I just watched this again on UK TV. I like Antheil's score, BUT there is a slight anachronism, in the use of the Marseillaise. Didn't Napoleon more or less ban this Republican song when he made himself Emperor? Antheil uses it to denote the French settlers, but as they're Napoleon's soldiers, it's strictly speaking not appropriate. On a more general level, Napoleon is referred to in reverential tones, although he was really just a dictator.
shareThose soldiers who spoke so reverentially about Napoleon were, as you say, soldiers from Napoleon's armies, who rather than live in France under a Bourbon king, emigrated to America. So, it is really not that wonderful that they speak well of him.
As France had been the first country to recognize the fledgling American government, thus legitimizing it as an independent country in the eyes of the world, no American, at that time, would have had the bad taste to insult their new friends' leader and abdicated Emperor, even if their manners permitted such a lapse.
Damn solid given the cheese factor.
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