Summary
- A new trailer for Napoleon highlights Ridley Scott’s practical methods for capturing the film’s large battle sequences.
- The director, who also helmed 2000’s Gladiator, reveals that one sequence involved the use of 300 extras and 100 horses.
- While Gladiator features a number of impressive battle sequences, especially the one near the beginning, Napoleon could end up exceeding these in terms of scale.
Ridley Scott hypes Napoleon‘s upcoming practical battle sequences in a new trailer for the upcoming historical epic, and it looks like they’re just as epic as Gladiator‘s. Scott’s upcoming collaboration with Apple sees the director chronicling the life, career, and military exploits of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. After first directing him in 2000’s Gladiator, Scott reunites with Joaquin Phoenix for the film, with the actor playing the titular role.
Now, as the Napoleon release date approaches, Sony Pictures Entertainment has released a new featurette-style trailer for the movie, revealing how Scott pulled off the large-scale battle sequences. The film seemingly relied heavily on practical methods, with the director revealing that filming one battle involved “300 men and a hundred horses.” Check out the trailer below:
How Napoleon’s Battle Sequences Will Compare to Gladiator’s
Gladiator features a number of big fight sequences, with the opening one perhaps being the largest of them all. The film begins with Russell Crowe’s Maximus leading the Roman Army against a Barbarian horde in Germania, and the sequence is complete with a horse charge, chaotic sword fighting in the mud, and explosive firebombs. The rest of the film is similarly action-packed, but many of the sequences are somewhat smaller in scale and a little more contained, with Maximus and his companions facing off against various threats within the Colosseum.
Napoleon, on the other hand, appears like it might have more of a focus on large-scale battles than Gladiator did. Trailers for the movie have already provided a fairly good indication of the types of battle scenes to come, with Napoleon’s Russia campaign, in particular, serving as the backdrop for much of the action. Imagines were recently released, for example, of Napoleon leading his army through a burning Moscow.
The Battle of Austerlitz, too, has been teased fairly extensively in the film’s marketing. The battle, which was one of the most tactically impressive battles that Napoleon ever waged, famously features the French military commander using cannons to break the ice beneath retreating Russian soldiers. It remains to be seen whether Napoleon‘s battles will exceed what Scott did previously in Gladiator, but the latest trailer is certainly a promising sign that the movie will be truly epic in scale.
Source: Sony Pictures Entertainment/ YouTube
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