Napoleon, directed by Ridley Scott, fits wonderfully as a double bill with his directorial debut, The Duellists (1977), because, aside from being period pieces set in France, both these films are comparable in the sense that they feel emotionally hollow and prioritize style over substance.
Beginning with the execution of Marie Antoinette in 1793 France during the French Revolution, Napoleon follows the titular character’s (Joaquin Phoenix) journey from a young army officer to his rise to the position of Emperor of France and finally to his death on the island of Saint Helena. The film mainly focuses on his obsessive and tumultuous relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine (Vanessa Kirby), and also highlights his military exploits, from the Siege of Toulon to the Battle of Austerlitz to the Battle of Waterloo.
The film suffers from poor characterization of Napoleon, mainly due to screenwriter David Scarpa and director Ridley Scott’s emphasis on turning him into a buffoon for comedic effect rather than delving deeply into his personality. As a result, I failed to understand who he was as a person, what drove him, or where his ravenous thirst for power originated. During the scene in which he is crowned Emperor of France by the Pope, he grabs the crown and impatiently places it over his head, provoking gasps in the background. Napoleon’s actions and the gasping aimed to show how power-hungry he was, but the viewers miss the point because the makers fail to establish this facet of his character earlier in the story. Devoid of layered storytelling, the film essentially jumps from one incident in his life to another purely for expositional purposes.
The central conflict of this film is the volatile relationship between Napoleon and Josephine, which ebbs and flows throughout its runtime. The primary source of their problems stems from the fact that she is unable to bear him a child and, more subtly, from her sexual dissatisfaction with him. Even though the screenplay establishes that he loves her deeply (he writes to her constantly and shares his most personal thoughts, forgives her mistakes, and keeps coming back to her repeatedly), we never learn what she thinks of him or whether she loves him, rendering their relationship more of a one-sided affair than a love story. Additionally, Vanessa Kirby’s performance felt odd, and I couldn’t tell in some scenes if she was trying to be serious or funny. For instance, during the divorce proceedings with Napoleon, as she is reading her portion of the decree, she keeps smiling for some reason, even though the situation is supposed to be sad and heartbreaking. More than acting, it felt like she was breaking character while filming the scene because she couldn’t contain her laughter, and for some reason, the blooper made it into the final cut. And this happens in a couple of scenes between her and Phoenix, where it feels like she is trying to hold back her laughter.
Although the film fails to communicate Napoleon’s inner conflict convincingly, it does an excellent job of showcasing his tactical prowess on the battlefield. The film features spectacular action set pieces, and Scott and his team excel at epic-scale filmmaking. To illustrate Napoleon’s strategic genius, consider the film’s extended action sequence, the Battle of Austerlitz, in which he outsmarts the Austrian and Russian forces by trapping them, causing them to run on the icy surface, and then unleashing an all-out attack on them. Stunning visuals of cannonballs penetrating the ice, men plunging beneath it, and blood-red water add to the sequence’s incredible thrills and tension. Even the final action sequence, the Battle of Waterloo, is meticulously planned and executed, down to the precise details of showing each side’s tactics and the clarity with which these plans are carried out.
Based on what I have heard, Ridley Scott has a four-hour director’s cut of Napoleon. If he ever decides to release it, I will happily watch it, hoping that whatever issues the truncated 157-minute version has will be resolved in the extended version.
Napoleon movie links: IMDB, Letterboxd
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