Ridley Scott, regarding his new Napoleon movie, is being aggressively defensive about its inaccuracies with historians. He’s gone on record saying “When I have issues with historians, I ask: ‘Excuse me, mate, were you there? No? Well, shut the fuck up then.’” This is a classic argument of people with no idea how historians do their work, how historical accuracy is determined and evaluated, and - in Ridley Scott’s case in particular - how important it is to properly portray historical accuracy in other media.
The reason why Ridley Scott is being so aggressively dismissive of complaints about historical accuracy is due to past beef leading to a problem he likely has.
This is a movie that, by din of being touted as a ‘nonfiction’ movie about a historical figure, is basing much of its marketing on historical accuracy by default. The trailers show it’s not, and reviews by historians say it is riddled with dozens if not hundreds of inaccuracies. Napoleon’s portrayal is frankly a surface level depiction and nowhere near the nuance that historians were hoping for.
Scott’s defensive about it. He need not be. If he had a historical consultant then he could go “I’m not an expert on the time period, but I have someone who is, ask them about it” and fob them off on his movie’s historical consultant. It’s a whole Thing. He doesn’t have one, however, so he has to defend it personally.
You see, Ridley Scott probably didn’t hire a historical consultant for Napoleon. The last time he had one - Kathleen Coleman for Gladiator - she was so upset over the inaccuracies he pushed through and how little her work affected the film, she requested her name be taken off of it.
Why this is important is because so many more people will watch a movie made by Ridley Scott than I or any other person could write. More people will watch Scott’s Napoleon in the States than five hundred books about Napoleon combined worldwide.
More people watched Dunkirk than ever read a book about the Evacuation of Dunkirk. The movie Breaker Morant did so much for public perception about the execution of a genuine war criminal people in Australia still on occasion call for a pardon for Morant.
Fundamentally, mass media like movies will always have more impact of a popular perception about somebody, a time period, an event. That’s why Ridley Scott making an inaccurate movie and going 'oh, you weren’t there, you didn’t see it with your own eyes, so how could you know, I don’t have to listen to you’ is a problem.
Why I get so exercised about historical fiction and and the impact it has on mass memory construction.
Motherfuckers hire historical consultants, but get mad when we make things too “boring” or “complex” or “unmarketable.” The past isn’t a sandbox for your OCs who maybe resemble real people. Historical fiction isn’t fucking fanfic. If you make a historical film and claim accuracy, you have both taken responsibility for the construction of collective memory, and demonstrated why it’s fucked that filmmakers wield that much power over mass memory.
I’m pretty sure my salty history of scotland tutor was the historical specialist on Braveheart and my first day in her class, she put the film on and tore it to pieces, because she knew a lot of people signed up for her class because of that bloody film.
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Taylor Swift performs onstage during “The Eras Tour” at SoFi Stadium on August 09, 2023 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
