The Charge of the Light Brigade

During the Crimean War, a British cavalry brigade is driven straight at Russian artillery through an obvious misunderstanding. The charge makes no military sense and the brigade is destroyed. Tony Richardson tells this disaster not as heroism but as the natural product of class privilege and incompetence: the men giving the orders bought their commissions, are at odds with each other, and know nothing about war. The film's most distinctive element is Richard Williams's animation. Drawn in the language of the era's jingoistic cartoons and engravings, these passages cut between scenes and keep an ironic counter-voice running through the narrative. Trevor Howard sits at the center as Lord Cardigan, with Vanessa Redgrave, John Gielgud and Harry Andrews in the cast. It was made while the Vietnam war was going on and was read in that context. Who it's for: Viewers interested in anti-war films, satire of the British class system, and Richard Williams's animation. Who it's not for: The tone stays sardonic and the characters are hard to attach to. Anyone expecting a classical war epic will find it cold.