Charge of the Light Brigade, The (DVD)

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"'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Some one 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."
--Alfred, Lord Tennyson

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Balaklava on Oct. 25, 1854, was the site of "an indecisive military engagement of the Crimean War, best known as the inspiration of the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson's 'Charge of the Light Brigade.' In this battle, the Russians failed to capture Balaklava, the Black Sea supply port of the British, French, and Turkish forces in the southern Crimea; but the British lost control of their best supply road connecting Balaklava with the heights above Sevastopol, the major Russian naval centre that was under siege.

Early in the battle the Russians occupied the Fedyukhin and the Vorontsov heights, bounding a valley near Balaklava, but they were prevented from taking the town by General Sir James Scarlett's Heavy Brigade and by Sir Colin Campbell's 93rd Highlanders, who beat off two Russian cavalry advances. Lord Raglan and his British staff, based on the heights above Sevastopol, however, observed the Russians removing guns from the captured artillery posts on the Vorontsov heights and sent orders to the Light Brigade to disrupt them. The final order became confused, however, and the brigade, led by Lord Cardigan, swept down the valley between the heights rather than toward the isolated Russians on the heights. The battle ended with the loss of 40 percent of the Light Brigade."

In other words, it was one of the worst military blunders in history, and it was Tennyson's unfortunate assignment as England's poet laureate to play down the screwup and glorify the event. That he did so to such lasting acclaim is a testament to his ability as a wordsmith of prodigious spin. None of which has much to do with the 1936 motion picture of the same name, its having little to do with Tennyson and even less to do with history. But, oh, what a grand piece of filmmaking it is, and as a pure adventure yarn, it's hard to beat. Thank two people in particular for the movie's success: Star Errol Flynn and director Michael Curtiz.

Was there ever so dashing, so romantic, or so impossibly handsome a Hollywood star as Errol Flynn in his prime? And did any star ever burn out and leave his prime so quickly? (A bad heart and riotous living will do that.) He was twenty-seven years old when he made "The Charge of the Light Brigade"; he was on top of his game after "Captain Blood" the year before had made him one of the biggest names in filmdom. A mere dozen years later, he would make his last swashbuckling epic, "Adventures of Don Juan," the actor of thirty-nine looking fifty. By the time of his death in 1959 when he really was fifty, he appeared much older. So, it's best to remember him from the years 1935-1945, where he reigned supreme as the world's foremost gallant movie hero.

Michael Curtiz, on the other hand, had a lengthy but slightly less well-known tenure in Hollywood as one of the industry's most underrated directors. Maybe it was because he didn't always get along too well with his actors, or maybe it was because he always allowed his actors to get more credit than he did. But consider that from 1912 until just a year before his death in 1962, he made such film classics as "Mammy," "Mystery of the Wax Museum," "Captain Blood," "Anthony Adverse," "The Charge of the Light Brigade," "The Adventures of Robin Hood," "Angels With Dirty Faces," "Dodge City," "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex," "Dodge City," "The Sea Hawk," "Yankee Doodle Dandy," "Casablanca," "Passage to Marseille," "Mildred Pierce," "Life With Father," "Young Man With a Horn," "Jim Thorpe: All American," "The Jazz Singer," "Trouble Along the Way," "The Egyptian," "White Christmas," "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," and "The Comancheros." And that's only to name a few!

Anyway, the story of "The Charge of the Light Brigade" involves Flynn as Captain (later Major) Geoffrey Vickers leading the 27th Lancers (otherwise known as the Light Brigade) on a suicide charge against the combined forces of the Russian army and Surat Khan, a treacherous Suristani Amir, in the Balaklava valley. According to the movie, the charge wasn't a mistake at all, but a calculated act of revenge on the part of the 27th for an earlier massacre perpetrated by Khan. It seems the 27th were more than willing to lay down their lives for vindication, and the film suggests they created enough of a diversion to help the British win the war. Well, no.... But, hey, it's Hollywood.

Vying for the viewer's attention with the action scenes is the film's love-triangle subplot. Geoffrey is engaged to marry Elsa Campbell (Olivia de Havilland, Flynn's favorite leading lady), but Elsa is really in love with Geoffrey's brother, Captain Perry Vickers (Patric Knowles). How this plays out is a bit tiresome at times but makes for a romantic ending, which is all that really matters.