Napoleon (3 Disc Box Set) [DVD]

The battle scenes are slightly disappointing; hence the four stars rather than five - and they don't really give an impression of his genius. The most revealing aspect of this film though, is the insight into the many balls Napoleon had to juggle as Emperor of the French. Both the personal pressures from his family, but also the political pressures of consolidating his power.

I think the casting of John Malkovich as Talleyrand was inspired - he manages to convey the scheming, underhand and self aggrandizing character of this French foreign minister. Gerrard Depardieu as Foche is also impressive.

I enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone looking for a general overview of this part of history.

The leading characters are truthfully portrayed, especially Talleyrand (John Malkovich) and Josephine (Isabella Rossellini), but none more so than Napoleon himself (Christian Clavier). He plays Napoleon with an understated and measured approach, without losing any of his personal charisma. He also reveals a surprising vulnerability to the man.

He also captures the mind boggling complexity to the most powerful man of his era. He is, on one hand, a ruthless opportunist, crushing his enemies without hesitation, and on the other, a brilliant administrator and forward thinking statesman, spending his enormous energy and intellect on reforming education, law and religious tolerance. Clavier also shows, with some skill, that Napoleon was as intrigued by the women in his life as he was with affairs of state, especially his marriage to Josephine, who must have been the love of his life.

The story is rich and fast moving, without ever skipping over the major events of the day or becoming bogged down in detail, and never comes across as being unduly biased or totally hostile towards this extraordinary man. The military campaigns are rich in production and realism, as are the tens of thousands of extras and faithfull reproduction of uniforms and military regailia. I'm also pretty sure that the majority of the interior scenes were shot in the actual buildings where the events took place.

Whether you side with Napoleon's vision of the world he lived in, and the way he went about changing it, or you dismiss him as a repressive opportunist, one cannot help but be moved by his sad and isolated demise after his final defeat at Waterloo in 1815. Filmed on location on St Helena, Clavier portrays a lonely and broken man with sensitivity and dignity who has come to terms with his fate, and an ulimately slow and painful death. This is in stark contrast to the petty minded govenor of the island, Hudson Lowe. Napoleon's death bed scene is particularly poignant.

Overall, a superbly detailed and well acted film, which strikes the difficult balance between myth and fact with an objectivity I have rarely seen in any other works regarding Napoleon.

However, the extras on the third disk are something of a disappointment (hence 4 stars instead of the five I would have given for the film itself). The first featurette seems to be a biography lifted from the History Channel, which I would guess most people buying this DVD would have seen before. The "making of" is, well, not really a making of at all, but a selection of short interview clips with the cast and crew, and a small random selection of horse riding stunts and make-up effects.

The rest of the extras disk is made up of typed narration about Napoleon's timeline and his legacy, along with a very brief description of the other main characters. The last features are trailers for upcoming Chronicle releases, Julius Caesar and Luther, which I for one will be waiting for in anticipation.

So, to finalise, a must have for all fans of history and anyone who enjoys an engrossing and moving story.