Did Ridley Scott take liberties with the history and life of Napoleon to achieve his great biographical fresco? Émilie Robbe, chief curator of Heritage at the Musée de l’Armée in Paris and specialist in the period, looked at the film’s trailer to detect errors or inconsistencies. In a video broadcast on the museum’s Youtube channel, she goes back point by point on the trailer and managed to find some small inconsistencies.
In the trailer, we can see Joaquin Phoenix in a Napoleon costume as immortalized in paintings and engravings of the time. Except for one detail: the shoulder pads. For Émilie Robbe, during the sequence of the siege of Toulon, the actor would wear the epaulettes of a colonel and not of a general as his rank would have required. Nevertheless, “not necessarily easy to find the right ones” according to the curator.
During a scene showing the Battle of the Pyramids in Egypt, Ridley Scott provides the show by showing a cannonball embedding itself at the top of the pyramid of Cheops. But according to the specialist, the guns of the time were only able to fire at 800 meters and therefore could never have reached the pyramid in this way. Especially since the battle actually took place about fifteen kilometers from the mythical Egyptian constructions and not at their feet as shown in the film.
The firing of the cannonball is above all an artistic choice aimed at amplifying Napoleon’s thunderous entrance. The fact that the action takes place at the foot of the pyramids also adds an epic and majestic dimension to the scene. A good point, however: the guns used for the film are extremely realistic.
Another scene in the trailer shows Napoleon riding through the midst of his men during an assault. This heroic representation would not reflect reality for Émilie Robbe. The occasions of seeing Napoleon charge in this way would in reality have been very rare, if not non-existent. The strategist most often remains behind his troops during attacks.
Apart from these few inaccuracies (for some assumed), the trailer is still rather realistic and convincing for Émilie Robbe. Through her video, the curator of the Musée de l’Armée delivers a large number of other anecdotes about Napoleon
