A & E mini-series "Napoleon"

[dpstafford]

Link

[Le Tondu]

Originally posted by dpstafford



Link

WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Thanks dpstafford! Many thanks.

[Reknoy]

Any opinions?

Personally, I loved Malkovich as Talleyrand. PERFECT casting.

Not enough focus on the battles, though. Or at least, not the parts I was able to watch.

[Von Rom]

The fact that it was made for TV, I was impressed by the sets, costumes, period dress, etc, as well as the number of troops in the film. It felt very authentic. A&E gets an A+ for its commitment to doing historical films. . .

It was a bit episodic, and if you didn't already know the history, you could lose track as to what was happening, but overall it was very good. I was hoping we would learn more about the man himself: why he conquered; why he was loved by the people; his strategy; his eloquent speeches, etc. But what can you do. . .

I note that you can buy the boxed set of the movie that contains "extended material". So I am assuming this includes more battle footage as well as more explanation as to what was happening.

I hope A&E continues to produce more outstanding historical films such as this one.

[EricLarsen]

I thought the Nappy miniseries was okay. I thought Malkovich did a great job portraying Talleyrand. The battles were very poorly done as they didn't explain the setup very well. They did a poor job of explaining Nappy's trap at Austerlitz.

Did anyone notice the major gaffe they made? When they showed the battle of Leipzig they had up a subtitle "Leipzig, Germany 1814". Sure makes one wonder how they could let that big a gaffe get through since Leipzig happened in 1813 and it shouldn't have been too difficult to fix a subtitle.
Eric Larsen

[Le Tondu]

I too wished that the battles scenes were better, yet the film was about the man and not necessarily about the battles. True, they are intertwined for certain. The cost of having 100,000 or more extras must be astounding. The scene of the Grande Armee when they first came upon Moscow was quite impressive with all those troops descending those hills. Where are they in the rest of the film? They must be in that extended version which I'd bet does better justice to the film. Commercial television is plain terrible.

The bearskin plates looked unfortunately familiar. They were too large in my opinion. Otherwise the uniforms looked excellent. Also, Murat looked too ordinary, IMO. Where was those flashy crimson boots? Or all those feathers?

Too bad about Liepzig being said to have taken place in 1814. How did they miss that?

Can someone else find more innacuracies? Probably so, but who cares? No one can deny that a [/b]lot[/b] of effort went into the film.

The actor that played Napoleon (Christian Clavier) was very good. He conveyed the human side of this story rather nicely.

Even with the film's imperfections, it is the BEST ever made about Napoleon - by far. I say this because the film is astonishingly without any English anti-Napoleon propoganda and that is quite refreshing to say the least. I give it an A. Not an A+, but a simple A.

[Chiteng]

I had no problem with the acting...it was quite good.
However, as a wargammer, I am dissapointed at the
coverage of Wagram, and they ignored Bernadette

[Link]

Do anyone know if the DVD is available for region 2? (europe) at any online stores?

/Lars L.

[Roads]

Originally posted by Le Tondu

Even with the film's imperfections, it is the BEST ever made about Napoleon - by far. I say this because the film is astonishingly without any English anti-Napoleon propoganda and that is quite refreshing to say the least.

Not too surprising given that it was a French film. I really hate dubbing, and couldn't watch the whole thing. Why couldn't they do subtitles?

[Le Tondu]

Originally posted by Road's
Not too surprising given that it was a French film. I really hate dubbing, and couldn't watch the whole thing. Why couldn't they do subtitles?

Double-take time. Wow. That is really weird.

I find that comment extremely interesting.

I say all this because I didn't see/ hear any dubbing at all. I just asked my wife and she said that she even looked for dubbing and did notice any. Actually, I now remember looking myself and it didn't see any either.

As for the DVD regional thing, send me a private message and I will send you a link for a website with legal hacks for many DVD players. Many are done by just using the remote.

[ASHBERY76]

Originally posted by Le Tondu
Double-take time. Wow. That is really weird.

I

As for the DVD regional thing, send me a private message and I will send you a link for a website with legal hacks for many DVD players. Many are done by just using the remote.

What about playstation are there remote control hacks for the DVD.

[Link]

About the dubbing.
According to a web site I found some time ago the film was actualy filmed in two versions. One in French and one in English.

However it was dubbed in three territories outside France, UK and America.

http://www.audiomedia.com/archive/featu ... 902-fc.htm

/Lars L.

[Le Tondu]

Originally posted by Link
About the dubbing.
According to a web site I found some time ago the film was actualy filmed in two versions. One in French and one in English.

However it was dubbed in three territories outside France, UK and America....
/Lars L.

A quote from that link that Lars has so kindly provided:

"Like last year's Band Of Brothers series television has been chosen as the medium for Napoleon, in fact four 90-minute programmes have been made. France will see them first, then the UK and America. There are also three-hour packages to be made for other territories that will have dubbed versions for local markets."

Maybe Roads saw a version outside of France, UK, or the US. My apologies, it is too easy to forget the international qualities of the internet sometimes.

So yeah, A&E cut out nearly two hours!!!! Now, we know why the story seemed disjointed at times. I really loathe network television sometimes.

Thanks Lars.

----------------
ASHBERY76,

As for playstation, "you're speaking Greek" brother. I know absolutely nothing about it. Sorry.

[Von Rom]

Originally posted by Le Tondu
So yeah, A&E cut out nearly two hours!!!! Now, we know why the story seemed disjointed at times. I really loathe network television sometimes.

Thanks Lars.

2 hours?!

That does explain a lot. I wondered why they would put thousands of "extras" into the movie for the battle scenes, and then show so little of the battle. . .

Do the TV execs think we are so addle-minded that we couldn't sit through more of this great movie? Especially considering the trash that inhabits the airwaves.

And who ever edited the movie for TV did a hack job, considering that little foundation was laid in explaining some of the movie scenes. . .

I wonder if the boxed sets will be available in local video stores. . .


EDIT: The boxed sets (VHS and DVD) contain 8 hours of film! So almost 5 hours of this film was cut from TV. :rolleyes:

What we saw on TV was merely the "highlights" of an epic 8 hour movie. . .

http://aetv.com/tv/shows/napoleon/nap_home.html

[VictorH]

I thought the series was VERY sympathetic towards Napoleon. Just the fact they said he had been poisoned by his British Captures was interesting enough for a whole series.

I thought it jumped around a bit to much and didn't focus on the battkes and how they were won. There was nothing portrayed about him being sick at Waterloo.

In any case I thought it was an excellent show and bought the DVD with the knowledge that some of the jumping around would be smoothed out due to it's greater length.

[Chiteng]

I thought the actress that played the little girl at the end was quite good. Still no idea who she was.

[Le Tondu]

Originally posted by Chiteng
I thought the actress that played the little girl at the end was quite good. Still no idea who she was.

Yes indeed.

The actress or the character in the film? The Lord Governor "whats-his-name" said her name at the beginning of the film when she told him off. Who knows? I bet that it could be researched.