This was really Napoleon’s most epic battle

 

The criticism has been clear: Ridley Scott’s Napoleon is full of historical inaccuracies. From a scene in which Joaquin Phoenix shoots at the Great Pyramid of Giza to a moment in which the French army wins a battle by drowning the enemy under a frozen lake, the film has taken numerous licenses. The last scene is a recreation of the Battle of Austerlitz, which in reality occurred very differently from how it is shown in the film.

The real Battle of Austerlitz was a risky and audacious plan by Napoleon, and it involved defeating not one, but two emperors. The great tactic Napoleon used was not to drown his enemy, especially since the frozen lake was completely visible that day, without any layer of snow.

Instead, Napoleon tricked his enemy into believing that the French army was smaller and quite weak in the days before the battle. What’s more, he even feigned a retreat, abandoning the advantageous high ground, and deliberately wakened his right flank by deploying part of the French army to draw in the Russians and Austrians.