To all of the fans of this film We know why we have this in our personal collection. To all of the critics .......You are way way way jaded. Give it a rest.I need more lines. the color was awesome. The acting was awesome. The picture was awesome.If you did not like this movie you are a spoiled snob that needs a vacation. I can not wait to share this movie with my friends .Hey snobs .....what the hell do you want from people anyway?? Why am I typing a review that no one will read anyway?Why am I wasting my time anyway?What is the point of all of this? Hello go watch the movie idiots.

Detailing the life and times of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon the four part mini-series is a stunning portrayal of one of Europe's greatest men. One minute we are in a tent somewhere in the olive fields of Italy the next we are in a ball watching Napoleon meet the beautiful Comtesse Walweska. Christian Clavier plays a fantastic Napoleon Bonaparte with that cunning and yet short tempered mind that the Emperor is so famous for. Isabella Rossellini does a good job at playing Josephine De Beauharnais and Marie Horbiger plays an equally good Marie-Louise matching the real Empress's personality well. Out of the three women however Alexandra Maria Lara played the strongest character as Comtesse Walweska, the enigma who in the latter stage of the series takes a prominent role. I found John Malkovich's portrayal of Charles-Maurice Talleyrand yet another fantastic performance. Napoleon's family was also represented with great representations of Caroline and of Murat Bonaparte. The role of Fouche was well represented by Gerard Depardieu. In total however I found the series too short, I thought it should have been double the size. The Peninsular Campaign is way to brief in the series and many of the battles are not accurately represented nor really showing Napoleon's real genius which was on the battlefield as well as at the drawing table. The 16 Marshals are badly represented with only a couple being mentioned and Marshal Ney 'The Fearless' is briefly added in at the end to fit the story line. Many of the key points of the era are missing from this otherwise stunning portrayal of one of Europe's Greatest Men.

As a historian, I thought this movie was lacking in certain parts. Yet it had a lot of history in it, which I seemed to me to be correct and well done. There are a lot of beautiful shots, wonderful colors and the art department did a great job in this movie. The costumes of Napoleon and the foreign minister was almost magic. I was taken away by the details of the costumes and the scenery. I was most likely not filmed at Versailles or Paris, yet you had the impression that they were filming there. It was generally well edited and filmed. That said, there are several things that bothered me. For example, when Napeolon moves across Europe with his army and confronts the Allied forces or even the Prussians; they animated this by computers. I didn't think this was at all necessary, I think it would have been a better movie if the director simple left this out (that is what most directors do anyway). The maps rather bothered me, too many details; names and dates of battles covered were enough. The other thing that really bothered me was the whole accents. We are supposed to be watching a movie set in Napoleonic France where people spoke French. Most of the actors don't come from France and so speak with a heavy American or German accent. I first noticed this when Murat was attacking the Directoire and so says "attack" in a clear American accent; this bothered me. I would have preferred to have the movie in French and subtitled.

Although quite lengthy, this documentary never became boring.Much to the credit of the script writers, there is an excellent balance between action scenes, political intrigue and romance. This all leads to a much better understanding of the character of Napoleon Bonaparte, although more credit could have been given to his constitutional and governance reforms which are still tangible for many European nations today.The original score and photography is of a very high standard, but what is even more important, I have rarely come across a movie in which the casting was this well tailored to the characters. Rather than putting famous names in all the lead roles, a true effort has been made to match the skills of the actor to the character in a fine, pan-European cast.Christian Clavier's accent is quite charming: I guess this is how we think Napoleon would have sounded, if he would have spoken English....