A broad sweep of early 19th century European history as Napoleon Bonaparte, a brilliant military tactician, quickly rose through the ranks to crown himself Emperor Napoleon I of France in 1804 at the age of 35.
Director Ridley Scott has produced an epic in every way. But condensed to a running time of 160 minutes, it’s inevitably a skate across the surface, vacillating between Napoleon’s (Joaquin Phoenix) obsessive love for Josephine (Vanessa Kirby) and the military might of personal and French ambition. The quiet domesticity of home life is juxtaposed with the choreographed battle scenes of Austerlitz, Waterloo and the burning of Moscow as the Grande Armée are victorious in their ‘battles for peace’. But defeat at Waterloo sees Napoleon dispatched in exile to the remote Atlantic island of St Helena.
Napoleon is a strange and not wholly successful hybrid. The expanse of his meteoric rise and the battlefield is inevitably impressive, the almost silent French palatial chambers with Josephine deeply personal and reflective. But there’s little connection between the two. A more in depth character study is seemingly waiting to emerge rather than a charge through Napoleon’s greatest hits in the field.
Nominated for 3 Oscars in 2024 – visual effects, costume and production design.
Rating: 64%
Director: Ridley Scott (Prometheus, Thelma & Louise)
Writer: David Scarpa (All the Money in the World, The Day the Earth Stood Still)
Main cast: Joaquin Phoenix (Joker, Gladiator), Vanessa Kirby (Pieces of a Woman, The Son), Tahar Rahim (A Prophet, The Mauritanian)
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