"Question for you Brits or anyone else who might know." Topic

In the movie waterloo, when Wellington says to Gordon, and this is paraphrased, "If Blucher don't come they will break me". Then Gordon says,"Beans Wellington". What the heck does that mean? Please forgive my Americana Stupidity.

It is (was) used to express disbelief or annoyance. Like "nonsense" or "Bu%$s&*t"

"Old bean" is a greating, link

"good old bean" can be used to refer to a "good chap"

"good beans", as in the full quote "Good beans, Wellington" I don't know unless it is a diminutive of "good old beans"

"full of beans" is high spirited

Beans Wellington was a little known vegan alternative to "Beef Wellington". Gordon being a well-known vegan he was just offering Wellington a delicious meal.

The "gas warfare" aspect of feeding troops the dish lead to its eventually being outlawed by the Geneva Convention and thus it is little-known today.

Hope this helps!

w.

According to iMDB the quote is:

Lord Gordon: Good beans, Wellington!
Duke of Wellington: If there is anything in this world about which I know positively nothing, it is agriculture.

Utter nonsense. The product of a scriptwriter's feverish imagination.

Quick check online etymology and:

"bean." As a metaphor for "something of small value" it is attested from c.1300.

Seems Dave's answer (while typing mine) and Connard's are right, maybe wehrmacht too.

Perhaps it was slipped into the script as the timing of the remark seems to fit with the full of beans saying or 'chin up' and 'Show some more enthusiasm dear fellow'

Perhaps a similar origin to 'bean counters'- as in 'people who measure things of no great importance'.

I dunno why I bother, I really don't.

Because we would miss it if you didn't?

Actually if you watch it carefully you see Gordon eating a handfull of beans which he then offers to Welly.
Sometimes things are really simple.

He mean wait until Sean Bean gets here then.."NoProbs"..the battle will be Bean's , it is an elliptical possesive clause.

"Actually if you watch it carefully you see Gordon eating a handfull of beans which he then offers to Welly.
Sometimes things are really simple."

Yep thats what I have seen every time too

Sometimes things are really simple.

I thought he was eating zebra?

Totally made up…but it's a great quote. Just like the one when he tells Uxbridge

"If I thought my hair knew what my brain was thinking, I'd shave it off and wear a wig."

Then there's the Ponsonby/Uxbridge snuff scene….savage stuff!

And nobody's going to mention the whole leg incident?

Uxbridge 'By Gad Sir – I've lost my leg"
Lord W 'By God, so you have!"

And who said the English were undemonstrative!

As for beans, the correct modern military terminology is of course 'Fartleberrys'.

They're even more undemonstrative in the Director's Cut:

Uxbridge 'By Gad Sir – I've lost my leg"
Lord W 'By God, so you have! Would you like one of my sandwiches?"

Of course the 'Cardinal' is right. Everyone knows that Sharpe won every Napoleonic battle (a la John Wayne) so the Duke was waiting for his secret weapon.

Every time I see the leg-blown-off scene in Waterloo, I keep thinking it was a good thing Sam Pekinpah didn't direct the movie…

Watched it just yesterday as it happens – the 2 quotes are un-related and used in 2 different conversations.

So this is just a tempest in a bean pot?
Ouch those tomatoes hurt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There was an expression in medieval times 'God's beans', meaning is uncertain but a reference to the deity's regenerative organs is suggested.

Service talk; it means in the e!!!!

Or "musical fruits" in the RN/R.

>Uxbridge 'By Gad Sir – I've lost my leg"
>Lord W 'By God, so you have!"

This quote, at least, was accurate.

>Everyone knows that Sharpe won every Napoleonic battle (a >la John Wayne) so the Duke was waiting for his secret >weapon.

Naturally. But which Duke do you mean?

At several times in the movie, the patrician hauteur of Wellington is contrasted to the bluff coarseness of two other characters, Picton and Gordon. For instance, at one moment Gordon says, pointing to his command (the 92nd, or Gordon Highlanders), "there's mony could ca' me mair than colonel", that is, many could call him "faither", or father, and Wellington later says something about "take your bastards forward…". So, this is one more contrast between the Colonel, munching a handful of beans and commenting from a supposedly rural background, and the Duke's more courtly demeanour.

Even in defeat, the French were more stylish; isn't Grouchy later seen picking at a lunch of cherries-in-a-basket?

>Even in defeat, the French were more stylish; isn't Grouchy >later seen picking at a lunch of cherries-in-a-basket?

One thing that always made me wonder is where they found actors who looked like the original characters--Dan O'Herlihy made a pretty good Ney and the guy who played Grouchy bore a passing resemblance.

Stylish in defeat…there's the French for you!

I recall a great anecdote. When Wellington was the Ambassador in Paris, during a gathering a number of French generals and Marshals apparently spurned him. When a female host tried to apologize, he said "Don't worry, madam--I've seen their backs before."

Yes, I thought that about Ney and Grouchy too (and Rod S is always Napoleon in my mind's eye). The bit where Ney, leading the afternoon cavalry-charges, looks towards his ADC and laughs exultantly, seems particularly characteristic. Soult, however, didn't seem like any of the portraits, and Muffling was far too bulky (though Blucher was perfectly cast).

Nah, you're not stupid. It was just dreadful dialogue. An attempt to be funny that just didn't come off.

<<Even in defeat, the French were more stylish….>>

So substance can triumph over style, then.

<<…isn't Grouchy later seen picking at a lunch of cherries-in-a-basket?>>

According to the paperback that came out in support of the film, it was a plate of strawberries.

"A Strawberry? In Africa?"

"Shhhhh…"

<<Even in defeat, the French were more stylish….>>
They had more practice.

^^Dang!^^

and isn't the original dialogue.

Some lame attempt at censorship obliterating a simple swear word. Again, rewriting history for the masses who can't think for themselves.