Napoleon is a bit difficult for Americans since he was never a threat to the US., as he was to Europe. He's just a guy who wore his hat from side to side and kept his hand 8n his shirt.
The wisenheimers point out the flaws in this production but anything that will inspire a deeper study of history is acceptable. I'm a medievalist but I love "The Lion in Winter" despite the fact that it's pure nonsense; or, at least, extremely telescoped history.
In "Napoleon and Josephine" they do an excellent job of making Armand Assante look stumpy. As for Jacqueline Bisset, she was one of the great screen beauties of the 1970s. By the 1980s she was getting a bit long in the tooth but she was older than Napoleon and Bisset's beauty is still evident, so she's perfect. Especially in the low-cut gowns fashionable at the time.
The cast list is not dotted with big names, but Anthony Perkins is perfect as Tallyrand. But, after all, this is the story of Napoleon and his most famous consort. It's a kind of Barbara Cartland version, but why not? Since they don't know what Napoleon and Josephine actually said, they have to create pithy dialogue.
The show starts at the tail end of the Terror, with Josephine awaitng her time with the guillotine, then her freedom with the fall of Robespierre. Catching sight of her Napoleon falls head over heels in love, and he woos her ham-handedly. He desperately wants to marry her but she's been unhappily married before and doesn't want to make the same mistake twice. Toward the end of the first hour on dvd they're sleeping together. And things continue from there.
Overall, it's pretty well done, though given Napoleon's rise and fall it might have gone on a lot longer than the advertised 275 minutes. Napoleon's campaigns are not well-explained, and the war footage clipped from old movies doesn't join perfectly. But accuracy is not that important. It's a story of love rather than war. It's a darn sight better to have mis-matched war scenes than the miserably thin crowd scenes. Napoleon had the largest army in Europe and we don't want all his wars looking like he fought with pitiful crowds.
