The French Revolution (2005 TV Movie) User Reviews

A strange cry for liberty

[kaaber-2 · 4/10 · 16 December 2012]

I fully agree with the former commentators here that the film passes lightly over a complex chapter of history, but for one thing, it is hard to press matters down into two hours, even with a rapid-speaking narrator, and for another thing, I think the expert witnesses called in are very good indeed, and even take opposing views so as to represent at least part of the complexity of the subject matter.

Although I do prefer documentaries that don't stuff extras into costumes to portray historical characters, at least History Channel's The French Revolution don't give them lines to speak. Serious research really goes down the drain when that happens.

No, my major objection to this documentary is its parting words. They go: "Wherever tyranny takes root, the cry for justice can be heard: for liberty, for equality, for fraternity … for revolution!" And this comes in to close off a film that has (accurately, to my mind) depicted the French Revolution as a botched version of the American Revolution which inspired it. A revolution which started in the brutal murder of the innocent Launay who guarded the Bastille, and got gradually worse, what with the September massacres of defenseless prisoners, foreign wars and the wholesale slaughter of the various fractions of its fellow revolutionaries. The French Revolution in itself turned into the worst kind of tyranny imaginable. In spite of staying loyal to this view, and in spite of showing Robespierre off as a madman, the film still baffles me by its ending that seems to be written by someone who hasn't seen the film at all: "Wherever tyranny takes root, the cry for justice can be heard: for liberty, for equality, for fraternity … for revolution!"

I beg your pardon?

Myths and more myths...

[glenn1441 · 1/10 · 7 January 2007]

Yet another History Channel effort for the masses, 'The French Revolution' debuted at a time of strained relations (or public relations) between the states and France concerning US military action against Iraq. Advertisements for the documentary featured a larger than life image of the guillotine, along with a blurb that hints: surely the French can't be all that bad, having given the world such a highly efficient machine of death. The result is a pathetic turn of 'meat and potatoes' history as only can be served up by THC.

I must agree with most other reviewers that this documentary retells the events of one of the world's most complex and important revolutions in the broadest of terms. Accuracy is sacrificed to sensationalism, and the guillotine is the star of the show. Clearly the producers are pandering to what they believe to be a anti-French, bloodthirsty American public.

I must also counter one reviewer who claims that Marie Antoinette never wore elaborate hairstyles or extravagant gowns. Indeed she did, during the first 4-years or so of her reign. Countless paintings, prints and memoirs cannot be ignored. It was not until the 1780s that Marie Antoinette took on the simple cottons and printed muslin dresses so necessary to the rustic yet refined style of living she adopted at her private estate of Trianon.

Moreover, the queen nearly lost her ability to speak German , and this fact is well documented by several contemporaries, most notably the Baronne d'Oberkirch. Of all foreign princesses who married into the Bourbon dynasty, Marie Antoinette eventually spoke French with the greatest skill, and it was not long before she lost all traces of her Austrian German accent.

It seems that the French Revolution, and Marie Antoinette, continue to spawn myths and half-truths, and the History Channel, with its documentary, has done nothing to substantiate historical accuracy.