Robert Whelan

With the Peninsular War still raging, Napoleon made a fateful decision in 1812 when he turned his attentions east and the Grand Army began an invasion of Russia. Nothing could have prepared them for what lay ahead as they marched slowly towards Moscow. Little did they know that of the half a million men who crossed the Russian border, fewer than fifty thousand would ever see their homeland again. This episode tells the story of Napoleon's greatest mistake his ill fated Russian adventure that spelt the beginning of the end for the Emperor. The episode includes the story of the bloody Battle of Borodino and the appalling horrors of the French retreat from Moscow.

By the year 1800, Napoleon's political career was in full swing but as First Consul he was hardly a man of the people - by a stroke of outrageous good fortune he even survived an assassination attempt on Christmas Eve 1800. This gave him the perfect excuse to eliminate several political enemies and tighten his grip on a tumultuous nation. This episode covers Napoleon's golden era - his rise to Emperor in 1804 and his remarkable military victories at Austerlitz, Eylau and Ulm. By 1808 the Emperor of France was just a short step away from becoming the Emperor of Europe.

This is the final chapter of Napoleon Bonaparte's extraordinary life - chapter that begins with his enforced exile on the island of Elba. He busied himself building forts and bridges, winning the support of the local population and making plans for a return to France. When he did return, it was to an ecstatic welcome from his former troops and it was not long before he was reinstated as Emperor and at war once again. But there was to be no glorious ending to the tale. Instead it ended in spectacular and bloody failure in June 1815 on the famous battlefield of Waterloo. Napoleon's old enemy the Duke of Wellington once again beat his forces and this time there was no way back. Napoleon died in exile on St. Helena just six years later, but the legend of his military genius had only just begun.

誰もが知っているアメコミのヒーローを巨費を投じて復活させた超娯楽作。素朴な田舎を背景に少年時代のスーパーマンを描いた、郷愁に満ちた序盤からデイリー・プラネットの記者として活躍する本編に入っても、暖かみを伴った面白さは一瞬たりとも揺らぐ事は無く、悪の天才レックス・ルーサーの陰謀を食い止めるクライマックスまで一気に見せきる。

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