Admittedly, what I know about French history can be summed up in Abba’s hit song, Waterloo, from the mid-seventies, and all I know about Napoleon Bonaparte is that he was a short tyrant who wore a goofy hat and kept his hand inside his coat for some reason. He also got mention in Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone song, so I suppose the dude had something going for him to still be such a part of modern popular culture.
Unfortunately, after two and a half hours of director Ridley Scott’s new Napoleon bio-flick, I don’t know much more than I did before watching it. The French warrior led a lot of battles, he was responsible for the deaths of a lot of people, and he was obsessed with his lady, Josephine. Not much was learned beyond that.
On the surface, this is an ambitious film and the battle sequences are quite astounding. I can’t tell you why a single battle was fought, but I guess that’s war for you. The narrative here is repetitive. There’s battle, then drama with Josephine (Vanessa Kirby), then repeat multiple times and insert some awkward sex scenes as well.
The only thing that really kept my interest here is an excellent performance by Joaquin Phoenix as the French Emperor, but even he sometimes seems on the verge of sleep. (I don’t know if that was a characteristic of Napoleon or not, but it was an interesting quirk Phoenix brought to the character.)
This isn’t a bad movie, it is just disappointing in that it seems to be missing a lot of needed information or glue to tie it together in a meaningful way. There is allegedly a four-plus hour cut of the film that will eventually be released on Apple TV+ and I am looking forward to watching it and hoping for an overall improvement.
In the meantime, I can see where the battle sequences are worth watching on the big screen (especially if you are already well versed in French history), in that arena Ridley Scott is the modern day master. Just don’t expect to walk out of the theater with a newfound understanding of 18thcentury France and Europe.
