User reviews

This has to be the best or among the best films about Napoleon. However, it's not quite perfect. Most of this is because at about 3 1/2 hours (not 240 minutes as is listed on IMDb), it's just not long enough or complete enough. What I mean by this is that considering what a HUGE impact he had on the world for a 20 year period, this just isn't enough time. In particular, his impact on Europe BEYOND his reign was never discussed--and deserves mention. In addition, it makes one common mistake--saying Napoleon was only 5'2" (a common myth) when he was actually about 5'7"--a very average height for this time period. But aside from this, it's exceptional throughout.

Like so many of PBS's documentaries, this one is narrated by the historian, David McCullough. And, like these documentaries, it's full of interviews with various historians, paintings and recreations. However, unlike a typical PBS film, this one must have cost a fortune to make, as much of it was filmed in Europe--with Russian and French participants (among others). It's pretty, fascinating and compelling--even for those who are not huge history lovers. Well worth seeing.

By the way, one part of the film I found especially compelling was about Napoleon's Corsican roots. Apparently, he grew up HATING France, as this nation had conquered Corsica and forced it to become a part of their empire. In addition, when Napoleon went to the French military academy, he was looked down up for being Corsican. Could this explain how Napoleon was so willing to see so many French soldiers die for him? In other words, he was happy if his soldiers won but not all that sad to see them die either because of these early experiences.

In addition to the above minor criticism regarding repeating the myth about Napoleon's height, the producers took somewhat of an Anglophile view of L'Emperor, omitting a significant discussion of the extraordinary civil reforms and enlightened social changes he brought not only to France but also to many of the lands he conquered. On a more personal note, I wish there had been more and longer interviews with Dr. Donald Horward, founder of the Institute at Florida State University. I had the pleasure of having him as a professor at FSU 35 years ago, and he is one of those fantastic teachers that you can never forget. He was not only an incredibly dedicated and generous teacher, but he has a gift for story-telling by which to impart his great knowledge of history even to a bunch of cynical, otherwise disinterested B-school majors.

Napoleon Bonaparte's achievements for the non historians are so intertwined with the revolutionary period of his life, his military victories, his being both a populist leader and then a king, that it's difficult to form a coherent understanding of the individual. This documentary starts with the infant who as a child was thrown into a world not only of other students who were of a different class, the aristocracy, but of a different country, France.

Others would have wilted, but Napoleon had the brilliance, energy and drive for these impediments to be a springboard for transcendence. And if the old saw, "timing is everything," needs validation, his life is the ultimate example. This man was a child when the "ancient regime" had run its course, and the unwashed masses had been exposed to ideas that were to be encapsuled in "Liberte, Egalite et Fraternite" rather than subservience to the exalted power of royalty.

Napoleon managed to be educated and spend his earliest years demonstrating his intuitive military skills, away from the "terror" when waves of beheading ebbed and flowed with the vagaries of hope, power and reaction. This film manages to get inside the head of this man, understand his limits that became his strengths, his sexual desires that sustained him even when he was across the world in his conquests.

We learn about a human being, whose particular megalomania was exactly what a country, a world in the chaos of profound structural revolution needed. So, the paradox of a populist revolutionary who crowns himself Emperor conveys the challenge of all political systems. Ideals and myths (as he acknowledged religious belief being a useful one for the masses) only go so far, as full equality negates the authority that is needed for order. The French Revolution is the ultimate cost of a failed state, of chaos, the same condition that we see in 2015 in the middle East under the Islamic Caliphate.

So, the contradictions of Napoleon Bonaparte as so brilliantly delineated in this documentary, graphically illustrate political truths that the world dare not lose sight of. Few commercial endeavors have this potential value.

Even though famed French emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte (at 170 cm. in height) was rather short in physical stature - He certainly made up for what he lacked in overall height by becoming one of the most ruthlessly dominating military leaders in all of European history.

Presented by the PBS Network - This 240-minute bio-documentary (in 4 chapters) not only looks at 2 of Napoleon's greatest military conquests of all - But, it also offers its informed theories (through the opinions of historians) regarding the mystery of Napoleon's death in 1821 (at the age of 53).

Pretty biased account of the life of Napoleon focusing on his achievements which were impressive but totally ignoring so much of the harm and hurt he caused to his own people and the countries he plundered. The narrator is clearly a fan but some balance is needed and the full story told.

Unfortunately with such a one sided account it loses a lot of impact and comes across as dishonest making you question what you're actually told.

The man was a dictator and just like Hitler had a "Napoleon" complex, named such for a reason.

It's also long and repetitive, a one or at a stretch 2 one hour specials would have been enough, if the somewhat creepy defence of this dictator was tempered.