Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” is aiming to effectively and accurately portray various aspects of the French leader, from his brilliant military strategies and decisive victories to his shortcomings and downfall.
That will include the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, which ended the Napoleonic Wars and saw Bonaparte exiled to the island of Saint Helena, where he died.
Over the years, historians have speculated that one of the reasons Napoleon lost at Waterloo was due to a health condition – namely, piles (hemorrhoids). The speculation was he was in so much pain he wasn’t able to think straight.
Scott tells Empire (via Slashfilm) he initially was going to depict this, but then changed his mind:
“Napoleon was a horseman, he suffered from piles. That’s varicose veins up your butt, right? I don’t have them, but they’re very, very painful, it ain’t funny. It’s like having a toothache up your butt. There’s nothing you can do.
We sense history might have been different had Napoleon not had a very bad attack of piles on the day of Waterloo. You heard this one? Okay. So I had him at Waterloo, sitting on the loo, and it’s pouring with rain outside, and he does his business. He gets up, looks in the loo, and there is blood.
Then he does the day in battle, sweating and in agony with the piles. David [Scarpa, the screenwriter] said, ‘Isn’t this rather undignified?’ I said, ‘Maybe, but it’s accurate.’ But we took it out of the movie because it became too distracting.”
if only people cursed with hemorrhoids could excise them so easily. Of course, the French were outnumbered by the Seventh Coalition so the battle was likely lost in any case.
Scott’s film stars Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby, clocks in at 158 minutes, and is due out in cinemas on November 22nd.
