonus! The only limitation, insignificant and entirely relative, will be to create an account to access the channel; Nothing else!

In a tragic irony, the film was a painful and deeply unfair commercial failure upon its release in 1970. So much so that it was because of the failure of this co-production that MGM, who was afraid, withdrew from the film dedicated to him. Napoleon, which Stanley Kubrick was actively preparing.

Focusing on the famous period of 100 days before he finally capitulates and ends the life of St. Helens, the highlight of the film, as its title suggests, is the emperor’s final battle, which takes up only half of the film.

It’s pretty simple: we’ll never see a fight filmed in this movie again. With absolute carte blanche and the help of the Red Army, Sergei Bondachuk films no less than 20,000 extras on the battlefield, the efforts of staggering cavalry in enemy lines, and maneuvers in perfect fidelity to the era.

To recreate this Dantesque confrontation, the Russians completely destroyed two hills, laid an 8-kilometer road, replanted 5,000 trees, planted fields of wheat and wild flowers, and recreated four historic buildings. Most of the battle was filmed simultaneously with five cameras from the ground, a tower about thirty meters high, a helicopter and a railway line set up next to the set.

the result extraordinary And it’s served up by excellent casting, which features a very convincing Rod Steiger in Napoleon’s guise opposite Christopher Plummer, who plays the Duke of Wellington, Napoleon’s nemesis.