Cinema Science

I somehow came across the the official Stanley Kubrick website tonight and became excited by the prospect of Kubrick's plans for his unfilmed Napoleon script to be published. As I continued to read this story I realized that it was from 2002 and there was little hope five years later for it to actually be released. Intrigued I came across this story from Salon.com about the same film that went into great detail about the film. I could recap what it says but there is much too many interesting details about the preproduction and eventual downfall of the film in the article. Towards the end they actually give a little insight into what the actual script is like, even describing a few scenes.

An old man stumbles from a house, brandishing a pitchfork and babbling insanely. Napoleon's soldiers laugh at him, until the old man runs through a soldier with his pitchfork. An officer executes the old man with a pistol, but in the act of doing so blows off the hand of one of his own soldiers.

Marching 1,000 miles home through a terrible winter, Napoleon's army becomes "a starving, feverish mob, without purpose." Then follows an incredible scene in a Russian village, in which officers and soldiers try to fend off the winter freeze by squashing themselves into a tiny house with their horses. They blockade themselves in to stop the other soldiers left outside to die from fighting their way in. But then a fire breaks out and those inside are unable to escape the flames. Other men rush forward from where they have been huddling in an open field to warm themselves, and cook horsemeat on the ends of their swords.

They also end their article with a quote from Kubrick about his planned vision for the film.

"There's a weird disparity between the sheer visual and organizational beauty of the historical battles and their human consequences," Kubrick said. "It's rather like watching two golden eagles soaring through the sky from a distance; they may be tearing a dove to pieces, but if you are far enough away the scene is still beautiful."