“Napoleon” Review
Joaquin Phoenix slips into the oversized hat of Napoleon Bonaparte in “Napoleon”, a grand historical epic from director Ridley Scott.
Out of all the great historical figures (I use great in terms of impact not in terms of morality), it’s odd that we’ve never really had one about Napoleon Bonaparte. After all, he did conquer most of Europe and left a profound legacy as a military genius and world leader while having one of the most insane ends of all time with his two exiles and the Battle of Waterloo. Not to say that there haven’t been attempts or depictions of Napoleon in films before this. One of the greatest historical epics of all time is the 1970 Soviet/Italian film “Waterloo” which stunningly depicts the legendary battle. However, its lack of success at the box office pretty much killed any producer’s interest in making a full-fledged Napoleon biopic that Stanley Kubrick desperately wanted to make.
And, of course, we cannot forget about the dignified portrayals of the French Emperor by Terry Camilleri and Alain Chabat in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” and “Night at the Museum: The Battle of Smithsonian” respectively. But we’ve never had a big biopic to suit the famed leader. Now, director Ridley Scott has come to conquer cinemas with his latest epic film that attempts to take on the life of Napoleon Bonaparte and, while it does fall short compared to other epics of Scott’s like “Gladiator” and “The Last Duel”, “Napoleon” is still a worthwhile biopic that is worth seeing on the largest screen in your area.
Depicting the life of Napoleon Bonaparte (Joaquin Phoenix) from his earliest military triumphs in a nation rocked by the French Revolution all the way to his final days in exile on the island of St. Helena, the film not only details his triumphs and defeats as a leader but also dives into his personal life. With the marriage of Bonaparte and Joséphine de Beauharnais (Vanessa Kirby) being a strong focus, “Napoleon” shows how the chaos of his life and the chaos of his rule fed each other and engulfed the world in numerous wars and set the stage for the military might of the 19th Century.
Joaquin Phoenix is clearly one of the great actors of our time and, with his last collaboration with Ridley Scott producing one bastard of a villain with Commodus in “Gladiator”, there has certainly been much anticipation for his turn as the French Emperor. Phoenix certainly doesn’t disappoint and, whether he’s a lowly army officer at the film’s beginning or Emperor at its end, there’s always such a strong feeling of conviction with this performance. Seeing Napoleon’s ego slowly rise to the point of absurdity is so fascinating and you know that it is built on incredible genius and strategy. Regardless of how you feel about Napoleon, you can’t deny his talents and Phoenix manages to capture both the admirable and deplorable elements of this larger-than-life man while still finding his humanity.
Dominating the screen is Vanessa Kirby as the Empress Joséphine, Napoleon’s wife who proves to be just as crafty and cunning as her husband.
Also giving an incredible performance is Vanessa Kirby who dominates every scene she’s in as Joséphine. By making such a strong emotional relationship as the core of the film, the story is all the more interesting because you can get a sense of what Napoleon is fighting for. He’s not just conquering all he sees for the nation that he loves, he’s doing it for a woman that he deeply loves but their relationship is anything but tranquil. This is a marriage from hell with both Kirby and Phoenix being loving and vindictive to each other sometimes in the same scene. However, “Napoleon” actually tricks us at first by making it appear that Napoleon is going to be the domineering one only for Joséphine to turn the tables by making him say that he’s nothing without her. The chemistry between these two is unbelievable because you do feel that they love each other but you also want them to be as far apart as possible before punches start flying.
In today’s modern cinematic landscape, CGI is going to be used to expand the size of armies. Gone are the days when people like Cecil B. DeMille, David Lean and Sergei Bondarchuk could get thousands of extras to stand in front of a camera in sweeping epic shots. However, you can still tell that Ridley Scott recruited hundreds of people as extras and that he was quite concerned with the practicality of the battle sequences which are amazing. With iconic battles of the Napoleonic Wars like the siege of Toulon, the Battle of Austerlitz and the Battle of Waterloo being depicted, Scott is able to rise to the challenge and make such adrenaline-inducing conflicts that rival superhero films or big-budget action franchises.
With a good balance of Napoleon as we know him and what’s going on behind closed doors, there’s certainly a lot to love about this epic albeit if you can stomach some historical inaccuracies (which are nothing compared to the laughable “history” of films like “Braveheart”, “The Patriot” and “Pearl Harbor”). However, I don’t think that “Napoleon” is Ridley Scott’s best effort in the historical epic genre, especially when compared to the underrated “The Last Duel”.
The film’s narrative structure feels driven more by trying to touch all of the bases of Napoleon’s life as opposed to having a more flowing story. In particular, the second act depicts him on top as the emperor goes on for too long with not enough threats to his power, especially in his court. However, it’s still Ridley Scott taking on the historical biopic and I’m certainly on board for that. It’s big, it’s epic and you feel this weight of Napoleon’s legacy, especially when the film brings up the cost of the Napoleonic Wars in human lives.
If you’re the kind of person that loves seeing cinema being pushed to its limits with sweeping battles and such epic storytelling, then “Napoleon” is a good entry in a year filled with historic films like “Oppenheimer” and “Killers of the Flower Moon”. While we’ll always wonder what could have been if Stanley Kubrick got to make his own Napoleon biopic, there’s no doubt that Ridley Scott’s version is worthy of the history it’s depicting.
