The film in general favors the French historical perspective. This is clear from, if nothing else, the depiction of the Prussians, who with their black flags and uniforms and foreboding music are as close to "villains" you can get in the film. As for Napoleon's "illness," while the film may have been foreshadowing his eventual death from stomach cancer, there is no evidence that Napoleon was in great pain at Waterloo and had to leave the field to recover, leaving command in the hands of the less competent Ney.

Marshal Ney is blamed for not pursuing Wellington's defeated army after Quatre Bras, squandering Napoleon's victory at Ligny. In fact the result of Quatre Bras was not a French victory but a stalemate, with Wellington only withdrawing after the Prussian defeat at Ligny. There was never any real chance of Ney charging after a retreating Wellington, and Napoleon himself tarried and did not issue orders for a pursuit until the next day. While Ney's skill throughout the Waterloo campaign was less than exemplary, this particular criticism cannot be leveled at him. One point on which the film does justly criticize him is his command of the French cavalry at Waterloo, which launched costly and ultimately ineffective attacks on British infantry formed into squares. However, while Napoleon in the movie outright condemns this assault as idiotic, historically, while disagreeing with the timing of the attack, he did not stop it. In fact he contributed to it, ordering more French cavalry into the assault. The film also depicts the "ravine of death" into which the French cavalry supposedly plunged to their doom, which is a myth invented by French author Victor Hugo.

However, perhaps the greatest blame for Napoleon's defeat is laid on Marshal Grouchy for failing to turn up at the battle (he is depicted lazily eating strawberries while refusing General Gérard's entreaties to march on Waterloo). In truth, Napoleon made numerous strategic and tactical mistakes. Not only was it Napoleon who dispatched Grouchy to follow Blücher in the first place, he sent him additional orders at 10:00am, barely an hour before the battle began, to march on Wavre. Grouchy was a generally competent but unimaginative commander who followed his orders to the letter, and Napoleon knew that about him before making him a marshal. In fact this was a trend with Napoleon, almost all of whose marshals were either generally competent but not brilliant commanders (Grouchy, Soult) or were full of dash, daring and personal bravery, but lacking in tactical or strategic thinking (Ney, Murat). The exceptions being the extremely talented Davout and Suchet.
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