Oh yes….. Napoleon by Ridley Scott

[dickiegranthum]

I attempted to persevere last night... it did not last long...

Took me all day to get through it. It truly is awful.

[olicana]

Took me all day to get through it.

It's going to take even longer than that to get over it. I'm still coming out in cold sweats.

[Cholmondely Percival IV]

The consensus appears to be that this may not be one of Sir Ridley’s better efforts?

[Patrice]

I still haven't seen the film. Some small bits I've seen have attracted my curiosity but I could not believe it was real, it seems so ridiculous.

OTOH I've seen comments on internet of some French ultra-nationalist Napoleon admirers, who seem utterly outraged, that could let me to have some indulgence. 

[Basementboy]

To be fair we’ve had some great historical films over recent years, I think we can allow Hollywood this slip-up

[Harry Faversham]

By the time it got to Waterloo, I thought it couldn't get any worse, I was wrong! The Little Man in the funny 'at gads about skewering people with his sabre. When he knocks off at snap time, there's a fat bloke stood behind him, gnashing his teeth and scowling. It's not till it all goes tits up that this clown bellows his only line...

"Come and see how a Marshal of France dies!"

 

[DaveCrow]

My dear wife fell asleep during our line and only watch. She was the lucky one.

Wasn't Napoleon supposed to be possessed of great charisma? We got a petulant sulker with the charisma of wet cardboard.

If you haven't seen Napoleon yet do your self a favor and go watch Star Wars: The Phantom Menace instead. It is truly the more enjoyable experience.

We didn't quite get the massed cavalry charge down a steep hill into massed pikes that Perter Jackson gave us. That at least you could follow what was happening. Instead we got, god only knows what confused mess.

[Melnibonean]

This thread is fantastic. The first page and a half it is all optimism, hope and wishful expectation for a grand spectacle. However, half way down page two, it takes a sharp left turn into distain, contempt and a general feeling to outrage.  It is so good.

I haven't seen the film. I expected, from seeing the trailer, that it was going to be bad and Ii was proven right. I don't want to see it and I never will, but it was great to read this thread. It's absolute gold!

[Old Contemptable]

More of the same. I don't like being reminded about it. Let it go to the dustbin of history.

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=143561.0

[Daeothar]

Judging by the aforementioned left turn in appreciation for this film, I suppose this one would be the better choice? 

[Bloggard]

looks like danny de vito to me ... which would be quite good actually.

[Daeothar]

(it's a fake add for a movie starring Danny DeVito's character in the real movie Get Shorty. He's Shorty... )

[olicana]

I was thinking about this film again the other day - it came on me all of a sudden, and yet again I spat my coffee - and I began to wonder what R.S. Was thinking when he story boarded the battle scenes. Surely, with CGI as good as it is, more could have been done, rather than rely on a couple of hundred re-enactors tramping about in a muddy field. The Lord of the Rings films had some really epic looking battles and much of that was CGI and how much has the tech come on since then. An opportunity missed by someone embedded in the old way of doing things.

I don’t think the story would have been better (it was a dreadful script) but visually it could have been stunning.

[Count Belisarius]

The extended Director's Cut is out. An extra 48 minutes. Apparently mostly of Josephine. I'll pass...

I usually give big historical epics a lot of leeway. They are few and far between and I'll often re-watch them (or parts of) to see the few epic battle bits. Napoleon is the first film in ages that I've never even looked at again....

A

[Cholmondely Percival IV]

I understand that Sir Ridley is of the opinion that the pyramids of Giza were built not by normal - if extraordinarily dedicated and skilful - geezers but by aliens, or at any rate with their help. I wonder whether this goes some way to explaining why he shows Napoleon - or rather, mere Bonaparte as he was at the time - firing cannon at them, possibly as some sort of challenge, or in an attempt to validate this theory. It still doesn’t make much sense but at least there would be some sort of reasoning behind it.

Never mind, at least we have Gladiator 2 to look forward to