I went to see it in the cinema, hoping for greatness. When I put the words Ridley Scott and Napoleon together in my head, the result was awesome… but what I found on the screen was… odd.
The cinematography of the film is gorgeous. There are many places where you could pause the movie and the frame has composition worth of a master painter. I love the unabashed darkness of the interior night scenes. This was a period lit by candlelight. And it didn’t tell you that. It made you feel it. Maybe only film can convey what this was really like.
The battle scenes were amazing. I’ve never seen anything like the cavalry v. infantry square scene. I have no idea how they got that sequence and part of it looked like a camera operator gave his life to get the shot.
All that being said, I respect and understand the choices that David Scarpa (screenwriter) and Ridley Scott made with the story, but I don’t like them. I say respect, because you have to remember the fundamental problem with doing a 2h30m film about Napoleon. It doesn’t all fit. So you have to make choices.
One of the trailers used the tagline “Long Live the Warrior, Emperor, General, Genius, Rebel, Tyrant.” The historical Napoleon was all of these things. Plus a brilliant administrator and that rarest and most unlikely of things, a benevolent tyrant.
You can’t fit all that into two-and-a-half hours. Here’s what Scarpa said about the task.
It was an almost impossible story to tell just in terms of the sheer sprawl of what Napoleon had done and his influence on European history and 45 battles fought and essentially writing the Code Napoleon, which is the basis of much of continental European society. So it would be almost impossible to tell the definitive version of that story within two and a half hours
So you’ve got to find some way to whittle it all down. Scarpa again:
And what I found myself most intrigued by was this little vignette in the book about his relationship with Josephine, his wife
As a person who is curious about history I don’t like this choice. I feel like it leaves so much on the table. And there are so many more interesting things to explore with this character. But as a writer, man I get it. You have to grab onto some kind of theme. You’ve got to unify the whole thing with an internal, personal story that will generate some kind of emotion in the viewer.
You can be very formal and visual about it: the lost childhood symbolized by ‘Rosebud’ in Citizen Kane.
A lot of the time, this is revealed in a line from a secondary character. Like:
‘Who are you?’ from Lawrence of Arabia,
Some men just want to watch the world burn.” from The Dark Knight.
Or “We know all about you Chief. You don’t go in the water at all, do you?” scene from Jaws.
I don’t recall the theme of Napoleon being uttered in a line like this, but the theme of the film is Napoleon conquered the world because he could not conquer Josephine. Scarpa again:
…she was the most important relationship of his life. And even after he divorced her, it continued in the background. And there was some aspect of having to prove himself to win her, that was present throughout his life.
And that’s a great internal story. But the result of imposing this theme on this subject is a strange kind of madcap comedy. The only thing that saves if from farce in places is the excellent score. But for those scenes, I feel like they would work equally well, or better with the Benny Hill soundtrack underneath them.
In the siege of Toulon, Napoleon mounts his horse. We expect the heroic charge, but before it even gets started, the horse’s chest explodes from a cannon shot. And Napoleon is dumped on the cobblestones. Unlike many moments in the film, this one actually happened. But, for me, the tone in the film was comedic. In the same vein as a non-sequitur Family Guy gag.
There is something to be said for comedy in difficult and extreme situations. Every time I have been in difficult situations, there has been something odd or downright hilarious about them, even if the humor was inappropriate (or inexplicable) later. Intense experience is not like an 80’s action movie. It is always weird and confusing.
Phoenix plays Napoleon as a kind of bumbling clown everywhere but the battlefield. places. And he does a fantastic job of it. As does Vanessa Kirby, carrying off a performance of a woman who is sexually invincible in one moment, and utterly vulnerable the next. In fact, the writing captures an aspect of love that I’ve never quite seen on a screen before. There’s a sequence where he tells her she is nothing without him. And then, in the sequence right after, she tells him he is nothing without her. And both scenes are utterly believable. And love, real love, both tempestuous and long-lasting, has something of that to it.
So as I begin my criticism, please understand, I recognize that there’s a lot in this film that is magnificent. And it may well be that my difficulties with this film are simply because of my expectations of it going in. In and of itself it is magnificently crafted and works as a whole. But… I’m still disappointed
What They Left on The Table
I’d like to believe that great ideas and great works are timeless in the sense that whenever they appear, they strike a chord and gather an audience. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. I have come to believe that, if they are to be successful, narrative forms must always answer the present-day anxieties. Which is a fancy way of saying that both sci-fi and historical fiction can never be about the future, but always about what’s going on with us right now.
So with that in mind, I feel like there were better themes to explore with a story of a populist leader seizing power from the chaos of a society trying to purge itself of corrupt, out-of-touch elites, and collapsing a period of civil unrest so awful that it is referred to as “The Terror.”
It could have been a dark and cynical tale, and a thorough exploration of our current master vice of narcissism. But it also could have tried to answer the question of how Napoleon inspired and unified. it was not just that he was a master strategist, it was that he inspired people as only the greatest leaders do.
Napoleon was this utterly improbable, massively destabilizing force. Yet he was a brilliant administrator as well. The creation of the Napoleonic Code is an amazing achievement. Everyone realized that the many sets of French laws needed to be reformed, and many tried. Napoleon got it done. And it’s the foundation of European law to this day.
Here’s how Brian Tallerico, Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com summed it up:
Say what you will about Scott’s most divisive movies—they’re usually big swings with big ideas. What’s so disheartening about “Napoleon” is how small it ultimately feels.
But maybe that’s the trap. You can see a story in the source material so big that it’s impossible to make. That’s certainly what happened to Stanley Kubrick. He started researching his Napoleon film in 1960. His enthusiasm for the project was unbridled and he told people he was going to make “the greatest film ever made.” But it never happened.
But Ridley Scott and David Scarpa’s actually made a Napoleon. And while it’s not everything I want, it is. And that beats any Napoleon movie that doesn’t exist.
Ah, didn't see the trailer. And now that I saw three of them, I still couldn't spot Napoleon sitting on a horse, the horse exploding, and Napoleon ending up on the ground. Oh well, the Renaissance is when history starts getting too close modern world to be suitable for my escapism needs, so not a film for me. As for other defenses for spoilers, I'm just going to disagree. I simply don't want to know what's coming. Also no big fan of Shakespeare.
I guess this is the kind of review that's for people who've already seen the movie? Because that horse spoiler was ruthless. For the kind of review that's meant to inform people about whether or not they might be interested in going to see a certain movie, I prefer zero spoilers, not matter how insignificant they might seem. Very good review for me though, as it really painted a picture of the movie which I'm not going to see, and didn't even knew existed.