Empires-Napoleon (Roadshow) (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	216:30 (Case: 220)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	David Grubin
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	David McCullough
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	$44.95	Music	Michael Bacon

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    By way of background, the Empires documentary series was produced over the years 1999-2003 and created 11 different documentaries in total, with each subject story told using between 2 to 4 one-hour episodes. Each title in the series deals with a different period in man's history, in which a particular supreme dominion or religious belief ruled or prevailed, or went on to ultimately leave a mark on mankind in a profound and permanent way. Each title in the series has been written, produced and directed for the most part largely independently of all the others, and so each tackles its subject matter from a slightly different angle. Each documentary may deal with a specific aspect or aspects of the particular empire in question, such as telling the history of how that empire was established or came to pass, how the previous rule or convention was challenged and overthrown, or even just what life must have been like, according to the best/most current knowledge of historians, under the rule at that time.

    The 11 episodes of the Empires series have been receiving a slow release on DVD in Region 4 since November last year. Nearly all of the titles released to date have now been reviewed by this site, as indicated by the links following, where shown. The following list is the list of titles in order of DVD release date (not necessarily corresponding to their exact order of production): Napoleon, Queen Victoria's Empire, Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire, Egypt's Golden Empire, The Greeks: Crucible of Civilisation, The Roman Empire: In the First Century, Martin Luther, Peter and Paul and the Christian Revolution, Islam, Kingdom of David: The Saga of the Israelites and The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance (the last title due for release November this year). The final 3 titles in the series yet to be reviewed will be reviewed shortly. For the most up-to-date listing of all these reviews, please do a search under "Empires" on the site's home page review search engine.

    This Empires documentary series has been, generally speaking, of excellent production quality. As stated, each title in the series has been written, produced and directed independently of the others, and therefore it is expected that each tackles its subject matter in a slightly different way. Of necessity, you can not expect every single title to convey the absolute, definitive story of every single aspect of that particular empire. Rather, each episode covers the main timeline of crucial key events for that period in history and at the same time offers a rare insight into specific aspects of the time. All titles are extremely well-researched, featuring interviews with prominent historians and relevant experts. Above all, each episode successfully puts into context the impact and legacy of that period on the future of mankind. Having reviewed most of the titles in the Empires series now, I for one have been very impressed with the overall writing and production quality on offer and found this series to be, on the whole, an outstanding success as a highly authoritative, well-researched, entertaining and enlightening documentary series.

    The story of Napoleon Bonaparte is a fascinating one. The fact that this particular documentary on his life is so well researched, written, and lovingly produced only makes the story even more riveting viewing. The four episodes on this double-DVD set are:   

• Episode 1: To Destiny (54:41)
  Chronicles the early life of one Napoleon Bonaparte, a young child born and bred on the Mediterranean island of Corsica (no, he wasn't born French at all) in the late 18th century. Napoleon grew up hating France, a natural enough reaction following the French invasion of his home island around the time of his birth. In particular, Napoleon resented the French nobility system with a passion. Sent to a French boarding school for his education, the young Napoleon was forced to grow up in a hostile world, always taunted as an outsider and always hating his environs and its people. Then, on 14 July 1789, an event was to happen that would forever change not only France, but the young Napoleon too; the French Revolution. Swept along with the impassioned cries of "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity", young Napoleon's dreams came true in the revolution that saw the French nobility stripped of all power and all of French society freed of its class hierarchies. But France was in civil turmoil, its people fighting amongst themselves, as well as the rest of Europe reacting against the new Republic rule. As a young French officer, Napoleon quickly distinguished himself as a man of action and master of combat strategy, rising in just 3 short months from the rank of captain to brigadier-general, then to general with the full command of the army of the interior at the tender age of 26.
• Episode 2: Mastering Luck (54:03)
  "Great men become great men because they have been able to master luck", Napoleon said, and this episode explains how he was able to achieve it in times of both good luck and bad, with his principal weapon being an unflinching and unscrupulous mastery of his own propaganda. This episode plots Napoleon's life and career from the late 18th century, returning to Paris victorious with a treaty quelling the Austrians, through a less than successful military campaign in Egypt, escaping back to Paris just in time to play an instrumental part in the coup d'etat overthrowing the unloved French Directory, in the process outwitting his fellow plotters and appointing himself as head of state under the title Premier Consul. However with France now in his grip and Paris prospering under a new age to become the envy of all Europe, Napoleon's troubles had only started again outside his borders, and soon he was to be diverted on a quest to increase his own power further, by seeking the title King of Europe. He had to be content for now with a huge coronation ceremony at Notre Dame cathedral in December 1804, where under the blessing of the Catholic Pope Napoleon became Emperor of France.
• Episode 3: The Summit of Ambition (53:03)
  This episode plots the unending ambition of the young self-appointed Emperor. Not only the most powerful man in France and probably all of Europe, Napoleon now also begins to believe his own carefully-spun propaganda, believing that he is invincible. Great Britain lies a constant threat to his realm - and also a constant temptation to cement his conquest of Europe complete. Or does it, for indeed the rest of Europe continues to be in a state of flux. Despite an earlier treaty struck with Austria, a new alliance has now formed between the Austrians and the mighty Russia, now moving against France. And so Napoleon must mobilise the military on a large scale, taking his "Great Army" of some 260,000 men (still outnumbered by a combined Austrian/Russian army by a factor of 2:1). This led to the Battle of Pratzen Heights, in Austerlitz, and one of Napoleon's most accomplished military victories. This battle of the Great Army against vastly outnumbering combined Austrian/Russian allies was to be one of the most decisive victories for the young Emperor to date, proving beyond doubt what a brilliant military tactician he was. Next to fall was Prussia, and a somewhat too-easily-won peace treaty with Russia. Yet both Great Britain and Russia were not defeated and remained threats.
• Episode 4: The End (54:43)
  Despite his prowess as a military tactician, it was to be Napoleon's ultimate arrogance and pride that brought about his downfall. On a quest for yet more territory and power, Napoleon was to suffer a major reality check when attempting to curb Spain into his empire. The Spanish fought passionately and ferociously and the ensuing war was a bloody, terrible, no holds barred affair in which both sides were the perpetrators of tremendous acts of cruelty and aggression. This was a far cry from Napoleon's previous glorious, celebrated battles. Napoleon loses all sense of proportion; he would not give up, yet he was unsuccessful in breaking the will of the Spanish people. In 1812, with Russia rebelling, Napoleon invades with an army of some 600,000 men - the largest invasion force ever seen - and sets about on an incredibly long, arduous and relentless march in the heat of summer. A bloody battle for Moscow is eventually won, but at great cost and proves to be a completely hollow victory. Napoleon witnesses his mighty army slowly dying from warfare, the heat, starvation and then the cold of the Russian winter. He abandons his own army, now dwindled down to a mere 93,000 men, and returns to Paris. With the rest of Europe allied against him, Napoleon is helpless to see Paris fall to the enemy in 1814 and so he renounces his throne, being exiled to the Isle of Elba on the Mediterranean. But he wasn't exiled far enough away, and escapes back to France the following year, incredibly winning back the heart of the French military against the unpopular and weak caretaker French ruler. With all of Europe yet again allied against the now seemingly indestructible Napoleon, the 45 year-old Emperor marches to the battlefield of Waterloo, in Belgium, to battle his Great British adversary, the aspiring Duke of Wellington, and so meet his destiny. Napoleon would eventually die a sad, defeated man, exiled and imprisoned on the Isle of St Helena, a remote island in the Atlantic.

    Regardless of what you may think of Napoleon, he was undeniably one of the greatest military strategists who ever lived. He was also one of the world's most powerful men, controlling in his time a mighty empire spanning at its peak the majority of Europe. But above all this, Napoleon's was a fascinating life and this documentary tells that life story with conviction and even-handedness. It makes for riveting viewing.

    One final comment re the lack of chapter markers: As with all the other DVDs in the Empires series, by oversight there is a lack of adequate chapter markers on these DVDs. In the case of Napoleon, there are in fact no chapter markers at all (that is, a single chapter covers each entire episode). This is a bad oversight, as there are clearly differentiated subtopics and section breaks when watching the programme that should have been used for chapters. As it is, there is no quick access available to any of the key sections within each episode, so if you want to find a particular section, you have to manually search through the episode from the beginning until you come across it. Annoying.

Video

    The presented aspect ratio for this DVD is the original 1.78:1, as screened on SBS TV, but as stated the transfer is NOT 16x9 enhanced. Consequently sharpness, grain and the like is marginally worse off, as we have to zoom in to the image to fill a widescreen display.

    Sharpness is generally quite high (and would have been great with 16x9 enhancement) and this is as we would expect of a fairly recently produced, decent budget documentary series. Most scenes in the transfer offer quite pleasing levels of detail in both foreground and background resolution, with only some grain evident throughout (again, grain would not have been nearly as noticeable an issue if the transfer was 16x9 enhanced). Most scenes also offer a perfectly sufficient level of shadow detail and no low level noise. As has been the case for all other DVD releases in this series however, there is noticeably more grain evident in the low light scenes (evidently a source issue) and as a result there is softer resolution and the occasional low level noise issue in these scenes. Still, as the vast majority of the action in this documentary is either re-enactments in daytime, well lit interview footage of  historians talking about the period, or footage pouring over paintings and artworks of the time to illustrate a certain battle or point under discussion, the low-light issues are not a significant detractor in this transfer and the vast majority of this DVD transfer boasts very good image quality.

    Colour is consistent and very well rendered, showcasing a varied colour palette that accentuates oranges and browns effectively. Skin tones are perfectly fine and black levels are quite solid, dropping off a bit only in the occasional low-light scene.

    As with previous releases in the Empires series, again there are virtually no artefacts to note at all. This is a clean and very well-handled transfer. MPEG artefacts are restricted to some minor pixelization noted in some scenes (a problem only highlighted by the lack of 16x9 enhancement). Film-to-video artefacts are restricted to only the most minor instances of near-aliasing, for examples on the gates of the Palace of Versailles (at Episode 1, 13:47), or on the window shutters (at Episode 2, 27:28). There are no film artefacts at all, other than the aforementioned visible grain in the low-light scenes.

    The English for the Hearing Impaired subtitle language stream is clear, well timed and accurate. However there is the same complaint with placement of these subtitles as has been made in respect of the other DVDs in this series lacking 16x9 enhancement, that is the complaint in respect of the poor placement of the bottom line of subtitles below the bottom of the 1.78 image. This means that if attempting to watch this transfer on a widescreen TV in "cinema mode" or equivalent zoomed-in mode in order to fill the screen, you will find you are missing the bottom line of subtitles - very annoying indeed, as this documentary contains a good proportion of French language narration used throughout. The best compromise, if watching this DVD on a widescreen TV, is to watch in "14:9" mode.

    Both discs in this set are single-layered, so there is no layer change to note.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     As with previous releases in the series, the quality of the audio transfer is again very high, featuring a perfectly sufficient English Dolby Digital 2.0 track (this time encoded at the maximum rate 448Kb/s).

    Dialogue quality cannot be faulted at all; the narrator (David McCullough) is engaging, interesting and enunciates very clearly throughout. I had no issues with the audio sync.

    The music score is appropriate, lending well to the context (although I was sick of the main theme by the end of the documentary!). The DVD's audio transfer handles the music score clearly across the range.

    Whilst this does not appear to be a specifically surround-flagged audio track, there is a bit of information for the Dolby Pro LogicII decoder to matrix to the rear speakers. It picks up a nice amount of music and ambience for the rear speakers for a good portion of the feature. Of course at other times of pure narration - a good majority of the feature - the surrounds remain effectively silent.

    Subwoofer use (depending on your amp's bass management settings) is minimal, but in my setup effective enough for things like cannon blasts, of which there are a few in this documentary.
   

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu   

    After a short main menu introduction sequence, being animated with audio in 1.78:1 (but not 16x9 enhanced), the main menu for this DVD itself is static, presented in 1.33:1 and with (somewhat repetitive) audio underscore. The menu design is sufficient for the basic job at hand.

    Yet another authoritative, well-researched and highly enlightening documentary in the Empires series. This one is a two-disc set, spanning four one-hour episodes that comprehensively covers the history of the life of Napoleon Bonaparte. Regardless of what you may think of the young Emperor, the events of his life make for fascinating history, and this very well written and well produced documentary simply makes for riveting viewing. Another highly recommended title in this series.

    Video quality is good, although annoyingly hindered this time (again) by a lack of 16x9 enhancement.

    Audio quality is very good.

    As with all the DVDs in this series, there are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall