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| Christopher Plummer as the Duke of Wellington in the movie "Waterloo" |
The actor Christopher Plummer passed away on February 5, 2021. While most obituaries cite his role in The Sound of Music, and rightly so, his role as the Duke of Wellington in the film "Waterloo" is how I best remember him. The actor who played Wellington/Wellesley in the Sharpe series may have been more spot on, but Christopher Plummer will always be how I remember him.
Here is a synopsis of Plummer's acting career, from the Rotten Tomatoes site:
Christopher Plummer, who rose to international fame as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, began his screen career with an “and introducing” credit on Sidney Lumet’s 1958 Stage Struck. By 1965 he would be known everywhere as papa Trapp, but Sound of Music was lighter fare for Plummer, a movie that punctuated a career building around military epics and classic-style adventures like The Fall of the Roman Empire, Battle of Britain, Waterloo, and The Man Who Would Be King.
The Silent Partner, Murder by Decree, Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country, and 12 Monkeys were among his movie highlights until a career resurgence with 1999’s The Insider, the Michael Mann big-tobacco expose with Al Pacino and Russell Crowe. This opened to a string of critical and commerical hits, including Best Picture-winner A Beautiful Mind, Inside Man, and Up.
At 80, he recieved his first Oscar nomination for The Last Station. He won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Beginners, as a man finding a new lease on life in his later years, at age 82, becoming the oldest to ever win an acting Oscar. He also became the oldest to be nominated for an acting Oscar at age 88 for his last-minute casting to Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World.
Among Plummer’s final roles were as Ebenezer Scrooge in The Man Who Invented Christmas, and as Harlan Thrombey in Rian Johnson’s whodunit Knives Out.
Here are some of Plummer's lines from the film Waterloo. I am sure that everyone remembers them well.
(My favorite Plummer/Wellington line: "I like a man who can defend a hopeless position. Promote him to corporal!")
Duke of Wellington : Next to a battle lost, the saddest thing is a battle won.
Lord Uxbridge : By God, Sir. I've lost my leg.
Duke of Wellington : By God, Sir. So you have.
Lord Uxbridge : [clears throat] Sir.
Duke of Wellington : [removing his copy of The Times from over his face] Ah, Uxbridge.
Lord Uxbridge : As I am second-in-command and in case anything should happen to you, what are your plans?
Duke of Wellington : [brightly] To beat the French.
[goes back to sleep, replacing the newspaper over his head]
[Historical quote]
Duke of Wellington : [referring to his army] I don't know what they'll do to the enemy; but, by God, they frighten me.
Duke of Wellington : The whole line will advance.
Lord Uxbridge : In which direction your grace?
Duke of Wellington : Why, straight ahead to be sure.
[referring to the English troops]
Duchess of Richmond : They're the salt of England, Arthur.
Duke of Wellington : Scum. Nothing but beggars and scoundrels, all of them. Gin is the spirit of their patriotism.
Duchess of Richmond : Yet you expect them to die for you?
Duke of Wellington : Um-hum.
Duchess of Richmond : Out of duty?
Duke of Wellington : Um-hum.
Duchess of Richmond : I doubt if even Bonaparte could draw men to him by duty.
Duke of Wellington : Oh, Boney's not a gentleman.
Duchess of Richmond : Arthur! What an Englishman you are.
Duke of Wellington : On the field of battle his hat is worth fifty thousand men; but he is not a gentleman.
Duke of Wellington : [on Napolean's maneuver that split the English and Prussian armies] By God, that man does war honor.
Duke of Wellington : [to the Duchess of Richmond about arranging the ball] You really are the best of my generals.
Lord Gordon : Good beans, Wellington!
Duke of Wellington : If there is anything in this world about which I know positively nothing, it is agriculture.
Sarah : General Picton doesn't know how to walk in a ballroom.
Duke of Wellington : But he is very good when he is dancing with the French.
Mulholland : We're doing murder, your grace.
Duke of Wellington : I hope to God... that I've fought my last battle.
[before the battle starts, the British troops are singing a mocking song about Napoleon]
William De Lancey : Shall I shut them up, Sir?
Duke of Wellington : No, no, indulge it . Anything that wastes time is good. Indulge it. Normally I don't like cheering, but there's always a time to cut cards with the Devil.
Duke of Wellington : Bylandt's's brigade has broken. Plug the gap, if you please.
General Sir Thomas Picton : Gordon, get your bastards up on to the crest. I'll bring up the rest of the brigade.
Lord Gordon : Don't hurry yourself, Pic. My lads will hold them, aye, 'til you come.
General Sir Thomas Picton : Get forward, damn your eyes!
[the French artillery has begun firing on the English positions]
Duke of Wellington : Well, that opens the ball.
Duke of Wellington : They're coming on in the same old style.
General Sir Thomas Picton : Well, then we shall have to meet them in the same old style.
William De Lancey : He's commiting Reille's Division now sir, he intends to turn us, on the right!
Duke of Wellington : What the master does and what he intends are as different as white knight to black bishop.
William De Lancey : We could quickly move the 95th down, sir.
Duke of Wellington : I do not intend to run around like a wet hen! There'll be plenty of time, sir.
Duchess of Richmond : ...this year, soldiers are the fashion.
Duke of Wellington : [ironically] Where would society be without my boys?
Duke of Wellington : If Blucher doesn't show up here soon, they'll break every bone in my body!
mmm
A great man and a brilliant actor - he is Wellington !
ReplyDeleteThanks for the quotes; ripping stuff what?
ReplyDeleteVale to a great actor! His depiction of Wellington is the one I remember best, and the quotes are excellent! Many thanks, Jim.
ReplyDeleteI too, thought Christopher Plummer made an excellent Wellington, I hated ' the Sound of Music', without even seeing it!!!
ReplyDeleteAccording to his obituary in the Telegraph he didn't think much of the script for Waterloo as it made Wellington too severe, so he asked the historical consultant to fit as many of the Duke's sayings in as possible, then got the director to OK them. He tried to bring out some of the Duke's wit and humour. Personally, I think he did a better job than Rod Steiger as Napoleon.
ReplyDeleteI don't deny this film is well made and Plummer and Steiger do the best with what they got (though Steiger probably gets too dramatic at times), but I honestly feel that is it. The film is not afraid to show the deaths of many men, but none of the deaths have much emotional resonance because they tend to befall characters we are not attached to – from a storytelling POV, it shows the weight of the situation, which is good (and a bold move as trying to make it anti-war), but while i praise the film for making bold choices in its violent moments and number of deaths … to me it comes across as simultaneously not so bold as no one you’re emotionally attached to gets killed – there’s no gut punch of a death, because I never got to know Thomas Picton, William Howe De Lancey, or James Hay, Lord Hay, which would have been fitting for a film of this tone and level of violence. Strangely, although they acknowledge Henry Paget, 2nd Earl of Uxbridge losing his leg, we never see him again. I also felt, considering we see the set up to the battle with Napoleon's return, an proper epilogue could even have sufficed, or just having Wellington and Uxbridge having a heart to heart, despite Uxbridge losing his leg, with Napoleon being exiled on St. Helena to live with the torment from seeing all of what his life has been leading up to being tossed away must've been devastating. It would be a torment to know that once again and this time, forever knew that his power was gone, and his life was bound to an island just as unimportant as him.. But alas no …It’s a shame, because the amount of work and research was well done, it is just that to me that you don't get to know the characters much to build attachments to them. Even more of a shame considering "Tora! Tora! Tora", a similar film which was made to be accurate as possible and tell it as was from both sides and presented the Americans and Japanese as real people, as the attack on Pearl Harbor happens, and trusted the audience to appreciate them as such.
ReplyDelete