“Buy yourself a life!” Ridley Scott lashes out at historian who criticizes Napoleon
The director did not like the remarks on the historical inaccuracies of his film, which caused a lot of laughter on the web after the trailer was posted online.
No, Napoleon never fired a cannon at the Pyramids. No, he was not present during the beheading of Marie-Antoinette in 1793. And of course, the former Queen of France had her head shaved at the time of her execution… So many small historical errors which some specialists immediately noted, after the trailer for Napoleon.
In the United States, it was Dan Snow, star television historian, who denounced some of the inaccuracies in a TikTok video. And that didn’t please Ridley Scott. Asked about these criticisms by the New Yorker, the filmmaker replied without batting an eyelid: “But buy yourself a life!”
In other words, Ridley Scott asks historians to leave his film alone and not torpedo it for its inaccuracies. What Joaquin Phoenix had already mentioned in a previous interview with Empire magazine: “If you really want to understand Napoleon, then you should probably study and read for yourself. Because if you see this movie, it’s that experience told through Ridley’s eyes.”
This does not mean that the British director did anything. He took care to include a number of historical details in his feature film, to stick to what the Battle of Waterloo was, for example, which he filmed over five days and reproduced very precisely.
Sufficient to allow Ridley Scott to be in the race for the Oscar? “You know, I haven’t won a single Oscar in my life yet” he replied to the New Yorker. “So if I ever get one, I’ll say, ‘Hey damn, it’s about time!’
