152: Ridley Scott’s Napoleon (with Jacob Bacharach)

The author Jacob Bacharach returns for a show about Ridley Scott’s latest, the 200 million dollar epic Napoleon, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby.

History nerds, YouTube film cranks and the Roman statue bluechecks on Twitter are up in arms about the latest from the Riddler, for straying too far from the real history and most egregiously for hiring their beloved Joker to portray their beloved Emperor of France as a cucked loser. Jacob and I highly enjoyed it as old Hollywood spectacle and as a strange historical comedy about a horny weirdo, hilariously sold to the masses as a badass action film with Black Sabbath in the trailer. 

We also compare this Napoleon to previous attempts to depict him in cinema, with special emphasis on 1970’s Waterloo, a spectacular and extremely expensive recreation of that fateful battle starring Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer as the Duke of Wellington, literally a co-production between Dino De Laurentiis and the Soviet Union! 

It’s fashionable in some circles to complain about Ridley Scott but we discuss some movies of his we like, our hopes for the extended version, and discuss some fun facts about the Napoleonic Era including his horny letters to Josephine and an explanation of the French Revolutionary Calendar.

Plus: Napoelon Musk, finally facing his Waterloo after an assault on advertisers at a New York Times summit.

Follow Jacob Bacharach on Twitter and visit jacobbacharach.com

You can sign up to be notified of when orders can be placed for the third edition of Ursula Lawrence’s French Republican Wall Calendar here.

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Trailer for Waterloo (Sergei Bondarchuk, 1970)

Trailer #2 for Napoleon (Ridley Scott, 2023)

Napoleon meme, popular in France.