So did Napoleon really fire cannonballs at the Pyramids? Did he and the Duke of Wellington ever have a face-off? And was his bedroom technique a bit, well, lacking? Over to you, Professor Broers. ‘We’d all sit around the table and everyone would have their say,’ he says, ‘and “RS” would stop every so often, point at me and say: “Okay, you tell me what really happened.” That’s not to say that he was going to adhere to it, but he wants to know.’ One of academia’s leading Napoleon experts, Broers was hired as an historical consultant on the movie. To help run the rule over the historical veracity of some key moments in Boney’s life, we called on the man who helped Sir Ridley to put the bones onto his big-screen Bonaparte, Oxford University’s Professor Michael Broers. Well, at a risk of incurring the wrath of the legendary filmmaker, we’re taking a closer look at what in the film really happened – and what counts as artistic licence. The gist? If you weren’t there in person at Waterloo, the Paris Convention, Austerlitz, or any of the other key moments in Boneparte’s life, take a seat. Ridley Scott has been pretty crisp in his feelings for those who’ve dared nitpick the historical accuracy of Napoleon, his new big-screen epic about the life of France’s Emperor and military leader.
