i really hoped it was exaggerated but damn, comrades. this a british movie with british sympathies and unforgivably british casting
these fuckers didn't even try! yankee accents standing in for the french, i could accept, so long as they were different from the motherfucking english. but HALF of the french characters are fucking british?!?!?!
under spoilers for space, there is not anything to be 'spoiled' from this:
spoiler
comically miscast historical personages who we've got dozens of portraits of:
Alexander of Russia, unaccountably not bald
Francis of Austria, unaccountably fat
Robespierre played by a man who was made to look exactly like Danton???
and the salt in the wound is of course, The Duellists. a film of infinitely superior historical calibre and consistency from the SAME fucking director.
character assassination of the Comité de Salut Public (typical of a fucking englishman)
caricature of both Thermidor and Brumaire, which you wouldn't think is possible as they were of utterly separate political persuasions, but of course they did that
a calculated removal of the Revolutionary Calendar
no effort whatsoever, in fact intentional mystification around the nature and sympathies of the imperial nobility, trying to play it like it was a return of the Ancien Regime
i did like that Talleyrand was shown to be a devil on the shoulder, but it was not treated with that he was a traitorous sleaze
finally, things i liked:
1792 issue french uniforms appeared in limited edition at Toulon
1798 issue austrian did as well, though apparently only for voltiguers/jaegers at austerlitz?
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas appeared in multiple scenes, but was not named which is super fucking awful
Josephine had a prominent role. and yes, we could do a whole additional post about how anachronistic the women's costumes were, but she generally looked very cute and i'm grasping at straws for things to appreciate here
That's disappointing
I'll probably still see it though
as a 2023 person most of the political problems aren't particularly pressing.
just analyzing it as a movie, the problems are of scope and pacing. covers too long in not enough depth, simply. allegedly there's a lot more that will make it into an extended cut later, but i think the project is a bit fucked from the get-go tryna do 20+ years, even with 4-5 hours