Just finished watching the third episode on DVD with my wife last night. In case you haven't seen it, I'm talking about a mini-series distributed in the US by A&E network in 2002. Over four episodes, the series covers the career of the little corporal from his suppression of the royalist revolt in the "whiff of grapeshot", to his exile and death on Elba. While there are plenty of things for wargamers to complain about, I have seen this series a few times before and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in Napoleonic history in general. In my own view I would consider it to be an immense improvement on the classic but dated film from Sacha Guitry.
Comparisons to Sergei Bondarchuk's War & Peace or Waterloo would be unfair, because the scope of those films is tighter than what this series tried to accomplish (and succeeded, IMHO). Still, we get some great sequences depicting the bridge at Arcole, Austerlitz, Jena, Eylau, Aspern-Essling, and then Waterloo. Oddly, Borodino is not shown, only mentioned, and Leipzig is only hinted at in a visual of a bridge blowing up. The uniforms look good, with the exception of French shakos and Russian Kiwers at Austerlitz. (But do YOU always use the correct figures for each scenario?)
But what makes this film for me is the depictions of the characters. Christian Clavier is excellent as Napoleon, and his interactions with Talleyrand (played by John Malkovich) are acted and filmed so well, you can feel the tension between them. Some casting choices seemed poor, particularly Marhsal Ney, who seemed too old and feeble compared to the actor who portrayed him in Waterloo. Thankfully we only see him in two scenes. Czar Alexander speaking with a British accent was jarring, but otherwise his performance was good.
Also impressive are the locations and costumes, which are breathtaking. The scence of the coronation at Notre Dame was fantastic, set exactly as the painting by Jacques-Louis David. The scene even seques nicely to a scene with Napoleon discussing the painting with the artist-very moving! With good music, decent to fine acting, thrilling battle scenes, it makes for a good Napoleonic-themed drama to add to your library. (Really, as fantastic as the battle scenes in Bondarchuk's War and Peace are, the rest of the story can be tedious to watch).
Thanks!
