{"id":10772,"date":"2023-12-11T10:53:41","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T10:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=10772"},"modified":"2024-01-28T12:33:17","modified_gmt":"2024-01-28T12:33:17","slug":"media-napoleon-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=10772","title":{"rendered":"MEDiA: Napoleon, Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Well, we went to the Cineworld complex, on the edge of Ely, yesterday, and watched Ridley Scott\u2019s new film, Napoleon.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Released in the UK on 22nd November, and running just short of two hours and forty minutes, it finds the director returning to the same era in which his first feature film, The Duellists<\/em>, was set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, thus far, it is set to \u2018break even\u2019, fairly soon. However, the screening we saw was very<\/em> poorly attended. The room was practically empty. Most of the folk at the cinema complex – and it was pretty busy overall – were there to see Wonka<\/em>. A reflection of the shallow vapid times we live in? I reckon so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without recapitulating the story – Napoleon\u2019s life and the era that bears his name are a source of endless historical and fictional telling and re-telling, as this movie helps demonstrate – I\u2019m going to get straight to the heart of the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two chief problems with Scott\u2019s film: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, unlike the \u2018Little Boney\u2019 of Georgian propaganda (who was in fact simply of average height for his time) it really is way too short<\/em>. You simply cannot tell a story of the scope and grandeur Napoleon\u2019s life entails in the time this movie allocates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Boney and Josey, at his Coro\u2019 bash.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Even in longer series – from the numerous War & Peace <\/em>adaptations, to Ian Holm\u2019s Napoleon & Love<\/em> – the amount of \u2018exposition\u2019 any such brevity requires is anathema to engaging drama. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, historical accuracy. Legend has it that Napoleon said history is only lies that have been agreed upon. Others say that \u2018history teaches nothing\u2019. Well, I beg to differ, somewhat. We can learn from history. And it can be nearer to or farther from genuine truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such disservice to the far more interesting reality, and also, more fundamentally and worryingly, the whole idea of \u2018the quest for truth\u2019, is significant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The catalogue of egregious messing with historical verit\u00e9 is massive<\/em>. From the vandalism of Egyptian archaeology, to his relationship with Josephine, and even the ways in which he fought his battles, there\u2019s just way too much disrespect for reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is a fab shot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s just unpack a few of these\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll start with Bonaparte in Egypt. It\u2019s long been known that the Sphinx\u2019s nose was missing long before Napoleon arrived en Egypte<\/em>. Never mind the fact that the battle in which this fictional damage takes place actually occurred a significant distance away from the monuments in question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Far from being a wrecking machine – although war does inevitably bring destruction – Napoleon was renowned for taking with him to Egypt not just a military expedition, but also a virtual army of so-called Savants. The respect for and interest in Egyptian history Napoleon and his compatriots had greatly enriched the field of \u2018Egyptology\u2019, and includes the discovery of the Rosetta Stone<\/a>, whose deciphering would eventually be accomplished by another Frenchman, Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Champollion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much worse than this, to my mind, however, is how Scott et al treat Napoleon\u2019s relationship with Josephine. For starters, in reality she was older than him. Hence her inability – despite having had children with her previous husband – to bear Napoleon an heir. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Josephine, by Antoine-Jean Gros, c. 1809.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In my view the casting for this movie is not a strength. Staying with the Josephine thread, Vanessa Kirby is totally<\/em> miscast. Billie Whitelaw, in her early 40s at the time, was a much better choice, for the TV series Napoleon And Love<\/em>, back in the 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even worse, we have Napoleon striking Josephine, during their divorce. Erm\u2026 nope. Didn\u2019t happen! And yet worse still\u2026 can it get much worse? Napoleon returns from his exile on Elba, to fight what would become his last campaign, The Hundred Days, culminating in the epoch-ending Battle of Waterloo, on her account! What the absolute fuck!? She had actually been dead for over a year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, and despite having respected historian of the era, Michael Broers, as \u2018historical consultant\u2019, Scott\u2019s film plays so fast and loose with \u2018truth\u2019 as to very seriously impair the whole project. To wreck it, in point of fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I typed a whole other chunk about the military aspects of this film. But sadly WordPress and\/or my home broadband (thanks, Virgin!) conspired to lose that for me. I\u2019m not sure I can be arsed to rewrite it! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gillray\u2019s Maniac Ravings<\/em>, 1803.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The British have, for the most part, had a very<\/em> vexed relationship with Napoleon and historical accuracy. The dominant theme – he who pays the piper, and all that – as expressed in the Gillray print above, has been to caricature \u2018Boney\u2019 as a short-arse power-mad despot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does this film help remedy this historic litany of ahistorical Ancien Regime s<\/em>tyle propaganda? Alas, no. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this rather damning account from me here, I may well watch this film again. In the perhaps forlorn hope that, on a second viewing, I might enjoy it more. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, we went to the Cineworld complex, on the edge of Ely, yesterday, and watched Ridley Scott\u2019s new film, Napoleon. Released in the UK on 22nd November, and running just short of two hours and forty minutes, it finds the director returning to the same era in which his first feature film, The Duellists, was … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “MEDiA: Napoleon, Review”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-2NK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10772"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10772"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10968,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10772\/revisions\/10968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}