KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 7 — Renowned director Ridley Scott has responded to criticism of historical inaccuracies in the trailer for his upcoming historical epic, Napoleon.
The film which will be hitting cinemas this November 30, stars award winning actor Joaquin Phoenix as the French emperor.
It will follow the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte as well as his relationship with wife Josephine, played by Vanessa Kirby.
Following its trailer release, the film has already received criticism by British TV historian and presenter Dan Snow who took to History Hit’s TikTok to call out some of its inaccuracies.
Snow pointed out that Napoleon didn’t shoot at the pyramids during the Battle of the Pyramids and that the queen of France, Marie-Antoinette, had very cropped hair during her guillotine execution and Napoleon was not present during her execution.
The Alien director, in an interview with The New Yorker has responded to the historian's accuracy breakdown by telling him to ‘get a life’.
Scott had also sat down with Snow in a separate video interview on History Hit’s YouTube where Snow brings up the film’s accuracy topic, to which Scott responded with ‘how do you know, were you there?’.
He further explained that there are 400 books written on the French emperor and that they might be just the authors' speculations.
“There are 400 books written about him (Napoleon). Maybe the first one was the most accurate, the next one is already doing a version of the author.
“By the time you get to book 399, guess what, there’s a lot of speculation.”
Meanwhile, Phoenix in an interview with Empire Magazine touched on the film’s accuracy and said that the film is being told from Scott’s perspective.
“If you want to really understand Napoleon, then you should probably do your own studying and reading.
“Because if you see this film, it’s this experience told through Ridley’s eyes.”
This is not Scott’s first rodeo into historical epics as he has previously directed other history-based films such as Gladiator and Black Hawk Down.
