Watching this movie, I notice that Christopher Plummer is often shown close up on horseback, but never Rod Steiger, except at a distance. Was Rod Steiger unable to ride a horse?
It's surprising to me that they were able to find so many actors who could ride horses comfortably.
I noticed that at least once there's a close up of Steiger riding a horse, and you can tell that it's not genuine - he's kind of bouncing up and down as if he's riding, but you can tell he's not really on a horse. I'm guessing he wasn't good with horses so they avoided having him on one.
shareWell, he had previously acted in a few westerns....so I don't think that was it. Other actors in the film are are also shown astride some sort of fake-horse/camera rig for close-ups. He wasn't the only one.
shareYeah there's a lot of fake horse stuff in the film - it's very common in films because you can't really have a camera rig that can move as fast as a horse alongside it to get any closeups that won't freak the horse out. And these are films with lots of close-ups.
90% of the time you see somebody in a cavalry charge with the camera next to them, they're on a rocking barrel rig with a fake horse neck, on a platform WITH the camera, which is being dragged by a motorcycle moving at the speed of the other horses. (Lord of the Rings offers MANY examples)
This film was using less sophisticated effects for those scenes, and not really showing the battlefield as their closeups tended to be consistently face-on rather than in profile - I think they may have blue-screened those sequences from memory of how they looked.
I suspect the problem is that you have too many paperclips up your nose
I don't think Napoleon was much of a horseman, and that influenced the film more than Steiger's riding skills.
share"Other actors in the film are are also shown astride some sort of fake-horse/camera rig for close-ups. He wasn't the only one."
Michael Wilding for one. He seemed a couple of feet higher than the cavalry behind him.
I saw Jack Hawkins sitting on a horse. He was in Shalako and I think he may have ridden a horse in that.
"Other actors in the film are are also shown astride some sort of fake-horse/camera rig for close-ups. He wasn't the only one."
Michael Wilding for one. He seemed a couple of feet higher than the cavalry behind him.
I saw Jack Hawkins sitting on a horse. He was in Shalako and I think he may have ridden a horse in that.
Napoleon was a perfectly competent horseman. See the biography by Andrew Roberts.
On the eve of the battle, however, he had hemorrhoids. His valet treated them with compresses. Some French historians use this as an excuse for why he lost the battle. It was probably not a bad case, as he was in the saddle from time to time. For most of the battle, however, he was dismounted and in a static position.
Too many cream filled pastries bearing his name?
Not enough fiber in diet?
Marshall Ney eliminated whole wheat bread in favor of the high starch white variety, it is said.
Poor Napoleon, straining on the pot?
We will never know!
When Wilding (Ponsonby) was leading a charge it was painfully obvious that it was fake, that he was not on a horse.
"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."