Napoleon Review: A Thrilling, Hilarious Historical Epic

Ridley Scott's Napoleon is an unexpected but pleasant surprise of violence, spectacle and humor. Like its infamous protagonist (played here by Joaquin Phoenix), the film is neither subtle nor pretentious. In the ominous opening scene, which follows the bloody aftermath of Marie Antoinette's beheading, Napoleon makes his intentions clear in advance. The film promises an intimate, no-nonsense look at one of the most tumultuous periods in European history, and it largely delivers. Its battles are as bloody and explosive as fans of Scott's previous epics, especially Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven , while the behind-the-scenes glimpses into the reign of its eponymous hero are funnier and darker than they might expect.

Napoleon is actually more comical and ironic than its trailer. It's a deliberately unusual film that doesn't dance in the years of Napoleon Bonaparte, it doesn't act in those years. The film's deliberately stiff approach hurts the second half, which is so truncated that it feels disappointingly small, but that's what makes the first hour of Napoleon so compelling. Scott and screenwriter David Scarpa show the characters' brutal attitudes toward war and love with such brutality that the result is one of the most refreshingly understated historical epics of recent times.

At a substantial but difficult 157 minutes , "Napoleon" attempts to trace the decades-long military and political career of its hero, from his successful capture of the French coastal city of Toulon to his famous defeat in battle . Waterloo. However, the plot of the film does not focus solely on his military career, but instead interweaves his political triumphs and defeats with the ups and downs of his marriage to Empress Josephine ( The Crown 's Vanessa Kirby). The relationship played by Kirby and Phoenix is ​​simultaneously passionate and selfish, rough and tender. That's what makes them powerful and shattering, Scarpa's provocative screenplay creating a devastating co-dependency that at times makes Napoleon feel like one of Paul Thomas Anderson's biting dramas (see Phantom Thread , Drunken Love ).

Josephine Kirby and Napoleon Phoenix have very little in common, including sexual chemistry, except for their mutual hunger and need for constant validation. Their relationship is the source of many of Napoleon's greatest and funniest moments, including a late-night argument scene that flips wildly between childish tantrums and tear-jerking, zen-like, whispered mutual ego-boosting moments. Few other movies this year have had such a funny montage effect that Phoenix's Scott yells at Kirby about his emotional needs, until he says he's "built differently than most men." (Other highlights include an argument between the two at the table that escalates into a brief food fight, ending with Napoleon exclaiming:

Not to be missed.

One of history's most ridiculous tyrants, Phoenix is ​​amazing. He portrays Napoleon not as a brilliant and admirable strategist and politician, but as a childish bastard whose lack of self-awareness and lack of reasoning allowed him to rise so quickly in the French hierarchy, blinding him to how others saw him: the other European leaders despised him. He is both terrified and in awe of the feminine power of the women in his life. Opposite her, Kirby is fascinating as Josephine, who knows full well how dangerous her situation is but cannot free herself from the social rules that limit her. Ultimately, the strength of Kirby's performance lies in how she conveys Josephine's simultaneous sadness, frustration, and resignation at the failure of her circumstances.

At times, Scott and Scarpa draw a very clear line between Napoleon's military career and his relationship with Josephine. However, the film's combination of action scenes and interpersonal drama works mostly well; Napoleon's various military victories and defeats are a powerful expression of his ambition and tenacity. Behind the camera, Scott crafts Napoleon's action sequences with confidence and skill, moving from wide shots of horses galloping across battlefields to closer shots of swords, gunfire, blood splatter and flying limbs. As always, Scott paints Napoleonic battle scenes with bold, broad strokes, maximalist portraits of chaos and violence.

The film proves once again that few directors can handle a film as big and heavy as Scott's. Together, he and cinematographer Dariusz Wolski ensure that Napoleon's three major battles are visually distinct. The Siege of Toulon presents an explosive, sweaty conquest that leaves all the combatants covered in dust and blood, using nighttime conditions and heavy mortars and cannons, while Scott makes the Battle of Austerlitz deliberately cold and callous. . among the snow-covered trees, inert bodies breaking up the ice and sinking below the surface of the frozen lake. The director, on the other hand, sets the film's climactic battle, the Battle of Waterloo, in an open, rainy field, depicting every moment of Napoleon's greatest defeat as directly and clearly as possible.

Napoleon's last stand helps bring the film to a fitting conclusion, and Scott's direction of this sequence is certainly impressive. But as Napoleon becomes more clumsy, he becomes more and more clumsy. After the 90-minute mark, the film is forced to recall as many moments from the hero's later career as possible, thereby losing the attitude, sense of humor and breadth of the first part. Things won't be the same in the four-and-a-half-hour version of the film, which Scott has already talked about.

In fact, it will likely be an improved version of Napoleon , Kingdom of Heaven and Blade Runner , directed by Scott. This version may even become the director's final masterpiece. Nevertheless, Napoleon is a hugely entertaining but flawed epic that, ironically, barely hits the mark of greatness by at least an hour.

Napoleone will be released in theaters nationwide on Wednesday, November 22.

Editor's recommendations

Napoleon may be Ridley Scott's best film since Gladiator.