Ridley Scott s Battle With Critics

Ridley Scott's Battle With Historical Fiction Critics Won't Stop At Napoleon
BY
CHRISTIAN PETROZZA
01/16/24
Time and time again, seasoned director Sir Ridley Scott crosses swords with historians as he creates historical fictions like Napoleon and Gladiator 2

Ridley Scott and Napoleon
Quick Links
Grit and Romance In Napoleon and Ridley Scott's Other Films
Ridley's Historical Fictions Are Unfairly Battered
The Spirit of History is Ridley Scott's Vision
SUMMARY
 Since his first feature film, Ridley Scott has captured the gritty essence and romantic spirit of many periods.
 Time and time again, critics of his historical fiction pan him and have tried to ruin him.
 Ridley understands that capturing the spirit of the period, not mirroring it, is the realm of the cinematic medium.

Sir Ridley Scott recently released Napoleon, yet another film in the historical fiction genre. Although he is widely known for his epic forays into science fiction with the likes of Blade Runner and Alien, it's clear that Scott's passion lies in historical fiction epics. With announcements of a second Gladiator film being filmed, it's clear Ridley Scott is ready and raring to make the kind of films he loves after lots of breaks as a producer on franchises like Alien and many historical television projects. Unfortunately for Scott, his favorite genre has always been followed by a mob of scrutinizing historians, of both academic and armchair persuasions, which chase and chastise his every creative stroke. Every time this has happened, it opens a fascinating study on why these critics believed his exciting and engaging style of film is wrong for the genre, instead of understanding what Ridley Scott is about with his storytelling as a whole, and what that does for the periods represented in Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, The Last Duel, and Napoleon, to name a few.


Ridley's career began with directing commercials and eventually led to some big brands like Apple. His debut feature film at Cannes was the historical fiction The Duelist which took place during the Napoleonic wars. His former skills as a commercial director, and painter, and his passion for art of the era were already well-practiced and on display in the film and translated seamlessly into his desire to make a film on the life of Napoleon Bonaparte. Of course, being 85 years old and seasoned in his craft, Sir Ridley Scott has been open about his aversion to critics about his representation of history and often inflamed them with his "You weren't there, so how do you know?" type of argument. Although his responses to these critics have been stark and salty, there is a lot lost to the sourness of these critics which fail to understand how Sir Ridley Scott's historical fictions inspire interest and research because of how he immerses audiences in the periods he's chosen With mystique and cautious excitement over a sequel to Ridley's Iconic film Gladiator, what else would critics of his history-based fiction miss in their premature thoughts to a film yet to be released? To understand it it's important to delve into the spirit behind Sir Ridley Scott's epics to see that he isn't doing this with wanton disregard, but with calculated and seasoned experience.


Grit and Romance In Napoleon and Ridley Scott's Other Films
Napoleon Bonaparte watching the Battle of Austerlitz
Joaquin Phoenix plays Napoleon in Ridley Scott biopic.
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Napoleon Rotten Tomato Score: 58%
Ridley's early career in commercial directing honed his skills in creating spellbinding, suspenseful, and seductive imagery to keep audiences engaged time and time again in classics like Blade Runner, Alien, and Gladiator. Once he debuted his first film, The Duelist, he displayed a masterful balance of how to show romanticized themes like dueling and the pageantry of the Napoleonic era whilst still dipping into its savagery by showing the intensity and violence behind the cavalier culture of honor. In that same respect, he found a realism amid the romance. Napoleon did the same but at a greater scale, and with that era's central figure, played by Joaquin Phoenix. Although the runtime of Napoleon almost hits the three-hour mark, there is no doubt Sir Ridley Scott plans to release one of his famous director's cuts to display a greater narrative scale and length in which he would have wished to release his film. Alongside combating history critics, Sir Ridley Scott constantly had to combat producers and distribution companies to release cuts of his films that truly captured the intent of the stories he wished to tell. Often leading to great narrative and script changes that alter character development and the storytelling in a detrimental way.

One of Ridley's lesser-seen director's cuts perfectly exemplifies how important its theatrical cut hurt a masterpiece. 2005's Kingdom of Heaven with a star-studded cast of Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, Eva Green, Jeremy Irons, and David Thewlis told the story of a fictional blacksmith who finds his way to the Holy Land during the Crusades and becomes a knight. The blacksmith then discovered the ambiguity of religion and morality as he faced villains and heroes from both sides of the conflict. The theatrical cut forced Ridley to remove any development of Orlando Bloom's leading role as Balian, not to mention a huge amount of editing that cut out a whole storyline with Eva Green's Sybilla. The director's cut eventually re-implemented these major shifts and it remained a hidden gem masterpiece to many fans of Ridley Scott's work. This film became one of many that would re-ignite not only his passion for making historical fiction again but also keep him stalwart in his artistic decisions when it came to merging history and art into a single medium.


Ridley's Historical Fictions Are Unfairly Battered


Ridley Scott Blasts Historians Over Napoleon Complaints: 'Shut the F— Up'
Ridley Scott is firing back at historians who have issues with his Napoleon movie.
Ridley Scott's Historical Films Before Napoleon



It's been a long-standing tradition of academic and armchair historians to pan Ridley Scott's artistic representations of periods in his historical epics. The greatest issue with placing harsh critiques upon the inaccuracies in a cinematic medium is leaving behind the essential idea of intent. Historical fiction is just that, fiction, based on a historical timeline, which is left up to the creators to pick and choose what they wish to embellish and what they wish to leave behind. So long as a film is not trying to act as a documentary piece, which Napoleon, Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, and The Last Duel hardly are. They should be seen as narrative entertainment that inspires viewers to enjoy, ponder, research, and read up on history should it have enough impact to intrigue them. Another problem with the sniping of historical details that Scott would have altered or left out in Napoleon and his other historical epics is that many were made premature to many critics screening the film. Such premature criticism has led to dangerous circumstances in Ridley's other projects.


During the shooting of Kingdom of Heaven whilst he was shooting in Morocco, word had got out that the film took place during the crusades, however, that fact alone, without any access to the script at all, inflamed some extreme criticism, which led to the King of Morocco granting Ridley bodyguards to accompany him throughout the rest of his shoot since he had received threats. Ironically, Ridley Scott's film was very much about showing respect to those who tried to do good, on both sides and made sure the key role of Saladin was played by a culturally-appropriate actor, the Syrian-born Ghassan Massoud. Although this is a more extreme example of where criticism of his historical films has gone in the past, it's important to note that premature criticism of a film such as Napoleon. The criticism didn't serve any other purpose than to discredit the freedom an artist has to paint their works with their brush. As the official release of Gladiator 2 is just short of a year away, will there be more scrutiny about a post-Commodus Rome as Pertinax takes the laurel of the emperor? It's not likely anyone will mind what is glazed over in broader factual strokes as long as there are gladiators, the arena, and marching Romans to liven up the big screen.


The Spirit of History is Ridley Scott's Vision
Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon holds his crown in the air
Ridley Scott's Napoleon
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Along with his films, Ridley Scott has acted as a producer on multiple historical tv series.
In a time when looking up the facts is so easy that it becomes trivial interest for a moment before scrolling TikTok, it's more important than ever to engage audiences with captivating scenes, relevant themes, and dramatic moments. Throughout television and film, Ridley Scott has made it his mission to create exciting and interesting historical fiction pieces. As a producer he has taken part in producing shows like The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, a fantastic pair of drama-filled mini-series highlighting the construction of a medieval English cathedral. He has also taken part in producing Taboo, a dark revenge tale that depicted the consequences of England's colonial ventures in the Regency Era. Although not directly a creative lead, it's clear his heart and producing capital favor complex and richly-made media that would give light to unique parts of history.


Sir Ridley Scott has had a penchant for being harsh to his critics, and some of his approaches seem antiquated. Even so, he has also used historical fiction as a platform to tell stories relevant to contemporary themes, which is essential for remaining relevant as an artist of any kind. The Last Duel was a dark and serious introspective on gendered violence and the legal ramifications therein. Napoleon, of course, says more about the hypocrisy of revolutionary politics. In making these films relevant, the creative license required to make artful historical fiction becomes essential for touching the hearts and minds of viewers. Sir Ridley Scott uses the very spirit of the time in the imagery, gathered from hundreds of works of art displaying Napoleon in portraiture and his life events and campaigns. He has done everything possible to bring those moments to life in great detail, whilst also allowing the dirt, blood, obsession, and brutality of war and empire to show the terrible truth behind Napoleon's victories and defeats. With the coming of Gladiator 2 in just under a year, it has become clear that Ridley Scott still has plenty to deliver to the historical fiction genre.