Posted on 11/26/2023 8:06:44 PM PST by Rummyfan
If, at 85, Ridley Scott has reached the final season of his filmmaking career, Napoleon is the ideal work of wintry grandeur to mark it. Scott’s 28th feature is a magnificently hewn slab of dad cinema with a chill wind whistling over its battlefields and round its bones: its palette is so cold, even the red in the tricolore is often the shade of dried blood.
Spanning 32 years, from the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 to its title character’s death on St Helena in 1821, it casts Napoleon Bonaparte’s rise, reign and downfall as both a prickly psychodrama and a sweeping military epic, in which the intimate lives of its central players and the fate of France itself become instantly and anxiously entwined.
Napoleon himself is played with startling blunt-force charisma by Joaquin Phoenix, who is working again with Scott for the first time since 2000’s Gladiator. Phoenix’s undisguised soft Californian accent is one of a number of details that might irk historical sticklers – television’s Dan Snow has already chimed in with a list of inaccuracies, to which Scott’s not unreasonable response was “get a life”. But on screen it’s oddly ideal, reinforcing the idea that this Corsican roughneck can never fully settle into the role for which history has him picked out.
We get the measure of the man almost instantly at the Siege of Toulon, as the French Republican forces lay siege to the British-occupied harbour fort. In the dead of night, as Napoleon leads the advance, a cannonball tears through the shoulder of his horse – the film earns its 15 certificate fast – though almost before he hits the ground he hurriedly barks “I’m OK,” and strides on, shaken but resolute, and smeared with the blood of his steed.
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.style.yahoo.com ...
Well I’ve never seen Napoleon, but I plan to find the time.
“IF THEY HAVE TO KILL A HORSE AT THE START OF THE FILM, LIKE ANOTHER POPULAR SERIES, I HAVE NEITHER TIME NOR INTEREST IN IT.”
If it makes you feel any better they didn’t really kill a horse...
It was Clint who made a movie at 86 or maybe 87, who taught us.......Don’t let the old man in
“Is that what you got out of an expression of terrible barbarism which is a thousand times worse than the savagery of WAR.”
Whatever you do don’t read Ulysses S Grant’s personal memoirs, especially when he was down south and Burnside was up in Western Virginia and tens of thousands of horses were starving because the railroad could not deliver the feed.
“It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.”— Robert E. Lee, at Fredericksburg.
Also don’t read books about World War I in France where the artillery barrages were frequent and massive in scale that horses were being euthanized by the thousands with bullets because they were so horribly maimed and wounded.
Maris, I respect your position, and it is shared by the ancient Greeks, who had their fake violence (e.g. Oedipus poking his eyes out) happen “off stage”. That is, in fact where we get the term obscene. As a people, we have been desensitized and have narrowed the field of what is considered obscene.
Not so many years ago, “snuff movies” were hard to find, generally available only in the dirty section of the sleaziest video rental parlours. I remember when some mid-level official in Pennsylvania called a news conference and pulled a gun to kill himself, the cameraman thoughtfully turned away, out of respect for the audience, and even for the suicidal man and his family. Now, YouTube is littered with videos of people getting killed, and not just “Hindenberg” type films where you don’t see the bodies.
It is not necessarily unmanly to want to keep blood and guts and inhumane suffering (even when only part of a story) off screen. An argument can be made that it is more civilized.
You are consistent. I do not draw the line in the same place, but I respect your moral sensibilities.
Ridley Scott needs to “get a life.”
It’s not just historically inaccurate - it historic TRASH.
They have a cuck-boy Napoleon (30 years older than he was) shooting the.tops off Pyramids.
Spoken like someone who learned all his history in public school... because this was absolute historic BULLSHIT.
Some people go to movies to whack-off to movie stars.
gets ANGRY about a horse shown being killed on film.
ignores thousands of HUMANS slaughtered on film.
That right there is what’s wrong with modernity.
Napoleon had a black general in his army.
http://scihi.org/general-thomas-alexandre-dumas-napoleons-black-devil/
Yes, the father and grandfather to the famous writers
“this was absolute historic BULLSHIT”
Absolute? Are you saying there was no French Revolution, Napoleon did not marry Josephine, he was not a military leader, he was never emperor, he did not go to Moscow, he was not defeated at Waterloo, he was not sent to St Helena?
I’m sorry if my comment regarding “Come and See” made you think that I was mocking or somehow belittling your feelings about seeing animals suffer. That was never my intent.
Most, if not all, movies today that show animals suffering will have a disclaimer stating that ‘no animals were harmed in the production’ and the suffering you see is, as we said as kids in the 50s, ‘fake’ no matter how realistic it appears on the screen.
‘Come and See’ is a horrific movie.
Been there many of times.
That's Britspeak for "R" Rating. Certifies that the film is suitable only for people 15 years old or older.
I am so sorry I misunderstood your comment.
Often the belittling of one who defends animals stems from what the Leftie whackos, who take it to a moronic level, and I guess I thought that’s what you meant.
All is well, all is fine.
Thanks for explaining.
Regards
Thank you for your comments, Dr.
It is ridiculous to think that because I hate seeing animals abused, that I think LESS OF HUMAN BEING’S SUFFERING.
What the heck kind of logic is that?
Regards.
Thank you!
It’s encouraging to have an advocate!
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