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Napoleon By Ridley Scott

DKehoe

Member
Trailer looks rad but man… Napoleon must be turning in his grave. I usually don’t mind but everyone talking English here seems like the ultimate insult.

1gormoB.jpg
 
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EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Re: Josephine, far as I can tell from reading some of his love letters to her he was a huge simp for her, meanwhile she got with him only because his star was rising.

Phoenix is so old though that they probably can’t fully translate that dynamic here. She was an older woman and he was the younger one.

Trailer has a bit of her ego and manipulation on display though.
 

StueyDuck

Member
Looks compelling enough but ridley Scott has been a real miss for me lately.

The recent movies/show(raised by wolves) weren't necessarily bad, they were fine... and that's kind of how I've felt about all his stuff post prometheus... its just been alright. Apart from the Martian, I have a soft spot for that "comedy"
 
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SpiceRacz

Member
Ridley Scott's been on a roll. Last Duel and House of Gucci were surprisingly good.

Sucks though he's releasing this the same year as Scorsese and Nolan are releasing their own epics. It won't have a chance when award season arrives.
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Watched The Last Duel tonight in response to the Napoleon trailer, to see how Ridley Scott is holding up as a filmmaker.

Unfortunately ideologically driven. Despite initially going for a subjective POV, it then leans into a men are bad perspective instead of sticking to the history where we don’t know who was telling the truth in the incident. Without nuance there is nothing interesting to the story, and by the end every single character is unlikeable. Doesn’t deserve to use Rashomon as an influence.

I’ll go read some more history books instead of getting excited for this one.
 

Ownage

Member
Not convinced. Phoenix doesn't have the French arrogance that's truly needed for this role. This is an Americanized version of what the US thinks the Napoleonic French arrogance would be. If you want to play in this arena, get the details correct.

Other than height limitations, I have a hunch Vince Cassell would do a damn good job in such a role.
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Watched The Last Duel tonight in response to the Napoleon trailer, to see how Ridley Scott is holding up as a filmmaker.

Unfortunately ideologically driven. Despite initially going for a subjective POV, it then leans into a men are bad perspective instead of sticking to the history where we don’t know who was telling the truth in the incident. Without nuance there is nothing interesting to the story, and by the end every single character is unlikeable. Doesn’t deserve to use Rashomon as an influence.

I’ll go read some more history books instead of getting excited for this one.
My only problem with the movie was that when the third act starts, they title it 'The Truth' According to Lady whatsherface. And then underline the TRUTH as if to say thats the objective truth. I couldnt believe veteran writers and directors would make a mistake like that. The movie would've worked really well if they hadn't taken sides and let the audience decide. Obviously the audience in todays society wouldve sided with the woman, but they didnt need to literally underline that point lol. Apparently Ben Affleck and Matt Damon wrote the first two acts based on research done by a historian, and they brought in a female writer to basically make up the final act because the historian couldnt find anything in the records from her perspective. Definitely ideologically driven. That was their biggest mistake and then they wondered why the movie flopped after the backlash against the MeToo movement being abused by some women.

The final duel was amazing though. You gotta give him that.
 
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EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
My only problem with the movie was that when the third act starts, they title it 'The Truth' According to Lady whatsherface. And then underline the TRUTH as if to say thats the objective truth. I couldnt believe veteran writers and directors would make a mistake like that. The movie would've worked really well if they hadn't taken sides and let the audience decide. Obviously the audience in todays society wouldve sided with the woman, but they didnt need to literally underline that point lol. Apparently Ben Affleck and Matt Damon wrote the first two acts based on research done by a historian, and they brought in a female writer to basically make up the final act because the historian couldnt find anything in the records from her perspective. Definitely ideologically driven. That was their biggest mistake and then they wondered why the movie flopped after the backlash against the MeToo movement being abused by some women.

The final duel was amazing though. You gotta give him that.
Ah, interesting details, thanks. Yeah, the first two acts are alright, was curious to see how it would continue to develop, and Matt Damon's character and Adam Driver's character take turns being relatively sympathetic (except for Driver's POV of the bedroom scene, which isn't much different from Comer's POV--bad times in both cases). But then, as you say, the "TRUTH" title screen appears and it becomes a completely different story where all the men in the entire cast are unambiguously, one-dimensionally evil.

It doesn't even make sense that Adam Driver's POV shows Matt Damon being basically an awkward oaf who is endearing toward Comer but not sophisticated enough for her, and Matt Damon's POV shows him caring for her dearly and being sweet, but Comer's POV shows Matt Damon being an evil, uncaring, abusive piece of garbage 100% of the time, and even a terrible lover on top of everything else.

It doesn't serve any purpose except to show how much the writer of the third act resents men generally.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
That would be leaving a lot of money on the table then.

Agreed, which is why I hope this gets a physical release. It might end up being historically inaccurate, but it looks stunning.

It's Apple. All their original stuff is locked. I'd love a 4K physical
I wonder how long it will take until mankind will watch a movie about Hitler in a positive light tho lol.

Unless racism somehow becomes something to celebrate, then never.

Napoleon wasn't exactly anti- racist (he re-imposed slavery, something I'm sure this film will ignore), but he didn't commit racist genocide on a industrial scale.

Also, besides the extreme racism, Hitler was also a poor commander.
 

Chiggs

Gold Member
Why couldn't this have been made instead of Matchstick Men or A Good Year? We need Ridley from 20+ years ago.
 
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Oberstein

Member



27 million views. Not bad at all.

Is this a new trend for historical films?
Or is it simply the impact of Napoleon, or even the choice of Joaquin Phoenix that intrigues?
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
Even with Ridley Scott having more duds as of late, this one looks enticing enough to watch in theatres. I'm in.

I'd say Scott is enjoying a good streak in the past couple of years. With the exception of Alien: Covenant (2017), all these movies were good or even excellent. I enjoyed them all, in particular The Martian.

The Martian (2015)
All the Money in the World (2017)
The Last Duel (2021)
House of Gucci (2021)
 

AJUMP23

Parody of actual AJUMP23
Ridley Scott is probably my favorite director. I will be there. His run of Black Hawk Down, Gladiator, Alien, Blade Runner is amazing
Watched The Last Duel tonight in response to the Napoleon trailer, to see how Ridley Scott is holding up as a filmmaker.

Unfortunately ideologically driven. Despite initially going for a subjective POV, it then leans into a men are bad perspective instead of sticking to the history where we don’t know who was telling the truth in the incident. Without nuance there is nothing interesting to the story, and by the end every single character is unlikeable. Doesn’t deserve to use Rashomon as an influence.

If he would had just left out the line about "the actual truth" I think he would have had a better film. I didn't recognize Affleck in the movie at first.
 

Klosshufvud

Member

They have a great video regarding the battle of Waterloo. Shows some very informative illustrations on how the tides turned against Napoleon. I believe it was the channel's very first video too?

Speaking of Waterloo, I am sceptical this movie will reach that far. I'm thinking they will focus on his rise to Emperor up to his exile to Elba. I'm guessing Austerlitz, Borodino and maybe Leipzig will be the major battles of the film.



Maybe it's for the best he's skipping Waterloo given we already have the perfect film version of it...
 
It looks the dog's bollocks, but I'm not 100% convinced.

Ridley Scott is probably one of the most hit or miss directors on the planet, and his historical stuff is normally woefully inaccurate.

Also, I don't see how you can squeeze the life of Napoleon and a majority of his major battles into a single film. This would have worked better as a mini series.
When I first heard of it I assumed it was a mini series. I agree that it would have worked much better that way.

As long as they get to the bit where the Duke of Wellington kicks his arse I'm happy.
 
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