Just points of view!

Napoleon (2023)
Director: Ridley Scott

Emphasising the importance of learning history, Mr LKK asserted that if Hitler had known his history well, he would have avoided repeating the same mistake as Napoleon did, that is, invading Russia in winter. Another teacher, Mr KSG, mentioned in an unrelated matter that great men often land with divorcees or widows, quoting George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte, who married Martha Dandridge and Josephine, respectively. And they had spouses who were older than them.

We learned way more history and geography than the present generation does. More than we needed to know. Did it make our generation a well-rounded one? Or was it worthwhile knowledge required to start a conversation in a boring party, a sort of an icebreaker?

It is not easy to make a movie about Napoleon, and more when it comes to making a biopic. Napoleon is such a controversial figure with whom not everyone can agree. History is a dynamic subject. Nothing is cast in stone but begs to be argued by historians.

In an interview, the director was critiqued about alleged historical inaccuracies in the movie. An incensed director was heard to have replied, "...like all history, it's been reported. Napoleon dies. Then, ten years later, someone writes a book and writes another, so 400 years later, there's a lot of imagination [in history books]." "When I have issues with historians, I ask: 'Excuse me, mate, were you there? No? Well, shut the f--- up then.' "

So, that is how it has come to be. Everyone has his side account of what could have possibly happened. And he would die defending it.

Anyway, since we last learned history, discoveries have been uncovered. Napoloeon's retreating soldiers from Russia did not die of hypothermia. Newly excavated bodies of his army suggest typhus as their cause of death.

Another thing that came up recently is the question of Napoleon dying on St Helena's Island in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. He was supposed to have succumbed to stomach cancer at the young age of 50. Someone threw a spanner into the work by suggesting arsenic poisoning. 20th-century examination of his hair showed high levels of the poison. It must be added that arsenic was a regular ingredient in many concoctions in those days. The British allegedly did that. He carried a lot of clouts and had escaped exile earlier from St Elba in 1815.

Another bizarre conspiracy theory is that Napoleon had faked his death. Submarines were the newest toy around then. He had made an elaborate plan with an American submarine builder to rescue and start a new life in the New World.

The Napoleon-Josephine love letters were common knowledge, but infidelity by both parties was an eye-opener in this movie.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.