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| Director: Michael Curtiz
Actors: Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland, Patric Knowles, Henry Stephenson, Nigel Bruce
Studio: MGM (Warner)
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $0.50
You Save: $14.48 (97%)
New (13) Used (29) Collectible (9) from $0.50
Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 11224
Format: Black & White, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 115 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 6302120616
UPC: 027616151032
EAN: 9786302120615
ASIN: 6302120616
Theatrical Release Date: October 20, 1936
Release Date: December 7, 1994
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: tape only no org box GREAT ITEM SHIPPED WITH TRACKING INFO SHIPPED FROM OREGON Used - Acceptable Default Text
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 38
 Bring it on to DVD June 6, 2005
Lance C. Liebl
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
This version of "The Charge Of the Light Brigade" has to be viewed with an open mind. Don't compare it to the movies nowadays with all the computer generated battle scenes. Imagine watching hundreds of actual horses & riders charging in line. The complexity of such a shot is enormous. Unfortunately, hundreds of horses were hurt and placed out of their misery. But that was the common way of doing things then. As for the acting, Errol Flynn is a dashing figure and even his death in the movie has dignity. Personally, I hate his brother (for stealing his girl while he was away), and his former fiance for hurting this hero. She is as much at fault for his death as the enemy. His broken heart definitely leads him in part to his destructive, suicidal end. As a child I loved this film and thru out my 40+ years, I have tried to view it whenever it shows. I obtained a video copy which is very worn now. All I need to say is BRING IT TO DVD. I thought it would be in Errol Flynn's box set recently released but was disappointed not to see it there. One of his best films and the studio still resists putting it on DVD. My children (ages 12 to 21)enjoy the old movies, because I showed them what it means to make a movie without all the technology of today. Those were the days of "lasting" stars, not the "fast shooting and disappearing" stars of today.
 Epic Film From An Epic Poem January 30, 2000
James L. (Toronto, Canada)
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
Following the success of Errol Flynn and Olivia deHavilland in Captain Blood, Warner Brothers quickly put them back together into another action film. But it's a surprising pairing, since deHavilland's character isn't in love with Flynn, but his brother instead. Actually, the deHavilland character and the love plot really arent' necessary, although they don't take away from the film. The movie is an action filled account of an ill fated charge by the British against a much larger Russian army in India. Tennyson wrote a famous poem about the incident, praising the British for their bravery. The movie explains the events leading up to the charge, and as someone who is not a history expert, I'll accept the views of others that say that the film is much more fiction than fact. To me, that doesn't matter, because it entertains nonetheless. The musical score is terrific (as any score by Max Steiner usually is), and Michael Curtiz's direction is excellent, particularly in his depiction of the sweeping action. One thing is surprising. Nowadays, as people have become more aware of protecting animals in film and television, the climatic scene in this film is sort of disturbing, given that you can see a number of horses being injured, if not killed. But overlooking that, Charge of the Light Brigade is an action filled epic that is most impressive.
A Mammoth Epic December 12, 1999
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
As history, forget it! The Charge of the Light Brigade is strictly an action epic. The charge itself has not been topped even to the present. It's magnificent but also upsetting at the sight of these horses falling rather violently in some shots. Other films like Gunga Din and John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King have a light touch laced throughout the script. The closest we come to any lightness of tone in Charge is the ever terrific David Niven as Capt. Randall and then not very much. Ironically the film's dour tone, best mirrored by Errol Flynn's and Donald Crisp's respective characters, is probably the way it really was in British India. Such a life was probably dirty, dangerous, violent and often very dull in the "off" hours; anything but the stuff of romantic adventure. Director Michael Curtiz does not allow the movie to sag under the weight of its large cast, huge sets and mammoth battles, but instead keeps it moving, aided by Max Steiner's rousing score. This is prime Hollywood adventure.
'Tho Someone Had Blundered:' (On Purpose) August 5, 2002
Martin Asiner (jersey city, nj United States)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
When a film is as rousing and entertaining as CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, the only ones who truly care about the historical inaccuracies and anachronisms are the purists of history. CLB succeeds admirably as gripping spectacle but fails miserablly as literal truth. The most glaring error relates to the charge itself, surely ranking right up there with Moses' splitting of the Red Sea as memorable spectacle. The historical charge was the result of human error, but given the then contemporary world scene, a charge that resulted in such catastrophic casualties could not be motivated by an erroneous pen stroke. Instead, that pen stroke is seen as the final culmination of a cycle of revenge that begins innocently enough when British Captain Geoffery Vickers (Errol Flynn) saves the life of a roguish ruler of 'Suristan', Surat Khan, (read Afghanistan) oily played by C. Henry Gordon. Surat Khan makes a peace treaty with England only to later traitorously ally himself with England's bitter enemy, Russia. He orders the massacre of all the inhabitants (mostly women and children) at the fortress of Chukoti but spares Vickers' life as compensation. Vickers makes the killing of Surat Khan his life's work, and at the war between England and Russia in the Crimea, he sees his chance. He discovers orders requiring the Light Brigade to retreat, but rewrites those orders and falsifies his superior's handwriting, thus allowing him and his Light Brigade to attack. The attack is an extended piece of filming that should be studied by anyone in Film 101 who wants to learn how to blend sight and sound to rouse the emotions. First, Vickers addresses the troops. He reminds them that 'No one should be permitted to massacre women and children and live to boast of it. Up there (he points to the Balaklava heights). Our Objective, Surat Khan!' As the Light Brigade slowly advances, Tennyson's poem flashes line by line on the screen. The sprightly cadences of the poem exactly match the increasing speed of the horses. As the bugler sounds the 'Charge,' the lancers lower their spears in a full gallop. The camera retreats to view the charge from a panoramic distance, suggesting that the charge is an irresistable tidal wave of men, horses, and oncoming death. When Surat Khan sees this, he knows they are coming for him, but in the best tradition of Snidely Whiplash, boasts: 'The fools! Our batteries will cut them to ribbons in a crossfire.' Sadly enough, he is not far wrong. One by one, the lancers are blown off their horses. One dismounted trooper holds out the Brigade's pennant, allowing another to snatch it up and continue the charge, which soon enough establishes that justice will prevail, even at a fearsome cost.
THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE is one of the most emotionally satisfying movies of that or any other era. Not only does the bad guy (Surat Khan) get his just punishment, but the outcome also serves to suggest an allegory of contemporay events. The leader of the Russians, Count Volonoff, is a dead ringer for Joseph Stalin, and any victory over the coming clouds of despotism that were clearly evident even in 1936 served to remind the world that movies can be as entertaining as they are instructive.
Flynn's Classic Fictional Charge September 13, 2002
Roger Kennedy
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This classic movie is based VERY losely on History. At least Hollywood didn't go out of its way to appear accurate and not be so, as it often does pretenciously today. This movie is sheer entertainment with faint resemblences of history. The massacre portrayed of the garrison in India is losely based on an incident during the Seapoy Mutiny of 1857. Here the Indian mutineers crually did what is shown in the movie more or less. Of course there was no Captain Vickers, or 27th Lancers, although they can pass for the 17th Lancers who were in the actual charge. This movie is a visual delight, and is a fast passed epic. The costumes and uniforms are reasonably accurate, which is pretty good for those days. Flynn is his usual dashing self, and a tender looking David Niven in his first role is amusing to see. Although I care more for how a movie presents history as opposed to who acts in it, I do give both of these actors as well as de Haviland credit for a good job. They all fit their roles nicely. The true highlight of this film is of course the famous Charge against the Russian Don Cossack Horse Artillery Battery, which is portrayed looking like an entire army here! Still, the charge sequence for all that is superb, with really painful looking falls for the extras as well as the horses. Many horses were hurt shoting this film, and rules toward better treatment of them were revisesd as a result. But in those days people and animals took second place to movie making history! Today we have technology and computer graphics to spare all the hardships of yesturday. See this film for the heyday of epic film making, even though the history is whacked, I don't mind! And neither should you. Compared to the Politically Correct stuff that is mostly done today it is refreshing. For an interesting comparison check out the British re-make of the Charge of the Light Brigade in 1968. You will hardly find two movies more unlike each other! Enjoy.
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