Author:Shi Anqian
To ask who is Hollywood today"I like to make epic blockbusters the most".of the director.
Ridley Scott said second, I'm afraid no one dared to say first.
If science fiction is the cinnabar mole in Lao Lei's heart, then the epic is the white moonlight that he can't let go.
British director Ridley Scott and "Black Hawk Down", "Gladiator", "Heavenly Dynasty" posters).
From "Gladiator" to "Black Hawk Down" to "Heavenly Dynasty"., Ridley Scott has left the audience with too many inherited classics that are worth savoring.
Following the medieval Rashomon suspicion brought by "The Last Duel" last time, this time, Lao Lei set his sightsThe most famous conqueror in the history of Europe - Napoleon.
"Napoleon".
napoleon
On November 22ndDirected by Ridley Scott and starring Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby as "Uncle Phoenix" and Vanessa Kirby as "White Widow".began to land in major cinema chains around the world to meet the audience.
Screenshot from the trailer for the movie "Napoleon").
The movie tellsNapoleon's rise from a low-ranking officer to a French emperor's magnificent life is interspersed with a complicated love-hate entanglement with Queen Josephine.
By the time of the deadline for the small faction, the theatrical versionDouban score 67, IMDB score 66. Rotten Tomatoes Freshness 59%., such a reputation has a lot to do with the excessive deletion of the theatrical version.
The East is not bright and the West is bright, and the box office performance of "Napoleon" is not bad. The North American box office grossed $20.4 million in its first week, second only to "The Hunger Games: A Song of Songbirds and Serpents" as the runner-up in the North American box officeThe global box office in the first week was 78.8 million US dollars, and it was the top box office in the world.
Screenshot from the trailer for the movie "Napoleon").
However, it is not so optimistic at the moment, according to the production cost of 200 million, the box office will not be able to recover until at least 600 million US dollars.
In this issue, the film critics want to talk about their own viewing feelings, hoping to provide some for everyone to watch the movieAuxiliary viewpoints and references.
Old Thunder vs. Historian
After the release of "Napoleon", many historical bigwigs criticized Ridley Scott for tampering with history and making things up.
American scholar Dan ** pointed outIn the movie, Queen Mary had long hair when she was executed, but in history she actually had short hair, and Napoleon was not present at the time of the execution.
Screenshot from the trailer for the movie "Napoleon").
British royal biographerHugo Weeks(Queen Elizabeth's biographer) saidI could find a thousand mistakes in this movie.
Author of Napoleon the Great (the definitive work on Napoleon's modern biography).Andrew RobertsSharp comments on Lao Lei's works:Regrettably, for an 85-year-old Scott whose mind was influenced by World War II, he chose to portray a stereotype of Napoleon that has been proven to be implausible by the academic community, that is, arrogant to the point of madness. It's amazing that Scott was able to go one step further on his biases. ”
Andrew Roberts criticized Ridley Scott's "Napoleon" in an interview
The most angry are the French.
Napoleon biographerPatrice GneffieldThink Scott has a history of conducting"Very anti-French, very pro-British".rephrasing.
Screenshot from the trailer for the movie "Napoleon").
A French Hona who studies the history of the Napoleonic eraJean TillardIt's even more blunt"Movie fans, go watch 'Napoleon', history students don't watch it. ”
In the face of accusations, Lao Lei was not to be outdone"Were those damn historians on the scene at the time?”
Screenshot from the trailer for the movie "Napoleon").
is not as hot as Lao Lei's temper, and the male protagonist of this film, Joaquin Phoenix, said it more fairly"If you want to really understand Napoleon, it's best to go research and read history books. And this movie is told through Ridley's eyes. ”
In all fairness,Ridley Scott's historical restoration of this film is not as unbearable as scholars have criticized.
For example, the ball where Napoleon and Josephine met in the movie is a true restoration of that time"Victims' ball"., almost all of the people who attended this ball had close relatives who died on the guillotine.
Screenshot from the trailer for the movie "Napoleon").
Josephine wore it around his neckThe red collar symbolizes "blood and severed heads".
Another example is when Lao Lei's team was filming the Battle of WaterlooA one-to-one replica of the bayonet phalanx of the British ** team blocking the French cavalry at that time, and very elegantly restored the weather at that time.
Historically, Napoleon delayed his attack because of heavy rains, and if he hadn't delayed those hours, history might have really been rewritten.
Screenshot from the trailer for the movie "Napoleon").
Viewers who are familiar with Lao Lei should know that he likes to change history. For example, the male protagonist of "Heavenly Dynasty", Barrian, was born in a pure aristocratic family, but Lao Lei set his background as a blacksmith and illegitimate child.
Compared with previous works, Xiaopai feels that Lao Lei's filming of "Napoleon" this time has been much more restrained. Napoleon's growth trajectory basically follows historical facts, with minor but acceptable processing.
Screenshot from the trailer for the movie "Napoleon").
Fiction is allowed in the art of film, and it is difficult for even a purely historical drama to say that it has reproduced history 100 percent。If you want to know the real history, you should not go to the theater, but to the library.
Neither iron nor tender
Pie can understand that the producers are making reasonable cuts for the sake of more films in theaters, but they can't accept the destruction of subverting the structure of film dramas.
Screenshot from the trailer for the movie "Napoleon").
The cinema version gives Pie the biggest feeling is,Very rush, nice to call"Compact"., it's hard to hear"Journal".
Kubrick wanted to make a Napoleon film after filming "2001: A Space Odyssey".It took two years to collect the data, such an eloquent figure, it only takes 158 minutes to want to explain his life clearly, which is not realistic.
Screenshot from the trailer for the movie "Napoleon").
But the editors on the producer side "did it".
The theatrical version almost takes Napoleon from obscurity to fame and then to the main events of more than 20 years when he left the scene, the dragonfly dotted the water with a stroke, quite a lot of meaning.
Screenshot from the trailer for the movie "Napoleon").
The most ink is still the three turning points in Napoleon's lifeThe Siege of Toulon, the Battle of Austerlitz and the Battle of Waterloo, the most valuable ticket price of the big war scenes are also in these scenes.
Screenshot from the trailer for the movie "Napoleon").
The film is very hasty in showing the other main line - the love line between Napoleon and Josephine.
Napoleon's last words appear at the end of the film:"France, Army, Josephine".
Screenshot from the trailer for the movie "Napoleon").
Why did Napoleon love Josephine so much?The theatrical version didn't make it clear at all, and the internal motivation of the characters' behavioral motivations was really insufficient.
The relationship between Napoleon and his ** was also cut to pieces, and the traces were very obvious, and it seemed that except for Napoleon and Josephine, everyone was a tool man.
Screenshot from the trailer for the movie "Napoleon").
The domestic theatrical version is more than 1 minute less than the overseas version, and the bloody scene of the executioner holding Queen Mary's head at the beginning of the movie has been retainedIt can be speculated that the domestic cinema version has shown mercy to the bloody clips, and the deleted ones should all be large-scale ** dramas.
But even if this minute of drama is added, it can't make up for the shortcomings of the theatrical version.
Screenshot from the trailer for the movie "Napoleon").
There are too many large scenes, and the construction of the characters' personalities is not detailed, only sensory stimulation, but no deep thinkingIt feels like a compilation of movie highlights to Pie.
Screenshot from the trailer for the movie "Napoleon").
And so it goesNeither iron nor tender.
It's no wonder that many viewers complained after watching it, the screenwriter wrote a script based on Wikipedia.
How important is the right to edit the final one?
However, Lao Lei is really not to blame for the problems of the theatrical version, because he doesn't have it at allFinal Editing Rights.
This is going to talk about the production systems of different countries, one is the "director-centric system", such as France;The other is the "producer-centric system", such as Hollywood in the United States.
Screenshot from the trailer for the movie "Napoleon").
is different from what most people imagine the director has absolute control over the right to edit the filmThe final editing rights for the vast majority of commercial films in Hollywood are in the hands of financiers and producersIn the United States, there are only a few directors who really have the final editing rights (such as Spielberg and James Cameron).
2017 taillight version of "Justice League" poster vs 2021 Zack Schneider cut version of "Justice League" poster).
The most striking example of this is Warner's intervention in Zack Snyder's creation and directing Weddon to take over the epic "Justice League".
And it's not the first time that Lao Lei has been pittedLao Lei of "Heavenly Dynasty" was forced by the producer to cut 49 minutes from 193 minutes to a 144-minute theatrical version, but there was a lot of scolding after the release.
Stills from the movie "Heavenly Dynasty").
It wasn't until Lao Lei released the original director's cut two years later that "Heavenly Dynasty" was rehabilitated, and critics and audiences exclaimed that the theatrical version and the director's cut version were completely different movies!
The theatrical version is at most a second-rate war film, and the director-cut version is a real epic masterpiece.
Screenshot from the trailer for the movie "Napoleon").
Lao Lei also revealed in a recent interviewThe final length of the director's cut version of "Napoleon" is 250 minutes, which is 92 minutes more than the theatrical version, which is almost the length of an extra movie. focuses on the role of Josephine, and it is expected to be released on the streaming platform after the theatrical release.
Screenshot from the trailer for the movie "Napoleon").
At present, the theatrical version has become a chicken rib, can the edited version of "Napoleon" continue the miracle of "Heavenly Dynasty" and become a god again?
Let's wait and see!