The film Napoleon (2023) tells the story of The Little Corporal and his success in taking over France, and greater Europe, and his relationship with his wife. It all culminated in the French defeat at Waterloo. During the movie’s media run, the cast and crew championed the movie for its historical accuracy, which ended up severely missing the mark.
For starters, advanced material for the film promised, ‘He came from nothing. He conquered everything’ – yet the writers did not include anything on Napoleon’s impoverished upbringing in Corsica and his time at military school, which formed his opinions on the world around him. Missing important context is a common theme in this movie. Failing to explain the significance of battles (except the Battle of Waterloo) led to an uncontextualized viewing experience.
In The article “How Ridley Scott’s Napoleon Stacks Up Against the French Emperor’s Real Story” Michael Broers, an expert on Napoleon, helped in the scriptwriting process. He told Time Magazine, “There were some things where Scott [Director Ridley Scott] had to kind of play fast and loose with chronology, but it made it much easier for viewers to follow.” For the sake of the movie, these were good decisions, but after a media run saying you’re going to be historically accurate, people expect historical accuracy.
Along with not covering backstory, the film doesn’t acknowledge Napoleon’s nepotism, the Napoleonic Code, his assassination attempt, and a laundry list of other important parts of Napoleon’s life. It’s like trying to cover the life of Queen Elizabeth II in 4 hours, there is simply not enough time to get through every part of Her Majesty’s life that deserves to be talked about.
Speaking of the Queen, the right thing was done in explaining her story. The Crown is a Netflix series following the Royal Family of Great Britain from the end of World War II to around 2005. The series style gives more time to explore the royal family deeply with a total runtime of 48 hours and 17 minutes for the first five seasons. Of course, you don’t need two days to talk about Napoleon, but an eight-hour series with ten episodes would be more in-depth than the two-and-a-half-hour skim of his military success and romantic life. The show is still entertaining without cutting any corners on realism, something Napoleon can take note of.
Overall, Napoleon does a lousy job portraying the life of Napoleon in any meaningful detail due to the length of the film and the corners that were cut in historical accuracy. If the story was turned into a short series with more runtime, it could tell a more complete story with better historical accuracy.
