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I'm almost inclined to view Napolean as a force of nature rather than as "good" or "bad."
He was a man of incredible talent, incredible will, he was both a man of action and intellectually a total mensch. Thus, anyone who wants to achieve something in the world, can profit from studying his life.
But, what he accomplished, he accomplished for his own visions. The results were in the end catastrophic for the men who followed him, as they starved and froze to death in the Russian winter. The results for France itself were a mixed bag.
But it is hard for me to cry too many tears about the fate of his followers or of his victims. The institutions that fell were old and rotting. The men who followed him, chose to do so, if they were captivated by his amoral visions of conquest and were willing to subjugate themselves to his vision, then I cannot say they deserved better. We all die in the end.
I haven't seen the movie and don't intend to after reading the American Sun review and others. From what I've heard the main problem is that they turned one of the most charismatic men in history into a mumbling bumbling clingy loser.
Strangely I found that review very funny and largely accurate, but I also enjoyed the movie.
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AFAICT Napoleon drafted 60k-120k people every year during the wars.
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What would you say made them amoral?
Amoral means that a choice was made without reference to morality. Immoral means that it is contrary to morality. If Napoleon was motivated solely by glory, his decisions were amoral. They may also have been immoral - that depends on what your moral code is, because Napoleon didn't have one.
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This is much how I feel as well. I can't bring myself to particularly like or dislike him, or take a side between his followers and detractors, it's more of a feeling of being very impressed from a far distance.
I'll say I think it was still a decent enough movie, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed it after reading angry reviews like the one linked. Certainly not an incredible movie, and one that'll drive hardcore fans mad, but a decent enough way to spend a few hours.
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