Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Tahar Rahim, Rupert Everett, Paul Rhys, Ludivine Sagnier, Sinead Cusack, Ian McNeice
Distributor: Sony Pictures
Runtime: 158 mins. Reviewed in Dec 2023
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
| 
| 
An epic that details the chequered rise and fall of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, and his relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his wife, Josephine.
There has been a long tradition of films about Napoleon, especially the silent film classic of 1927 by Abel Gance with its split screen technique. Since then, many stars have played Napoleon, including Marlon Brando, Desiree, 1954 and Rod Steiger, Waterloo, 1975. Napoleon is a familiar historical and cinema figure, which means that audiences will bring their own presuppositions about Napoleon to this interpretation.
There has been great admiration for the film, but also severe criticism by those who feel they know Napoleon and are determined to highlight deficiencies in the writing of David Scarpa and Scott’s direction. But, for those caught up in the film, as was this reviewer, it is almost three hours of total immersion in French history. First, the French Revolution and the execution of Marie Antoinette, with the bloodthirsty crowds and Republican independence; second, the portrait of Napoleon who is of humble origins from Corsica, skilled in battle, and tactics, perhaps, rather than overall strategies (which led to a number of victories but also to several downfalls, Moscow and Waterloo); and, third, total immersion in lavish sets and decor, costumes of the period, as well as the close-ups of battle, deafening cannon fire and the thunder of troops on horseback.
There is also the question of the casting of Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon. Ridley Scott directed Phoenix in Gladiator (2000), with the actor receiving an Oscar nomination for his role as Emperor Commodus. He has had a long career playing character actors, even playing an older Jesus in the film, Mary Magdalene (2018), and winning an Oscar for playing Joker (and he will appear in the sequel). Phoenix is rather short, especially in comparison with Kirby’s Josephine, and not exactly an oil painting (although there are some sequences where he and Josephine pose for the official painter, Jacques-Louis David).
As portrayed by the screenplay, Napoleon comes across as single-minded, ambitious and vain, straightforward in intentions, a step-by-step tactician, rather humourless, infatuated with Josephine but blunt in his dealings with her, especially sexually, and preoccupied with having an heir.
Most audiences will know what happens to Napoleon after the trek back from Moscow; exiled to Elba, his immediate escape, the ambitions at Waterloo. Unlike defeated heroes in plays and novels, Napoleon did not tragically commit suicide. Rather, he went to the faraway island of St Helena for six years. Overreaching ambition and its consequences.
Audiences prepared for a cinema re-interpretation of Napoleon will be interested. Those who have formed their ideas about Napoleon have emerged as quite dissatisfied. This reviewer saw and enjoyed the film on the IMAX screen – and Napoleon himself would have wanted IMAX, or a large cinema, rather than on streaming where he will eventually find a more permanent home (a bit like six years at St Helena after the vastness of his battles).
12 Random Films…
