blaster
Major
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2008
- Messages
- 6,060
I saw this documentary on the re-enactment of the 200th Anniversary of Waterloo (2015). There is no narration. The filmmaker allows all the re-enactors to speak for themselves in this documentary. All the main re-enactors are playing the part of French troops. Key scenes are the walking sequence from the Golfe landing to Paris and the Battle of Waterloo itself.
There is an underlying storyline. For this anniversary event, there is keen competition between two actors to play the part of Napoleon. The choice boils down to an American who appears to do a better Napoleonic impersonation, or his rival who is French and has a better costume. Eventually the American has to bow out as he has to serve time for an accident. The re-enactors come across as quirky and odd. They spout some pseudo-historical reasons to get into re-enactment, to immerse oneself in history, asking the right questions, and not as some dry academic course, with some professing a preference to the good old days etc. Waterloo was a political disaster - all it did was delay the setting up of the European community by 200 years and so on.
The costumes look good though.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8841814/
There is an underlying storyline. For this anniversary event, there is keen competition between two actors to play the part of Napoleon. The choice boils down to an American who appears to do a better Napoleonic impersonation, or his rival who is French and has a better costume. Eventually the American has to bow out as he has to serve time for an accident. The re-enactors come across as quirky and odd. They spout some pseudo-historical reasons to get into re-enactment, to immerse oneself in history, asking the right questions, and not as some dry academic course, with some professing a preference to the good old days etc. Waterloo was a political disaster - all it did was delay the setting up of the European community by 200 years and so on.
The costumes look good though.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8841814/