Napoleon (15)

Dir: Ridley Scott

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Tahar Rahim, Ben Miles, Rupert Everett, Paul Rhys, Matthew Needham

Ridley Scott’s historical epic is meandering and uninspired despite some spectacularly bloody battle sequences

Having directed a handful of the most iconic movies in the last few decades, Ridley Scott will no doubt go down in cinema history as one of the great British filmmakers of his generation. Despite already having a legacy to live on, it is great to see that the Geordie director still continues to work to this day, and with a forthcoming Gladiator sequel on the horizon, the 86 year-old shows no signs of slowing down.

Having said that, the quality of Scott’s movies have started to diminish over the years, as his films have become very hit-or-miss, both with critics and at the box-office. This was very evident in 2021, a year in which Scott directed and released two big-budget movies, House of Gucci and The Last Duel. The films could hardly be much more different, one focused on the glitz and glamour of an iconic fashion power house, whilst the other took place amongst the mud and turmoil of 14th century France. House of Gucci was scrutinised by critics, who mostly agreed that the film was purely held together by Lady Gaga’s central performance, and the film would go on to just about break even at the box office. The Last Duel, on the other hand, was a fantastic and timely historical epic, a genre Scott has excelled in the past. However, financially it was a huge flop, losing around $200 million of its production budget.

It was these inconsistences with Scott’s latest outings in the directors chair that left me sceptical going into my screening for ‘Napoleon‘ but knowing Scott has a penchant for making historical epics, on top of having two fantastic lead actors in Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby, I was hoping he could turn things round.

The film opens in 1793, amid the French Revolution, where we are introduced to a young, 24 year-old Napoleon Bonaparte (Joaquin Phoenix), as he watches Queen Marie Antoinette beheaded by Guillotine. Napoleon is an artillery commander, with a keen intellect for strategy, whose career aspirations eclipse that of his personal ones. On the battlefield he is a man of opportunity, always seeking advantage as he capitalises on his military conquests to eventually become emperor of France.

In order to further his career and legacy with the French public, Napoleon marries a prisoner released by one of his military coups, the widowed Josephine (Vanessa Kirby). The couple’s relationship becomes central to the film’s structure as their courtship plays out almost like a battle itself, with both parties struggling for power over the other. Napoleon is desperate for an heir to carry on his legacy but despite countless efforts, Josephine is unable to produce one, much to his chagrin as he begins to question her loyalties to him.

There are two huge positives to take away from this latest attempt of bringing Napoleon to life on the big screen, the first being Vanessa Kirby. She is a real tour de force here, as her portrayal of Josephine continuously emasculates Napoleon, knowing very well that when he is not on the battleground, he is a weak and fragile man. There relationship at times almost plays out like that of a mother and son, as they seem co-dependant but it is always Josephine who appears to have the upper hand. I found it very difficult however, to fully invest in Phoenix’s performance as Napoleon himself. Whilst I do feel he does all that is asked of him to portray these two contrasting sides to the infamous French commander, I see too much of Phoenix himself in the performance. There is no questioning his ability as an actor, but over the years Phoenix has come across increasingly shy and awkward when in the public eye, so when I see his depiction of Napoleon come across this way, I found it difficult to separate the character from the actor – unless you call that perfect casting.

The second and main positive from the otherwise plodding epic is the battle sequences themselves. You can go back to likes of Gladiator or even Kingdom of Heaven to know that Ridley Scott is masterful at crafting bloody and immersive battle scenes on a large scale, and this is further showcased here. The brutality and visceral nature of the four or five battle set pieces that play out is awe-inspiring, as you can almost smell the blood and dirt that is covering the grounds. They also manage to give a true indication of how brilliant Napoleon was as a military tactician, making the right moves at the right time despite the heavy losses his armies would often suffer – something which is highlighted at the end of the film. This all culminates in the tense and strategic Battle of Waterloo, where the more offensive minded Napoleon tries to get the better of the defensive tactician, The Duke of Wellington, played by the scene-chewing Rupert Everett.

The set pieces aside, however, this is a very drab affair. At almost three hours in length, the film trots along like a wounded horse, with no real sense of purpose or deeper meaning. My biggest issue with the film is that it is just way too generic, as it plays out like countless other historical dramas or epics that have come before it. It is almost like screenwriter, David Scarpa, spent a night scrolling through Wikipedia and jotting down any moment in Napoleon’s eventful life that may catch the audiences attention. This results in an egregiously mediocre lesson in French history and it is a resounding bore.

The most confusing element of the film is having the whole narrative play out in the English language. I was not surprised that every single line of dialogue in the film is in English in spite of its French setting, as this is very common in British and American productions, particularly with biopics. My main issue however, is that there are multiple nationalities depicted on screen throughout the movie’s runtime. It is very difficult to keep track of who exactly is at war or agreeing to terms of peace when every military general or government official has the same accent, with the exception of the American sounding Napoleon of course.

Scott clearly still has an eye for visual storytelling, particularly with large scale, action set-pieces, but ‘Napoleon‘ is hardly the return to form that I had hoped for the legendary director. Scott teams up with Scarpa once again for the aforementioned Gladiator sequel in 2024 and based on this outing, I am not confident we will see a turnaround any time soon.

Napoleon is now showing in UK Cinemas