The Charge of the Light Brigade

There have been two superb film presentations of this epic story based upon the 1854 narrative poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson about the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War.

They are remarkably very different cinematic accounts. Their contrasting depictions of this classic story demonstrate more than anything how much showing the staging and framing of crucial historic events dramatically changed in the decades between their two creations.

The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)
https://m.ok.ru/video/275239864995

The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968)
https://m.ok.ru/video/2482076060270

The 1936 version, made in the relative peaceful time before the Second World War, was a Hollywood Warner Brothers romanticized, heroic celebration and tribute to the glory and benevolent legacy of the British Empire.

The 1968 British version, produced during the chaotic, contentious time of the Vietnam War, was a critical, more lurid depiction of the barbaric inanities and aristocratic follies and blunders of the belligerent British imperium at war.

“With expert cinematography and authentic production design, every frame of ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ is a visual masterpiece. The director’s attention to detail in recreating the era is commendable, transporting us back in time and heightening the sense of realism.”

The Charge of the Light Brigade

By Alfred, Lord Tennyson
I
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!” he said.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

II
“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

III
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of hell
Rode the six hundred.

IV
Flashed all their sabres bare,
Flashed as they turned in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wondered.
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right through the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reeled from the sabre stroke
Shattered and sundered.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

V
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell.
They that had fought so well
Came through the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

VI
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

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