Napoleon (A&E mini-series)
Picture: B-
Sound: B- Extras: C+ Series: C
One of the latest epic television mini-series is Yves
Simoneau’s Napoleon (2002), a bigger-budgeted affair with Christian
Clavier in the title role, Isabella Rossellini as Josephine, Gerard Depardieu
and John Malkovich. The six-hours-long
work attempts to document the man’s life and battles, with some self-reflection
on who he is and how he got that way.
No project on the subject in decades, arguably since Abel Gance’s 1927
silent epic, has had any major impact.
The four-hour Rod Steiger vehicle Waterloo (1971) is the best
example, while Marlon Brando in Desiree (1954) tried a different take
with mixed results, and Stanley Kubrick did not get his massive project on the
Emperor off the ground. Waterloo’s
box-office failure killed it for cash-strapped M-G-M.
This version had the potential for greatness, with its
cast and subject matter, but the six hours sometimes feels much longer as we
get another in what has been a bloated cycle of TV mini-series too
self-impressed. Though you can sit
there and go through the same old “that’s how it happened routine” if you are
some Napoleon scholar, so what! If it
were this boring, he would have been out of power much more quickly. The result of this approach is a
by-the-numbers work that wastes talent and money. It is also the kind of project that ruins history for the
enthusiastic young, who need to know as much history as possible.
As I watched, so many better films came to mind. Of course, there is Kubrick’s Barry
Lyndon (1975), since it takes place near the time of the French Revolution,
Gone With The Wind (1939) because the two projects share the same film
frame, and even the sometimes silly-but-entertaining Mel Gibson vehicle The
Patriot (2000) because it was mounted with so much more visual effective
ness. This runs form the cinematography
to the costumes. Also, it was never
boring. Then I thought of the two-boxed
sets of War & Remembrance (see my reviews elsewhere on this site)
that went all out to tell its story. It
was clear that this production was simply not ambitious enough.
Another sign of trouble happens when Malkovich (who
actually was a producer here) shows up in yet another supporting role, yet
out-acts the rest of the entire cast.
We have seen this before in films like Rounders, Man in the
Iron Mask (1998), Con Air, Mary Reilly and even overrated
1988 Dangerous Liaisons. You can
add this one to that list.
The DVD presentation is not at fault. The picture is surprisingly full screen,
1.33 X 1 in a TV world going 16 X 9 High Definition. The color is not bad, but the video black is occasionally a shade
light. Also, some details are softer
than they should be, but this is otherwise not bad for such a presentation. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo plays back
nicely in Pro Logic surround, so the sound is not a problem, though the music
is not very memorable. The same can be
said for many flat moments of dialogue.
Once again, A&E/New Video’s presentation is about as top rate as TV
gets on DVD.
DVD #3 is totally devoted to extras, the best of which is
the 47-minutes-long installment about Napoleon for the Biography TV
series that A&E has done such a great job with. A 20+ minutes long behind-the-scenes piece and nearly two-hour Napoleon
& Wellington program narrated by Robert Loggia is also included, but
drags almost as often as the mini-series does.
However, the Loggia and Biography programs do a better job on
covering Napoleon than the mini-series manages, which adds up to an unfortunate
and missed opportunity. Maybe someone
ought to revive that Kubrick project!
- Nicholas Sheffo
