Dan Snow's History Hit - Napoleon's Greatest Battles with Ridley Scott

Episode Date: November 14, 2023

Napoleon Bonaparte is one of the most accomplished military commanders in world history. He rose to become Emperor of the French after a series of spectacular battlefield victories and continued this success until the very end of his rule.On this episode, Dan is joined by the famed filmmaker Ridley Scott to discuss his recent blockbuster, Napoleon, and go through some of the film's epic battlefield scenes. What were the conqueror's greatest battles? How did Joaquin Phoenix capture the essence of the man? And how do blockbuster epics balance historical fact with historical fiction? Tune in to find out.Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore.Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up now for your 14-day free trial http://access.historyhit.com/checkout?code=dansnow&plan=monthly.We'd love to hear from you! You can email the podcast at [e-mail] can take part in our listener survey here.

Hi everyone, welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit. Unless you are living in St Kilda with the internet turned off for the last six months, you will know that Sir Ridley Scott's new film, Napoleon, is about to hit the big screen. And friends, the big screen is the place to see it, let me tell you. Ridley Scott, the man, the legend, he's 85 years old. He is smashing out movies at a prodigious rate. He makes $100 million movies like I make $100 podcasts. He is the man who brought you Gladiator, Blade Runner, Alien, The Martian, Black Hawk Down. He's one of the greatest Hawk Down. He's one of the greatest directors of all time. Ridley Scott's had an extraordinary life. His father was away with the army. He was born in South Shields in the north of England,

moved around constantly. He developed a fascination for cinema from his great uncle, who was a pioneer of cinema and opened many movie theatres around Tyneside. Now he bestrides this narrow world like a colossus. And I was the petty man who walked about under his huge legs, peeping about to find myself a dishonourable grave, or more precisely, to find myself a very honourable hour of podcast interview time. So Ridley Scott and I met up in a swanky hotel in London. We sat beside each other, we hung out, I met up in a swanky hotel in London. We sat beside each other. We hung out.

We talked about movies. We talked about his occasionally slightly unorthodox historical opinions about Napoleon and his military campaigns. But you know, you can forgive the man a lot. He talked you through the movie. You're going to hear us talking through some clips. This, friends, is Sir Ridley Scott, one of the greatest of all time,

talking about Napoleon and lots of other stuff besides. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Ridley, thanks for coming on. Why Napoleon? And why now? The big man. In many respects, he's one of the great curiosities in history.

Any time, anywhere. You're looking at Charlemagne, Alexander the Great. I got horribly misquoted by what I said, Stalin, Adolf Hitler. I said, well, no, there's 400 books being written about Napoleon Bonaparte. 400. So clearly he's one of the more interesting historical figures you could possibly imagine, both as a military, politician, leader, emperor, everything. It always stuck in my mind, and it wasn't because I knew that Stanley had considered

doing Napoleon Bonaparte, but it's partly to do with my early encounter with the French way of life. I was an 18-year-old, drove to France, loved it. My first experience, ended up in a village called Saint-Tropez. I didn't see Brigitte Baudot because she's probably my age, so she'd be 18.

I'd love to have met Brigitte Baudot at 18. Can you imagine? But she was in the village, and I never saw that. But the village was marvelous, and I was experiencing French food, which in those days would be steak frite and dodgy red wine, right?

Still is, it's beautiful. So I lay on the beach in the sun and basted myself with olive oil, thinking it was the best suntan lotion I could possibly have. What I was actually doing was roasting myself. So it was a very bad experience. And then later years, became very successful in advertising and had to, it was shot in France a lot for a French company and it had

my own company in Paris. So I was steeped very much in French culture. Then my first film would be The Duelists, which ironically was about Napoleon. You never see Napoleon, but it is about Napoleon and his army, where he decides to bring the new working class officer to the fore with an aristocratic officer who collides. That is fundamentally the story. It's a culture clash. Then from that, I shot in a wonderful place in the Dordogne, and I couldn't forget that.

Then I jumped to a film beginning of the, actually, COVID. It was right back in Dordogne, one kilometre from where I shot my first film. It was called The Last Dome. In The Last Dome, I said, well, I should do Napoleon. So I started climbing Napoleon then with the writer. So that recent, that's about four years ago. And isn't it funny that when you were basting yourself on that beach, that's meters away from where you would have landed in 1815 at the start of 100 days. Yes. What a wonderful life. Okay, so did you feel I should do Napoleon in that like, it's a monumental subject,

I think I've done my apprenticeship, I'm ready for Napoleon. Like you can't just do a Napoleon film straight out the bag. No, no, I mean, I've been ready for anything for years. Okay. You know, my success in advertising was pretty amazing because at the time, in my era, Alan Parker, Adrian Lyne, then later my brother Tony Scott, we caught the wave of this new culture called advertising

because of the advent of television advertising. We turned it into what I think was an art form. So we influenced the world in terms of how to advertise, and that influence, I think, influenced how movies would look, how movies were cut. Advertising was at its best at that point. And do you, when you're making movies, presumably one gigantic character at the heart of the movie

is good for storytelling? Because you've got an actor... It's a lot easier with all the peripheral characters around it. And normally when you're inventing fiction, you're usually trying to pick up somebody who is actually a problem or has a problem or has many problems and is the larger-than-life character. That's what we do in storytelling.

And then you get a good actor to play that character, right? Yes. In this movie, you can watch Phoenix on that screen. There's no limit in the amount of time I could just watch him. And he doesn't have to do that much, does he? Well, yeah. He's well-directed, of course. No, there's a lot of talent in not being able to do much.

Yeah, exactly. There's a lot going on. I mean, that's part of the talent. The fact that you have to watch him is it. Yeah. How did you work with him? Because there's so many versions of Napoleon, aren't there?

There's the sort of, the man that everyone's screaming, vive l'empereur. There is the lover. There is the... But you guys have teased out a kind of version of Napoleon I think is fascinating.

He's a little bit awkward sometimes, isn't he? Well, this comes from Joachim, because I'd done one version of the script, and then I could only think of Joachim. He was always the man, not just because I'd done the gladiator with him, the Prince of Darkness of Rome. I'd enjoyed the experience and I enjoyed the outcome.

But really, I thought Napoleon, Joaquin looked like Napoleon. He looked like him. I kept looking at pictures, this is Napoleon. So I passed it by and said, what do you think? And he couldn't believe that I wanted to play Napoleon Bonaparte. That was the initial reaction.

Then little by little we crept into it. Then I had a script which I could send to him. And then with Joaquim, and as the artist he is, I mean that he's a really, he is an artist, there was a lot to say. And so we sat down for many days, re-discussing who this man may be, because he said, I don't see him on the page.

Who was he? I thought, given Napoleon's short stature, Napoleon was considered short at the time, he was 5'7", wasn't that short, was kind of normal, but the wicked English press would draw these wonderful cartoons and all the portrayals being this little short man, a very large, tall lady, and also all the politicians were much bigger than he was. So was he unsure of himself,

unconcerned in himself? I think for sure. And anybody who's that lacking in confidence but has a buried ego somewhere, that's a kindling for fire. And so he wants to come out and wants to prove himself. And so that's how it begins because he was a talented gunnery lieutenant officer

who was clearly knowledgeable about molding and making, melting steel and making cannons. He knew about the technology of what they called the hot ball, where they saw a ball at a ship which was on fire and set it, ignite it. And so, Napoleon was a talented gunnery officer. And his first opportunity came. They had a big problem of the English were blockading ports. The biggest port to blockade was Toulon. And so Barras, who was a funny kind of way,

was almost like not military necessarily, but somehow found himself in command of the French army and many other things, had this, recommended by his brother, this, my brother's a talented gunnery officer, and he met him, and I think he just took potluck and hoped for the best. He went to Toulon to find that the general in charge was a court painter.

And of all things, he was a talented painting fruit. So he went to the base and saw complete neglect, lack of leadership, and just took over. You haven't done well for a painter. You told me on a previous occasion that at heart you were an artist and a painter as well. Oh, no. The best thing that I ever did was go to art school. And I went to a very provincial art school called West Hartlepool,

which is in Teesside. And I then became very good, and I got into the Royal College, and I then spent three years in the Royal College. So I had seven years in art school. And you told me you still storyboard. Well, I drifted back into, because I really had a good hand and could really draw and kind of art school. And you told me you still storyboard. Well, I drifted back into, because I really had a good hand and could really draw and kind of really paint,

but I suddenly realized I should use it to prepare my film. Because when you delegate a storyboard, it uses a lot of time, explanation, explaining what you want to do. And frankly, I could draw it faster than explaining it. So eventually I stopped storyboarding and would draw it myself. So Napoleon's storyboard is this thick I was going to say that must have been a that in itself yeah well it's not sick figures you're literally drawing close-up mediums

that wide shot so sometimes I haven't got the location so I'll draw the location then look at the drawing then go find the location that in itself sounds like a work that should be in the British Library. Well, yeah, it's pretty good. It's pretty good. It's pretty good stuff. No, it's good stuff, yeah. And we should say, when I heard you were doing the play, I was like, this is very exciting, my goodness me.

Is it going to be the story of 1815 or the Auslitz campaign? No, no. You did the whole thing. No. Why did you want to do the whole thing? Because that's a massive undertaking. Well, no, he did 66 battles. So I can take the highlights

of some of the best ones. One of them has to be Waterloo, which is a demise. One of them has to be the complete lack of judgment of Moscow. And then the retreat. And he took, I think he went out with 600,000 men, came out with 40,000. He lost half

a million men. But then the one I thought was most, showed his talent and strategy was the Austrians are with the Russians around the corner. I'm going to go to them. I'm going to make myself evident that I'm here, the other side of this big lake. We will have to attend to each other in the battlefield. I will let them come to me because they're going to come to me. I'm going to lend myself wide open to

being a lure on the edge of a lake. I'll put a camp there with lots of fires and tents and things like that. And they will think, oh, the army is careless, not hiding themselves. They are seen. They are reported by Cossacks. He has his own men in the forest who see the Cossacks. The man can report that we have been discovered. Good. Have the men sleep.

Tomorrow we'll fight. And so they come in for him. He's hidden. He's had trenches dug in preparation for foot soldiers. Cannons are hidden. And cavalry is hidden in the forest. So when the army comes, they're going to drive most of the army from three different sides and push them onto the lake. Once they're on the lake, he's going to reveal the cannons. Then he's going to bombard.

The lake will split. They'll all die. It is epic, in the truest sense of the words. Why did he want to do the whole career? Did it just have to be that? Well, it kept cropping up. There's more interest and more interest and more interest. But then inside of that, I wanted to do something beyond just the battles

because action can get boring. Sex in the bedroom can get boring. So it had to be what was Napoleon's need for this woman. Again, it has to be beyond her prowess in the bedroom. Run out. So he was obsessed with her. And I think she was his soulmate. But she wasn't reciprocating.

She didn't really love him, I don't think. And I think because of that, it made him love her more. He was obsessed with her. And so it shows in his letters, which are sometimes juvenile-y, loving or sexual, they're kind of embarrassing to read. You think, oh my God, he really wrote this, trying to turn her on in his letters

she never read them they were in her bedroom she never opened them which says something she didn't really care and then once he said to her we must be divorced because you cannot give me a successor so in a way it was tragic for him

and it became at that was tragic for him. And it became at that moment tragic for her because she lost her security. But he looked after her so well. The generosity was enormous. So I think, was there affection for her to him? Definitely, towards the end. And therefore, she started to write to him. So in the film, you discover this after I made the movie,

she dies, but there's still a way to go, and there's still Waterloo. And I kind of lost her, I missed her. So we started looking at her letters, and I sort of then got the actress to read the letters to him, and sort of have her presence felt by the letters as a voiceover. Worked really well. Worked well. Let's look at a clip of two when we pulled out some of the battles. Yeah. To him and sort of you have a presence felt by the letters as voiceover worked very well worked

Well, let's look at the clip of two and we pulled out some of the battles Yeah, I want you to talk me through how you make these extraordinary scenes This screen is not big enough to know this is These guys are sappers and they were uniform they have on there right there is actually accurate. Yes, okay, you went into a lot of trouble with the uniform. Well, they're protected by that armor. They explode. I don't think it'll save them, frankly, but it'll help them a bit.

And artillery limbs are very large, right? Yeah. Because, as you say... He was terribly nervous at Toulon, scared to death. That's the artillery officers running off the fuse. Get the mortars up there. What we're looking at here is not CGI. No, it's all real.

But we live in a world now where everyone's talking about AI and doing everything fake. I mean, your career will be, will mark the golden age of massive films. I think you feel when it's fake, when it's AI. You know it's somehow artificial. All of this is real, CG. Because I remember when I watched the battle scene

in Gladiator, it took the breath out of my lungs the first time I ever saw it. And this has the same effects on these things. And you show Napoleon in the thick of the fighting. He does actually get bayoneted in the leg, I think. It's all accurate. What happened is all true. His horse took a ball in his chest.

And what we thought of after he goes in, he loved his horse, put his hands inside the horse, took out the ball, said, give this to mum. Really? To his brothers there. He's going to get the horse. And you're right, but Napoleon,

you're playing Napoleon here at this point. He's nervous at this point. Oh, scared to death. This is the point at which he either walks onto the great stage of history or he stumbles and falls off it. And he must have gone through

many feelings at that moment of fear. Fear of failure. Once you go this far, you've got it. It's better to die in the battlefield than fail. That's interesting.

And also, he's not a man of enormous wealth and influence. This is his shot, isn't it? This is his shot. And I think that comes across. He was then given an acting from lieutenant, acting brigadier general as a reward for that.

That's quite a promotion. That then hung on him. So then you go through his uniform, so suddenly he's the general. It's amazing. And Ridley, you show some ships in this. You know, my abiding ambition is that you're going to make a massive film about British naval power in the 18th century.

You've come close in this movie. You know the very end scene he shot with Wellington? That room, stateroom, is Nelson's stateroom. That is cool. Isn't it fantastic? That is very cool. So you shot on there. Love seeing those British ships.

For you, real locations, human beings, that matters. Oh, yeah. You can always redo anything digitally, but you're not really in charge when you're doing digitally. It's a painstaking process. And listen, I had, particularly in Waterloo and particularly in Austerlitz, there's a lot of digital help.

But all that stuff going through the ice is all real. And cannons going off. If I've got 50 cannons in foreground shooting actual cartridges, that's real. Then I'm going to put another 1,000

at the back, it's easy. If I've got 200 horses in foreground, I actually have to do their thing. I can easily put another 20,000 beyond it. Do you ever worry

that you might have been a military dictator in a parallel universe? I've got my 50 cannons. Why would I worry? you ever worry that you might have been a military dictator in a parallel universe? Sounds to me like, I've got my 50,000. Why would I worry? No, I'd love to have been a. This is the next best thing. I think you're right.

Doing my job ideally is a benevolent dictatorship if it's possible. What's the captain of a ship? A dictator. Thank you. If you don't, you've got trouble. You're big trouble. You're the cultural dictator. Thank you. Yeah. If you don't, you've got trouble. You're big trouble. You're the cultural dictator. Yeah, I mean, in a way, the trick is to be friendly, humorous, and be part of the team.

But at the end of the day, there is the buck stops. I'll fall, always fall on my own sword. What is the greatest line in this movie? Him? What do you think? I don't know. Okay. Come on, I know that you think it's same as me you think you're so great just because you've got boats oh no I love that it just that's the

greatest because you have boats yes that was the day after Trafalgar oh was it yeah well he okay he got the news the Trafalgar was 18 five yeah and no it was leading up to it. Just because you have both. Because their navy run by Nelson was formidable. Yeah, it was. And if you hadn't had the navy, the story would have been different. Oh, totally.

But that is the greatest line. But you know, he would have taken England. Yeah. And he had his brother, Colonel Bonaparte, in New York. So when he did, what's it called, the Louisiana land purchase, he sold from St. Louis to a lot of the United States back to get money so he could do his march to Moscow. I mean, honestly, if he'd been able to take on the British Navy, North America would know all about that.

More than that, when he was in Santa Lena, there was a frigate came off, and somebody got a message to him that a frigate was offshore, would wait for him, take him to New York that night, and he wouldn't leave because he was so disappointed. He thought he knew the French wanted to get rid of him. The French wanted to get rid of him. They did not want him back. Where did you shoot this?

We shot this in Malta. Malta is an architectural gem. Really, architecture is medieval. Renaissance, it's stunning. Medina is incredible. I was trying to film on a tall ship, and it's the first time I heard about your movie, and everyone, you couldn't find a tall ship.

Yeah. Cornwall, no tall ships. They said Ridley Scott's got them. He said, everyone who's got a tall ship, Ridley's basically saying, put out the back everyone who's got a tall ship Ridley's basically saying put out the bat call anyone with a tall ship

come to Malta and I was like doesn't he know we're trying to make a little podcast aren't they great I mean they're gorgeous I can see why they

obeyed your your call not mine you listen to Dan Snow's history we're talking to Sir Ridley Scott about Napoleon more coming up. in human history. We're talking Vikings. Normans. Kings and popes. Who were rarely the best of friends.

Murder. Rebellions. And crusades. Find out who we really were by subscribing to Gone Medieval from History Hit. Wherever you get your podcasts. Let's take a look at Austerlitz now. Let's take a look at Austerlitz. It's 4 in December, so you've got the weather.

It's nice and chilly. Right there, you see that down there? That's an airfield. Oh, right. But the wooden is married to the wooden foreground where I shot Marx's early sudden gladiator. Okay, this is where you shot the gladiator. Same place.

Okay. Yeah. He just wants them to attack this little village which he's made into a fortress they'll engage them and when they're ready he will then introduce foot soldiers then cavalry

now push them onto the big blank area they have them twigged as ice then the cannons you've shown Napoleon scouting himself he was very active he did that he actually did that yeah

what about historical accuracy when the historian goes sorry Sir Ridley it didn't quite happen like that you go listen I've done enough with you you have to have artistic

I would say how did you know were you there they go oh no so it's exactly so I said Ronald had 400 books

written about him so it means maybe the So I said, you know, I had 400 books written about him. So it means, maybe the first one was the most accurate. The next one was already doing a version of the writer. By the time you get to 399, guess what, a lot of speculation. But also, you are an artist, right? Shakespeare, when Shakespeare's writing about

Battle of Agincourt, it's one of the greatest pieces of art in the English language. It's not necessarily perfectly accurate. No. But I love details in Agincourt, it's one of the greatest pieces of art in the English language. It's not necessarily perfectly accurate. No. But I love details in Agincourt. The French had arrived, were eating French food. They all had dysentery, you know? Yeah. You know that? Oh, yeah. So all the artists in Agincourt had no

trousers. I know. Because. Do you know what? I'm just saying I'd love to see a Ridley Scott Agincourt. But Job's going to park that one there. And also the British had invented a point that was like the Concorde. Oh, yes, the bodkin head. So the velocity changed. So it hit, it would pierce on a big difference.

It's not seeming like there's something in development here. I just want to say I'm not. So we've got Napoleon. Here he comes. Here he comes. Here's the lieutenants. Here's the infantry. So about 200 of them are real.

The rest, all the ones in the foreground are So about 200 of them are real. The rest, all the ones in the foreground are real. And the rest are digital. Okay, now he waits. Do you feel incredibly lucky that you've been able, or of course, you've made your luck, but you've created these epic, epic films? Every time.

Yeah. Every time. What's it like on location? You're like, I cannot believe all these people. Well, no, the first moment we turned up in Berlin, the big house, we shot a lot of the stuff in the big house, and there's a unit of 900 personnel there. And it's the first time I came to be out in the field. And he said, who are all these people? I said, this is all for you, mate.

But this is, as a filmmaker, this would be the dream, wouldn't it? Oh, yeah. Well, no, I try and take my stride. You can't be afraid. You've got to go out there and say, no't it? Oh, yeah. Sending cavalry charges. Well, no, I try and take it my stride. You can't be afraid. You've got to go out and say, no, stop, stop, stop. You've got to be able to say, stop, it's wrong. Then adjust it. But, you know, I run a film a bit like a board meeting.

When you're approaching the movie, the production, the actual shooting, the whole unit's about 900 personnel. There's 40 HODs, so we sit around a boardroom table. I'll say, right, page one, problem. No, page two, problem. What's the problem? If you talk to him, we'll talk to him. Page three. That's what we do.

And then, of course, you'll come to things where you need proper discussion. That's how you find out what the real problems are. This is that when they discover they're on the ice. It's good fake ice, that. That's fake ice. Oh, yeah, totally fake. This is when they discover they're on the ice. It's good fake ice, that. That's fake ice? Oh, yeah, totally fake. What, you didn't march an army across a real pond?

That's a playing field. That is an airport. That's great. And I just spread some, slow down. Do you ever have a bad day on the movie when you're like, the loneliness of command, now I know what it was like for Napoleon outside? No, no, no, I've long gone over that. You can't wobble.

If you wobble, you're in trouble. I have to say, stop, it's not working. The whole thing about it is adjustment, constant adjustment. But all this is boarded, so I know I need cannons, balls coming in. People never show, but when you see a cannonball, it's only going 400 miles an hour.

So you can see it, so I put in miles and now yeah, you can see it So I put in the ball master strange This is an extraordinary scene on the big screen Yes It's only through the eyes we cut a large area about the size of two swimming pools And we've gone the tank at Pine where we shoot the stuff. Okay, okay. The cannonballs hitting the water, I love.

That's digital. Yeah. How close are you to that? Are you shouting at that guy, come on, man? No, no, no, no. What I do, this is about 11 cameras. Exactly. So I have to be in a trailer with 11 monitors bigger than that,

and I'm watching everything. I was a very good camera operator. So I can talk to an operator as an operator and say, you missed this. You're too slow, too fast. Before you go, you're too wide. You go tighter. So my real film school was advertising.

If you do 2,500 commercials personally and I'm on the camera every day, it's a great score. This standard bearer galloping away is such a great moment, isn't it? It's astonishing. You think, he's going to get away. No, no. Well, he's scared to death. And boom, there he goes.

And so you create a battle scene, and then you famously shoot it with loads of cameras. Because you're a big believer in if you don't get it right once or twice, you're probably not going to be able to flog it after. Well, no. I think if you've got eight cameras or 11 cameras and you position them carefully, the geometry of the scene is essential. So you've already walked it through on the set or on the ground

with riders, with a head of stunts. You've walked it out. They know where they're going to go. They're heading towards that hole. I have two cameras at that hole. Another two cameras somewhere. You position your cameras to receive the incoming

as well as the big wide stuff. So, of course, there are cameras in shot digitally and just rub them out easy. Okay, fine. You can remove the camera. And I'll have camera operators dressed in army uniforms.

So you frequently don't even see the cameras. If you look carefully, you may see cameras. Okay. But you find the guys are in uniforms. I can see them on camera. If you look carefully, you may see cameras. Okay. But you find the guys are in uniforms. I can't see, okay, I can't see the cameras. You know what, let's go and look at Waterloo.

Fire! Fire! Fire! Take cover! Again, this feels like a big day in the, like for me, I mean, I'm obviously a massive history geek, this is my period, but this is it, we're going to portray Waterloo. Well, bizarrely, the two armies are almost two miles apart,

so those cannons would fire a long way. You've got the valley in there. But I've got 800 metres here, so it's the perfect ground for Waterloo because it's a slightly shallow depth, and I got the perfect ground because it's raining, and the and I got the perfect because it's raining and the reason why he wouldn't move on the morning was because it was the ground and he did not want his horses to get in there break their legs did you end up rooting for Napoleon well you know anybody vulnerable you tend to root for them okay I found I found Joaquim, one of his biggest,

most powerful things that he has is he's a very sympathetic man. I'm Matt Lewis. And I'm Dr. Alan Orjanaga. And in Gone Medieval, we get into the greatest mysteries. The gobsmacking details and latest groundbreaking research from the greatest millennium in human history.

We're talking Vikings, Normans, Kings and Popes, who were rarely the best of friends, murder, rebellions and crusades. Find out who we really were by subscribing to Gone Medieval from History Hit, wherever you get your podcasts. He's charming. Yeah. And he's charming. Yeah.

And he's vulnerable. He's vulnerable. Yeah, and so even when he's playing the joke, he's vulnerable. Yeah. I mean, it's the best temptation of a monster who's vulnerable. And that's the interesting thing about Napoleon. Joaquin Phoenix plays him both as a genius and as uncertain and vulnerable and insecure. Completely.

Yeah, it's very... That's very important because that makes him more interesting, I thought. We knew by enough research, when you look at the research and understand his hesitation, he had to be vulnerable. We must hold our ground.

Stand fast to the last man We must not be beat Or what will they say in England? I love this scene I love Rupert Everett playing Isn't he great? That's clever of you, yeah, that's great That's his line, he says, I hate getting wet Yeah

I hate getting wet What an epic Yeah, that's epic, he says I hate getting wet yeah I hate getting wet what an epic yeah that's epic isn't it yeah but do you wonder whether in the future of film who knows but whether they'll ever have this many people replicating Waterloo ever again you know I hope so I hope it doesn't go away I will I hope so you know we are I think everyone loves to have a bedtime story, don't they? I mean, now you've got that on every house in the world, a very high quality screen. It's great because I think if you do it right,

you can bring culture to the household. And this kind of thing is information and culture, isn't it? But do you go to bed at night thinking, I cannot believe I've just engaged an entire generation in the Roman Empire or now in Napoleon? There's going to be people out there. Well, I'm quietly proud of it, of course. I mean, I'm thrilled that I'm still allowed to do it. I'm still capable of doing it, but I'm still allowed to do it.

I love it. And the key here is... You've got skirmishers here, French skirmishers. Very nice. here is very nice yeah but i couldn't do this unless my team is i have to think it's the best of business everybody from every possible department right through to the guys who reload the blanks in the rifles i like the messenger with the with the fresh horse well i invented the idea that how did they know that Blucher, where he was? You have to funny expression.

They're here! The Russians! You're a rider. You have two horses. A jockey's 150 pounds. You're wanging 11 kilometers. You have another horse alongside you. You can change horses mid-gallop, so you

save the horse. That's what the Mongols used to do, yeah. Yeah, you move horse to horse. So in a way that's your walkie-talkie. Yeah. Where are they now? Four crimes, how long? Go back and find a way. Find them! No, I mean it's logical, isn't it? Your emperor is with you! You are the brave of Austerlitz! Your emperor is with you!

You are the brave of Austerlitz! Never surrender! For homeland and glory! And then, you can't go wrong with a cavalry charge. How many cavalry charges have you made in your career? And you just can't go wrong with them cavalry charge. How many cavalry charges have you made in your career? And you just can't go wrong with them. This is the first one. I know, there's a good one in the last Jules. Oh, yeah, that's small.

I mean, look at the size of that. That's a painting. That's a painting. I looked at a lot of paintings and I thought, what will this say in England? He's so British, isn't he? So British. So you looked at some of those amazing paintings of Water, what will this say? In England! He's so British, isn't he? So British. So you looked at some of those amazing paintings of Waterloo.

You can smell the brandy, right? You can smell the... Look at this. It's all real. It's all life. And then here's the guards. Now's your time. I mean, I've added a lot of horses there.

But we rehearsed moving into these blocks, which are fortresses. This is now a fortress. Yes, four-meat square. This is brilliant. And you've got the king's color. You've got the right flags there. I mean, it's all happening.

This is all real. The first four are real. The rest are digital. But that's pretty good. I think you can be forgiven for that. Yeah. That's great. I mean, that is epic.

Oh, my God. You've seen this a million times. What's it like when you watch this? I'm in a room in a tube with all these monitors. No one in there can't have an end. I don't have any advice. No. I want to follow my own sword.

So I say stop. And I say come in. So we bring them all in. And if we're getting clogged up, we'll bring the operators into the trailer and say right watch this there there

there readjust so you've got stunts you've got operators and we readjust the shot and then they go back and do it it's very efficient

yeah well it sounds very efficient because it sounds like everyone does exactly what you tell them all the time yeah well somebody has to

that's a very efficient system let's captain the ship yeah of course now thank god does exactly what you tell them all the time. Yeah, well, somebody has to. That's a very efficient system. It's captain of the ship. Yeah, of course. Now, thank God, Joachim can really ride. Oh, he can ride? Oh yeah, he hides the fact. I say, you good horse, but he's really good.

This is him. So he's doing his own stunts? No, he's doing, I would not allow that. Okay, okay. But him full gap, yeah, of course. Well, that sounds like a stunt to me. No, no, doing... I would not allow that. OK, OK. But him, full gap, yeah, of course. Well, that sounds like a stunt to me. No, no, no. But this screen is not doing it justice.

No, no. You've got to watch this on the IMAX. I know. I mean, trust me, I've been lucky enough to see this on a big screen. Well, the IMAX is going to be stunning. Have you seen IMAX? No, no, but I've seen it on a big screen in Sony HQ. Pretty good. That's amazing.

It was good. Yeah, I know, it's amazing. Uncomfortable seats. Listen, I didn't notice the seats because screen in Sony HQ. Pretty good. That's amazing. It was good. Yeah, it's amazing. Uncomfortable seats. Listen, I didn't notice the seats because I was too excited. Yeah. My bum was not sending any signals to my brain during this movie. You make all sorts of different movies. Why the large scale? Is that just because you can?

Why are we attracted to these massive stories? Oh, because I can, yeah. Is that what it is? But occasionally I'll stop and do something small like Thelma and Louise. Well, throw away a little movie. Yeah.

But I've done three little films that people don't really talk about but people see it again and again. A Goodyear, Magic Men,

White Squall and Someone to Watch Over Me. You did White Squall? Yeah. I love that film. White Squall is a Someone to Watch Over Me. You did White Squall? Yeah. I love that film. White Squall is a great movie. Thank you.

Hello. Did you feel you couldn't, like, because there's films you could have shot about Napoleon where it's like an intimate picture of him and Joseph. You felt like you had to make a movie that matched his reputation. Well, why not? The whole point of doing it is the scale of his undertaking, what he managed to achieve. I can't think of any leader today that has achieved as much. Yeah.

Napoleon is the Napoleon of movies. Napoleon is the Napoleon of military leaders, I think. Because also, I think he had a great sense of architecture, a sense of plan. He was a great politician. He was a great of plan. He was a great politician. He was a great bureaucrat. And he elevated the bureaucracy and order of France dramatically. How should we feel?

A lot of his methods are still used in France. They are? Yeah. But in the publicity, you also used the word tyrant. So like, are you worried that this is going to be swept into the kind of cultural, is Napoleon good? Was he bad? How should we feel about him? I think he was great and brutal. You have to be. He makes some pretty tough decisions and choices, right?

And so how many people would die during his battles? You can maybe count the soldiers, but how many civilians suffered along the way? It's like addressing Marx Aurelius. Marx Aurelius became guilty as he got older about what he'd done. You can't be that powerful having not done a lot of massive damage. So how do you want people to leave this epic... They've come out of the movie theatre.

They are staggering out of the movie theatre. How do you want them to feel when they leave? Do you want them to be fanboys of Napoleon? Do you want them to think about the nature of power and fate? I think everything. Elated by watching such a spectacle, I try to make it as real as possible. So you're learning something about history.

You're learning something. I hope that people come out having learned something. Okay. Whilst also just marveling at the scale of it. I hope so. I mean, I hope that we come out having learned something okay whilst also just marveling at the scale i hope so i mean i hope that we try to do our best well you're well done for doing your best ridley scott thank you very much indeed i really enjoyed that thank you you