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re: I just got home from watching Napoleon...
Posted on 11/23/23 at 6:43 pm to RollTide1987
Posted on 11/23/23 at 6:43 pm to RollTide1987
Big fan of Napoleonic history. Can this movie still be enjoyable on the big screen going in knowing it's an artistic interpretation of his life?
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Posted on 11/23/23 at 7:16 pm to RollTide1987
Saw it today. Underwhelmed overall even though it has actors I enjoy in a genre that I often love.
The Napoleon and Josephine relationship was almost strange or even cold until better than halfway through the film. In the second half they acted a bit more like people who were actually lovers. The battles were sometimes engaging but pretty inaccurate in the retelling from my understanding.
The actor (Edouard Philipponnat) playing the Russian tsar Alexander the first was the most compelling on screen presence. I wondered if there were any historical accuracy to the bit about him calling on Josephine. I believe it was also fairly ahistorical for there to be a conversation (earlier in the film) about engaging royalty where an objection would have been one of the engaged parties only being 15 years old at the time of the engagement.
Overall give it a C. Interesting and better than the typical holiday fare but my expectations were so much higher.
The Napoleon and Josephine relationship was almost strange or even cold until better than halfway through the film. In the second half they acted a bit more like people who were actually lovers. The battles were sometimes engaging but pretty inaccurate in the retelling from my understanding.
The actor (Edouard Philipponnat) playing the Russian tsar Alexander the first was the most compelling on screen presence. I wondered if there were any historical accuracy to the bit about him calling on Josephine. I believe it was also fairly ahistorical for there to be a conversation (earlier in the film) about engaging royalty where an objection would have been one of the engaged parties only being 15 years old at the time of the engagement.
Overall give it a C. Interesting and better than the typical holiday fare but my expectations were so much higher.
Posted on 11/23/23 at 8:18 pm to Champagne
quote:
Finally, I would have liked to see Josephine's "secret".
Her starfish?
Posted on 11/23/23 at 10:13 pm to RollTide1987
I just got back from watching it. I won’t give up any spoilers, but I felt the movie didn’t have a good flow. Some of the battle scenes were good. I’d say the movie is ok. Not bad, just was expecting more.
Posted on 11/23/23 at 11:25 pm to lsuson
quote:
I would love to see a lengthy, well thought out series on Napoleon. Something like a 10-epsiode mini-series that HBO has done well in the past.
Four or five decades ago, the French produced a 'movie' about Napoleon that was so long that the parts of it were shown in French Theaters continuously and the showing lasted the better part of two days. It was talked about n some newspapers but I don't think it was ever widely released in the USA.
Posted on 11/24/23 at 12:13 am to real turf fan
? quote:
The American edition, which cuts out more than half the film, is dubbed and, apparently substitutes narration for dialogue.
Or the not so long ago...6-hour miniseries (2002):
Posted on 11/25/23 at 12:19 am to RollTide1987
The battle tactics of this movie were so badly done that it was kinda insulting. Does disservice to the brilliance of the generals
Posted on 11/25/23 at 12:48 pm to The Godfather
Plus words are like muscles if you don't use them you will lose them.
Posted on 11/25/23 at 7:51 pm to Champagne
quote:
he British historical interpretation of this is that it is a demonstration of his extreme megalomania and desire to be a total Dictator. End of story. But, is it?
The British historical interpretation fails to note that, prior to the many years before he crowned himself in Dec, 1804, Britian sponsored several secret operations whose Objective was to assassinate him. Napoleon knew that if he were a fellow Royal, like the Allied national leaders, it would probably end those efforts to assassinate him, because the European Royalty wanted to avoid that precedent - assassination of Royals. Napoleon was right about that.
Another historical fact that is portrayed somewhat in the movie is the fact that he did indeed want peace back in 1802, and again in 1807 when he struck a deal with the Russian Czar. The British and Austria were the ones who wanted no peace with him. This interpretation is almost never explained in an English language history book - Napoleon is almost always interpreted to be a lunatic war-monger and blood-guzzler.
The Brits played a huge part in Europe never coming to terms with the French monarchy being overthrown. The British, Austrian, and Russian monarchy wanted to make sure republicanism didn't catch on. The Brits paid massive sums of money to Russia, Prussia, and Austria to stay in the fight against Napoleon.
Napoleon's biggest mistakes where of course going into Russia, going into Spain, AND putting his brothers in positions of power when they where incompetent/lazy. Scott had a 10 second blurb on what sent Napoleon into Russia and zero on Spain or his family outside of Josephine.
This post was edited on 11/25/23 at 7:52 pm
Posted on 11/26/23 at 7:01 am to Lawyered
quote:
I’d been looking forward to this for all year and it was just so meh
The battle scenes were great sure but there was so much awkward staring and pointless conversation between Napoleon and Josephine
This.
Movie should be called Josephine and Napoleon. It was basically, here’s a small battle, here are these two awkward lovers in a stupidly complicated relationship…oh look, he’s an emperor because of reasons. Here’s a battle scene. More awkward relationship. Etc. Etc.
The cinematography is amazing. That was about the only redeemable part of this movie.
Posted on 11/26/23 at 8:06 am to Suntiger
And a little bit more to add on from my OP: this movie is a blatant character assassination of Napoleon Bonaparte. A layman who knows nothing about this guy would walk out not understanding how such a petulant child could rise up to find himself in such a position of power. The film did nothing to show us the charisma and magnetism Napoleon possessed or why anyone would want to follow him to the ends of the earth the way the Grand Armée did for 10 years. If I didn't know anything about him, I'd come out thinking that Napoleon was nothing more than an awkward and strange cuckold who occasionally went on campaign and won a few battles here and there.
Posted on 11/26/23 at 3:45 pm to RollTide1987
I really didn't like this at all. From a historical perspective speaking, it's laughable. Pheonix was miscast, and it was just a poor portrayal of the man, anyways. This movie gave little indication of Napoleon's abilities as a general and nothing of his abilities as a political leader. I initially ignored the claims that this was just British, anti-Napoleon propaganda, but I now see why people would think that. Scott seems to have little interest in the character.
Even overlooking the inaccuracies, it still isn't very good. I honestly wouldn't be shocked if people who aren't aware of the history have a hard time following this. This is less a story and more a collection of scenes Ridley Scott cared enough to adapt. Maybe this is less of a problem in the extended cut, but you shouldn't need 4 hours to tell a coherent story, and I don't think I could stomach 90 more minutes of this, anyways.
I have no idea why Ridley Scott gets so angry when he's called out for inaccuracies. At least own it. The Social Network certainly had inaccuracies and featured a biased perspective, but at least Fincher and Sorkin were up front about the fact that they were more interested in telling a good story then being completely accurate. Scott seems to think he's above that for some reason.
As a war movie, it's mediocre. As a love story, it's average at best. As a biopic, I'm not even sure it qualifies.
Even overlooking the inaccuracies, it still isn't very good. I honestly wouldn't be shocked if people who aren't aware of the history have a hard time following this. This is less a story and more a collection of scenes Ridley Scott cared enough to adapt. Maybe this is less of a problem in the extended cut, but you shouldn't need 4 hours to tell a coherent story, and I don't think I could stomach 90 more minutes of this, anyways.
I have no idea why Ridley Scott gets so angry when he's called out for inaccuracies. At least own it. The Social Network certainly had inaccuracies and featured a biased perspective, but at least Fincher and Sorkin were up front about the fact that they were more interested in telling a good story then being completely accurate. Scott seems to think he's above that for some reason.
As a war movie, it's mediocre. As a love story, it's average at best. As a biopic, I'm not even sure it qualifies.
Posted on 11/26/23 at 4:48 pm to RollTide1987
Just returned from watching Napoleon and I agree with everything you said, especially the part about being too short of a movie to include all they wanted to include.
Posted on 11/26/23 at 4:55 pm to ohiovol
This thread has been devastating lol This is probably my single most anticipated film this year. Im a total sucker for Ridley Scott epics and Phoenix certainly added some excitement at the risk of possibly over-acting the part. Can’t believe im chucking this into “rainy sunday afternoon Netflix” bin
Posted on 11/26/23 at 7:36 pm to ohiovol
It was a completely disjointed movie. It’s like they chose the 4 battles they wanted to show and then filled in the gaps in between the battles with nothing but Josephine and Napoleon not being great at sex scenes. There was no setup or lead up to any of the battles.
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