”I am destined for greatness, but those in power only see me as a sword.” Napoleon (Joaquin Phoenix)
Ridley Scott’s Napoleon is heavy on the entertainment but light on the elevation, e.g., his historical epics like Gladiator. While the battles are large and memorable, less time is given to the reasons behind, for example, his consuming love for Josephine. Joaquin Phoenix’s titular hero isn’t so much a great man with rampant passions as he is a child-like practitioner who knows exactly where to place a canon.
Scott carefully plots Napoleon’s rise, starting with routing the Anglo-Spanish fleet that had taken Toulon, in the South of France. Even interior forces feel the Napoleonic power (enter and exit Robespierre).
Make no mistake about it: Scott has staged some of the most spectacular cinematic battle scenes. He could win accolades for the enemy advancing on ice waiting for the canon balls to make deadly holes in its surface, letting horses and men sink into water, shellshocked and bloody. Not so much for the interpersonal relations, especially Napoleon and Josephine (Vanessa Kirby), his adulterous wife, whom he pens letters to in the stress of battle.
If he’s not fighting with her over her adultery, he’s fighting Russians, Brits, and Austrians. Scott plays those two strands separately as if Napoleon didn’t want love and war to plot against him simultaneously. As he places the crown of France on his head, we are aware of this despot’s tragic finale.
Having just left prison after her husband’s beheading, Josephine is ready to display her survival skills. The film falls short of showing what Napolean sees in her except her decolletage. In any scene between the two, it seems only pleasantries are passed or in the case of infidelity, explicitly unpleasant barbs. The deep emotion to be expected between Napoleon and anyone else is absent for a cool approach punctuated, I must say, by sardonic smiles, underplayed by an actor well deserving the Oscar in previous outings.
By contrast, The Duke of Wellington (Rupert Everett) is powerful in his poise, with a smirking understanding of his enemy’s weaknesses. The Duke, who should reign over Trafalgar Square almost as well as Nelson in one of the world’s tallest monuments, is a fine contrast to the more interior, smoldering Napoleon.
There’s much to love in this biopic, especially the spectacle of battle, glamour of costumes, and hints of the great man’s genius. For those planning big political comebacks, Napoleon is a cautionary tale.
Napoleon
Director: Ridley Scott (Prometheus)
Screenplay: David Scarpa (All the Money in the World)
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix (Her)
Run Time: 2h 38m
Rating: R
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and hosts Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take out of WCBE 90.5 FM. Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com
