Waterloo

At over £12 million, it was one of the most expensive films ever made at the time. Dino De Laurentiis had wanted to make it for 10 years, but his production company couldn't afford it. Then Mosfilm stepped in, contributing over £4 million, 20,000 soldiers, a full brigade of Soviet cavalry, and vast numbers of engineers and laborers to prepare locations and facilities for 48 days of shooting in the Ukraine. If it had been made in the West without the Red Army's assistance, it would have cost 3 times as much. To recreate the battlefield, the Soviets bulldozed 2 hills, deepened a valley, laid miles of roads, transplanted 5,000 trees, sowed fields of rye, barley, and wildflowers, and reconstructed 4 historic buildings. The production included Italian and Russian technicians, English and French advisors, Yugoslav stuntmen, and actors from America, Canada, England, Ireland, Italy, France, and Russia.

When the Prussian troops appear, the music of "Deutschland ueber alles" can be heard. "Deutschland ueber alles" only became the national anthem of Germany in 1922. It was never used by Prussia.

According to an article written by the film's editor and associate producer Richard C. Meyer, the longest version is the 132 minute version. This has been confirmed by Vladimir Dorsal, the film's First Assistant and later the head of Mosfilm in Moscow. He says that they only have the 132m version in their vaults and no longer 4 hours version ever existed. The myth may derive from an earlier part of Meyer's article when he states that the rough cut was 4 hours long - not unusual for a film of this scope and scale. But after much discussion the present length was agreed on. He also says he stupidly didn't make a dupe of this rough cut, a usual process in post production. So this 'cut' will never see the light of day. It is clear from the cast list that many characters were cut. The film was planned as a Road Show release but by 1970 the practice had lost favor with the studios. Columbia Pictures also shortened CROMWELL for the same reason. Richard Heffer who play a major featured role in the film says the script as filmed was much longer than the film that came out that many of the cast had huge chunks of their roles deleted.