Napoleon, 1812
The Road to Moscow
Video Review
Reviewed by John Walsh
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Supplier: Campaigns in History. Cromwell Films Ltd.
I couldn't wait to get my hands on this video. Going by the adverts it seemed a dream come true. Sadly, the reality turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. It runs for sixty minutes, beginning with three minutes of exciting previews of other videos in the series. My excitement however was soon dampened. The sound in parts was almost inaudible, especially the speeches by Dr. Chandler, and in several places the film reminded me of a well used video. Still there was always the `state of the art' 3-D graphics. But don't blink or you'll miss them. I felt wargames figures and scenarios would have served better than what was offered. On the plus side are the clips from director Sergi Bunderchuk's Oscar winning film War and Peace. I enjoyed these and would have liked more. In fact, I think I would have preferred a video of the film. Still, never mind, there were some very interesting shots of period paintings, some I'd never seen before. Dr. Chandler also offered a novel way of describing the amount of casualties suffered at Borodino. He tells us to imagine a full Jumbo jet crashing every five minutes, non-stop for eight hours, in a five mile area, without a survivor. Yes, well, why not? However, I did wonder what had happened to the `modern reenactment' bits? I expected members from reenactment societies showing us drill and musket firing. Instead, apart from the thousands of film extras, we are given Dominique Carrara, dressed in Napoleonic uniform, acting as Sergeant Bourgogne. He speaks in French while Robert Powell spoils the effect by translating what he says at the same time. Subtitles here would have served better. With the video came a 96 page book. And like the video it's another disappointment. Although it contained some interesting drawings (those that were clear enough) and the 1812 `Grande Armee' list, it was, in fact, basically a repeat of the video script. If you're new to the period or haven't read much, I'd say, yes, buy it. It might just inspire you to purchase Sergeant Bourgogne's excellent autobiography, or The Campaigns of Napoleon by Dr. Chandler himself, to name but two. Sadly, I don't honestly think it will persuade you to fork out for the other Napoleonic videos in the series, namely Austerlitz and Waterloo. This, to me, is the greatest disappointment. More reviews
Napoleon, 1812: The Road to Moscow (Video Review 2) Hanau 1813: No. 7 (Book) Back to Table of Contents -- First Empire #9 Back to First Empire List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1992 by First Empire. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com |