December 02, 2023
What Ridley Scott’s ‘Napoleon’ Gets Wrong About War
I’m just a defense analyst, so I’ll leave a proper critique of Ridley Scott’s new blockbuster biopic Napoleon to the many reviewers who have already disparaged it. I, for one, found it to be a lukewarm mélange of battle scenes and romantic vignettes, leaving me with neither a sense of the man Napoleon Bonaparte—the bicorne-hatted soldier-turned-emperor of the French—nor a feel for the age of upheaval he so much defined. For a grand piece of historical fiction from the director of such masterpieces as Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, and Black Hawk Down, the film curiously fails to entertain.
No matter what these works have taught us to think, the decisive battle is a myth.
My perspective on Napoleon is a different one. Scott’s film stands in a long line of movies, novels, and even history books that have given the world an entirely wrong view of how wars are fought—and even more importantly, how they are won. And that matters, because the mythical idea of war embedded in Napoleon and so many other works has become so widespread in our culture and discourse that it ends up informing actual decisions about actual wars.
Read the full article from Foreign Policy.
More from CNAS
-
Commentary
Defense / Indo-Pacific Security
Is the U.S. Ready for War with China?U.S. military planners are caught in an impossible dilemma....
By Franz-Stefan Gady
-
The Pentagon Is Using Artificial Intelligence Right Now. Here’s How.
Video
Artificial intelligence is the future of the military, or so Pentagon leaders keep saying. But is it the future — or is that future already here? That’s the question Breaking ...
By Josh Wallin
-
Stuck in the Cul-de-Sac
Reports
For more than a decade, the United States has sought to modernize its military to deter China, but it has become stuck in a developmental cul-de-sac that has allowed China to ...
By Carlton Haelig & Philip Sheers
-
Podcast
Defense / Transatlantic Security
MWI Podcast: Europe’s Airspace Violations and the Counterdrone ChallengeJohn Amble is joined on this episode of the MWI Podcast by Dr. Stacie Pettyjohn, a senior fellow and director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security....
By Stacie Pettyjohn
