Napoleon is a sad waste of money

Stop leaving yourself vulnerable to data breaches. Go to my sponsor https://aura.com/cynicalhistorian to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed. Watching the recent Napoleon movie was painful, but I’ve finally gotten around to reviewing it. Director Ridley Scott seems to be really hit-or-miss. I really liked the Last Duel. This time is not just a failure, a ridiculously botched opportunity. Napoleon himself is one of the most influential people ever, and possibly the most influential person in modern history and it should be extraordinarily easy to make a compelling story about him. In fact, there’s really too much to talk about, which may be the movie’s ultimate blunder, rendering it a disorganized mess without enough compelling plot to drag the reluctant viewer along. In order to understand that, let’s briefly cover Napoleon’s biography, for truth is so much more fascinating than what artistic license could ever replace. ------------------------------------------------------------ Errata 30 : 54 depicts Marshal André Masséna, not Joseph Bonaparte (thx @mosscow6056 ) Bibliography David A. Bell, Napoleon: A Concise Biography (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2015). https://amzn.to/44EYOXs Will Durant and Ariel Durant, The Age of Napoleon: The Story of Civilization, Volume XI (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975). https://amzn.to/2NYVuiv J. Christopher Herold, Napoleon (Rockville, MD: New Word City, 2015). https://amzn.to/44EYEPQ Andrew Roberts, Napoleon: A Life (New York: Penguin Books, 2015). https://amzn.to/3t1RV4Z Connected episodes Nationalism:    • Nationalism Began in the 19th Century (fea...   Limits of film accuracy:    • Things Movies Cannot do Accurately   Britain vs France:    • Why Britain and France Fought for a Millen...   ------------------------------------------------------------ SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE VIDEOS: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c... Support the channel through PATREON:   / cynicalhistorian   or by purchasing MERCH: https://cynical-historian-shop.fourth... LET'S CONNECT Twitch:   / cynicalhistorian   Facebook:   / cynicalcypher88   Discord:   / discord   Twitter:   / cynical_history   Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cynicalhisto... Threads: https://www.threads.net/@cynicalhisto... ------------------------------------------------------------ Hashtags and chapters: #history #napoleon #FrenchEmpire 0:00 intro 2:27 reality 25:20 scholarship 29:05 accuracy 32:04 inaccuracy 42:14 outtro