Napoleon Bonaparte’s fascinating life

ONE OF THE GREATEST MILITARY LEADERS OF ALL TIME, NAPOLEON BONAPARTE’S FASCINATING LIFE HAS EVOKED BOTH CRITICISM AND ADMIRATION FROM SCHOLARS, POLITICIANS, AND HIS OWN SUBJECTS. BOTH HIS RISE TO POWER AND HIS HARSH AND STRATEGIC MILITARY CAMPAIGNS ARE INFAMOUS AND HAVE INFLUENCED
THE GENERATIONS THAT FOLLOWED, FROM WINSTON CHURCHILL TO FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE.

Ruthless in war, a tyrant in his country, but also a liberator who came from nothing and was one of the first in history to show that leadership talent could come from any class, Napoleon’s success on the battlefield has passed into legend. Such was his tactical brilliance and merciless reputation that the world required seven different coalitions of European powers to defeat him. But off the battlefield, his obsession with Josephine – his lover, his wife, his empress – would define his life as much as any battle.

For Academy Award-nominated director Ridley Scott, that story – the meteoric rise of a military genius, the chance to show his duality and psychology on an epic scale – is one that he has wanted to bring to the screen for many years. “Napoleonic history is the beginning of modern history. He changed the world; he rewrote the rulebook,” he says.

“Apart from him being an incredible strategist, a marvelous, intuitive – and merciless – politician… I was fascinated with how a man like this – who’s on his way to take Moscow – could be obsessed with what his wife is doing back in Paris.”

In every aspect of Napoleon’s life, there are conflicts and dualities. Napoleon’s relationship with Josephine adds dualities upon dualities.

“He ends up sniveling in tears – the man we have seen command his way to the throne of Europe, the tactical genius, turned into this little helpless man, who is completely in love with the woman next to him on his couch, admitting he is nothing without her,” says Scott. “His letters to her are comically rude and juvenile, overly romantic, and even quite dirty. He was absolutely enchanted by her. And after they parted for the last time, she never even read them. When she died, they were all in a drawer by her bedside table.”