TV/Movies Megathread

[Sheilbh]

I'm not sure why you need to be blunt about it not being a science trip. It is indisputable that he did bring academics along with him. It does a complete disservice to history to suggest otherwise in a movie and particularly since we know that a lot of people will understand Napoleon through this movie.

I've not seen the movie and I've no idea. The only reference was Scott saying that he doesn't know and doesn't care if Napoleon used the pyramids for target practice - cinemantically for him it shows (not tells) the key point he wants of him taking Egypt.

But you're probably right that it won't include much about the savants or Egypt generally. This is the bigger problem of how you can cover his entire career in one movie - even if it is long. If ever there's a life that deserves a big, sweeping multi-year TV series it's this life. In part, I think because of Egypt because it's such an implausible, extraordinary, romantic moment.

Having said that on historical accuracy I believe there's a scene where he actually has a meeting with Nelson on a ship and I'd guess that would have to be Egypt.

I think similar use of "Napoleon complex" here as g says. As I say mainly heard it used about, say, Sarko or Macron.

[Gups]

I think that Sheilbh is write about the dichotomy between the French fascination with ancient Egypt and their contempt for contemporary Egyptians.

And in the US at east, "Napoleon complex" is used to mean short people trying to compensate for lack of height with an overemphasis on demanding the respect that they believe they are owed by their position.  You don't find tall people being accused of having a Napoleon complex.

Thay's always been my understanding of the phrase as well.

[crazy canuck]

I'm not sure why you need to be blunt about it not being a science trip. It is indisputable that he did bring academics along with him. It does a complete disservice to history to suggest otherwise in a movie and particularly since we know that a lot of people will understand Napoleon through this movie.

I've not seen the movie and I've no idea. The only reference was Scott saying that he doesn't know and doesn't care if Napoleon used the pyramids for target practice - cinemantically for him it shows (not tells) the key point he wants of him taking Egypt.

But you're probably right that it won't include much about the savants or Egypt generally. This is the bigger problem of how you can cover his entire career in one movie - even if it is long. If ever there's a life that deserves a big, sweeping multi-year TV series it's this life. In part, I think because of Egypt because it's such an implausible, extraordinary, romantic moment.

Having said that on historical accuracy I believe there's a scene where he actually has a meeting with Nelson on a ship and I'd guess that would have to be Egypt.

I think similar use of "Napoleon complex" here as g says. As I say mainly heard it used about, say, Sarko or Macron.

It used to be used a lot to describe short people on a power trip, with the underlying implication that they were compensating for something. 

But that usage went out some time ago here.  Can't speak for the US

[HVC]

Still means over compensating short guy here in Ontario, as far as I can tell.


If it means anything Webster states Napoleon Complex as:

" a domineering or aggressive attitude perceived as a form of overcompensation for being physically small or short"

[Josephus]

In Crime and Punishment, the main character, Raskolnikov, contemplates the super human, and Napoleon is the example Dostoyevsky gives of such a person— one to whom the regular rules should not apply to; people who should be allowed to trample over ordinary people in order to achieve their super human potential. 
Interesting especially in that this was written only some decades after Napoleon invaded Russia.

[Barrister]

In Crime and Punishment, the main character, Raskolnikov, contemplates the super human, and Napoleon is the example Dostoyevsky gives of such a person— one to whom the regular rules should not apply to; people who should be allowed to trample over ordinary people in order to achieve their super human potential. 
Interesting especially in that this was written only some decades after Napoleon invaded Russia.

I have to give big props to making a Dostoyevsky reference on Languish.

[Syt]

In Crime and Punishment, the main character, Raskolnikov, contemplates the super human, and Napoleon is the example Dostoyevsky gives of such a person— one to whom the regular rules should not apply to; people who should be allowed to trample over ordinary people in order to achieve their super human potential. 
Interesting especially in that this was written only some decades after Napoleon invaded Russia.

It's also reflected by Tolstoi in War & Peace where the Moscow aristocracy reviles Napoleon as the antichrist while the (then young and idealistic) Pierre Bezukhov in the beginning holds him in high esteem and that indeed Napoleon does what is required for the new order and that the ends justify the means. (Obviously he's served plenty of humble pie later on when Napoleon reaches Moscow)

[Sheilbh]

Although I think Bezukhov is as you say idealistic and represents the expectations of liberals in autocratic Europe, is sorely disappointed but ultimately (I think) ends up a Decembrist as that spark didn't stop burning.

I think with Dostoyevsky it's probably more the Nietzschean view of Napoleon and certainly not an anti-autocratic liberal like Bezukhov

[Syt]

Yes, but keep in mind that Raskolnikov holds the view, not necessarily Dostoyevsky - after all, Raskolnikov is only "made whole" again once he accepts his punishment.

[Josephus]

In Crime and Punishment, the main character, Raskolnikov, contemplates the super human, and Napoleon is the example Dostoyevsky gives of such a person— one to whom the regular rules should not apply to; people who should be allowed to trample over ordinary people in order to achieve their super human potential. 
Interesting especially in that this was written only some decades after Napoleon invaded Russia.

I have to give big props to making a Dostoyevsky reference on Languish.

Few people know this but C and P is my favourite novel. Read it at least 6 times since I was 16

[Barrister]

Few people know this but C and P is my favourite novel. Read it at least 6 times since I was 16

Back in probably grade 7 or 8 my nerdy friend was reading War and Peace.  Not to out-do him, but to prove my own nerdy reading bona fides I read Crime and Punishment.  I got through it, but 13-14 was probably the wrong age to read it.

[Josephus]

Few people know this but C and P is my favourite novel. Read it at least 6 times since I was 16

Back in probably grade 7 or 8 my nerdy friend was reading War and Peace.  Not to out-do him, but to prove my own nerdy reading bona fides I read Crime and Punishment.  I got through it, but 13-14 was probably the wrong age to read it.

It had long been on my bucket list to read War and Peace. I'm more of a Dos fan than Tolstoy, so I resisted for a long time, until some 10 years ago, I read it over a Christmas break.

[viper37]

Viper's encyclopaedic knowledge of 2000s semi-obscure fantasy shows never ceases to amaze me

Wait.  We haven't talked about Witchblade or Bloodties yet! 
https://screenrant.com/2000s-tv-shows-fantasy-forgettable-2000s-fantasy-shows/

[FunkMonk]

Napoleon is the anti-Great Man biopic
Finally, an epic celebrating history's most accomplished kind and sensitive person

Napoleon tells the story of a whole nation through a single marriage. The historical epic, helmed by legendary director Ridley Scott, plays fast and loose with history to craft a Napoleon biopic that's both conventional and subversive. Scott is happy to play the Dad Movie hits — big battles, meticulous period detail, and a few expertly placed, extremely funny jokes. But in the film's dramatic beats, Scott and screenwriter David Scarpa push back against the Great Man narrative that so many historical biopics follow. Napoleon isn't a movie about grand triumph, or about disastrous failure. It's a story about masculine insecurity, and how it can reduce the world to violence.

Scott's film recounts the greatest hits of Bonaparte's rise and fall, beginning in 1789, amid the French Revolution, and ending with his second exile and death on the island of Saint Helena in 1821. Juxtaposed against Napoleon's campaign of power and ambition is his tumultuous relationship with his wife Joséphine (Vanessa Kirby), which Napoleon portrays as a psychosexual battle that in turn fuels his militaristic ones.

https://www.polygon.com/reviews/23964477/napoleon-movie-review-ridley-scott-apple-tv-plus

I think I'm going to like this movie.

Also it's very funny how that word is still being autoreplaced with "kind and sensitive person" 

[Jacob]

I can't even remember what the word that's being replaced is....