Filmmaker Ridley Scott is a master of the historical epic, having directed several – 1492: Conquest of Paradise, Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, Exodus: Gods and Kings (even Robin Hood and The Last Duel have some grand battles in them) – in his nearly fifty-year career. Scott returns to the genre again with Napoleon, which bookends his filmography as his first feature film, 1977’s The Duellists, also took place during the Napoleonic Wars.
While Scott utilizes all the tools in his director’s toolkit, including CGI, to realize the period detail and grand scale of his historical films, a hallmark of his epics is their old school, practical approach to shooting major battle scenes, of which Napoleon has many including Austerlitz, Waterloo, Marengo, and Borodino.
In this exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the making of Napoleon’s battle scenes – which you can watch via the player above or the embed below – Scott recalls what went into their making and how it affected him.
Scott reunited with several past collaborators to capture Napoleon’s epic scale: production designer Arthur Max (Gladiator), costume designer Janty Yates (Gladiator), director of photography Dariusz Wolski (Alien: Covenant), and special effects coordinator Neil Corbould (Gladiator). Another key collaborator was military advisor Paul Biddiss, who created the film’s various armies and drilled the actors and extras portraying the infantry and artillery soldiers.
The production’s “war room” included large-scale models of the sets for battles at Waterloo, Austerlitz, and Toulan, and artwork to illustrate to the various departments what Scott wanted to achieve with Napoleon. That same meticulous preparation and ambitious goal to convey the magnitude of these historical events also went into filming the battle sequences on location.
“When you’re doing a war film the scale of everything is so massive,” Scott said. “I wanted to do it all in one go. I’d have 300 men and a hundred horses and 11 cameras in the field.”
“It’s amazing because you’re actually reconstructing the real thing,” Scott said of filming these battle sequences, most of which were shot in various locations around England. “I started to think like Napoleon.”
Considering Napoleon Bonaparte was a tactical genius who gained the throne of Europe through conquest, Scott observes, “That influence can be great or it can be deadly.”
Starring Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby, Napoleon will be released by Columbia Pictures exclusively in theaters globally on November 22, 2023 – including in Screen X, 70mm and IMAX formats – before streaming globally on Apple TV+.
