I just watched a video on Napoleon's campaign in Russia in 1812. It was with a fair amount of trepidation that I prepared to review this film. The reason for this was that in the past the tapes that I have seen on subjects such as this by other producers have been amateurish and full of the worst kind of trivialized and mythicized history. The chance that viewing this would produce anything but a reaction on my part of slow torture seemed remote. I was sure that I would have nothing to show for my hour of time but a story or two of the horrors of popularized historical subjects. I was wrong! This film was a tremendous and pleasant surprise. The history was first rate. While there is little here of a ground breaking nature, those who put this film together clearly have a love of history and treat it with great respect. They are not afraid to give some of the nuts and bolts of the campaign which even the most scholarly of us would not remember without looking up. I have read several books on the 1812 campaign which had a much more difficult time coming to grips with the essence of truth in a thousand pages than Napoleon 1812 did in an hour. One of the most unexpected aspects of the film was how it managed to avoid some of the most popular myths of 1812. It was clear, for instance that the heat and bad roads on the advance did as much to destroy the Grande Armee as did the following cold weather. Perhaps the mistakes were avoided because original sources were used and are quoted throughout. The production value of the film is top rate. Clearly this was produced by professionals. The narrator is Robert Powell, well known film star. The action scenes are taken from the Russian version of War and Peace, and are interspliced with prints, maps and original scenes showing actors playing participants. I highly recommend this film for any of our readers. If the rest of the films in this series are up to this level, they should be picked up too. They may be a little bask for some of the readers of this magazine, but they will make a great gift for friends or relative. Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 2 No. 3 Back to EEL List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1993 by Emperor's Headquarters This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com