![]() Geoffrey refuses to believe Perry's revelation, and the brothers quarrel bitterly. While Geoffrey has been away, Elsa has fallen in love with his younger brother, Perry. Geoffrey reports to Calcutta, where his fiancée, Elsa Campbell, is staying with her father, the colonel. Geoffrey recognizes the Khan's displeasure, but wins his personal loyalty when he saves the Khan's life during a leopard hunt. It's a graphically accurate account and military historians should love this film.Major Geoffrey Vickers of the 27th Bengal Lancers, and Sir Humphrey Harcourt, an English diplomat, visit the Amir Surat Khan of Suristan to tell him that funds previously guaranteed from the British government have been discontinued. What Tony Richardson and the cast he directed in 1968 bring you the real story of the charge. The charge at Balaclava gained its enduring legend through the popular poem of Alfred Lord Tennyson who was smart enough to romanticize the Noble Six Hundred instead of their inept leadership The movie that Errol Flynn and Olivia DeHavilland starred in back in 1936 was a romantic story inspired by that poem. ![]() Good thing too, because it staggers the imagination to think of the British Army going into World Wars I and II and the Boer War under the old system. That reform came in the first ministry of William Gladstone (1868-1874)and his very able Secretary for War Lord Edward Cardwell who finally got Parliament to abolish purchase commissions and promotions were based on merit after that. The Crimean War which basically ended as a stalemate because the Russians were as inept as the British led eventually to reform of the army. In any kind of system based on merit these two would never have gotten to be sergeants let alone generals. A lot of the best of that generation died charging the heights of Balaclava that day to get to Sevastapol because of these two mutts. They would rather have sent their armies against each other than the Russians. Howewver the main two blunderers were a pair of quarreling in-laws, Lord Cardigan and Lord Lucan played by Trevor Howard and Harry Andrews. Lord Raglan who is played by John Gielgud was an able staff officer for Wellington, but as a strategist was hopelessly out of his depth. It was just dumb luck that he happened to be a military genius. He also purchased his commission back in the day. The Duke of Wellington had died in 1852, three years before the Crimean War and the charge. It's how it was done, the high army positions were reserved for their aristocracy. It's true though, it's the reason why Lord Raglan, Lord Cardigan, and Lord Lucan a group of Colonel Blimps if there ever were, got in charge of things. Today it beggars the imagination that field grade officers simply purchased their commissions. The Charge of the Light Brigade as no other film explores the incredible ineptitude of the British Army at that time. The problem was all the powers were woefully unprepared for such a war, British included. It all was about propping up the Ottoman Empire and keeping the Russians from getting a hold of Istanbul and an outlet to the Mediterranean Sea for their fleet. And it was only the Crimean War which involved them with and against other European powers, in this case Russia. ![]() Although many British folks will cite various colonial enterprises, the only two major wars the British were involved in were the Crimean War and the Boer War. Great Britain from the end of the Napoleonic Wars until the beginning of World War I was only involved in two formally declared conflicts. This is a factual account about how several hundred of the best of that generation in the United Kingdom met their deaths in the Crimea. Let's make it very clear from the outset, this version of The Charge of The Light Brigade is in no way a remake of the Errol Flynn film that Warner Brothers did in 1936. ![]()
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