NAPOLEON : Tuesday 28th November 2023

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'NAPOLEON' this week at my local multiplex, and this US and UK Co-Production is an epic historical drama film Co-Produced and Directed by Ridley Scott, who I'm sure need no introduction, suffice to say he has helmed numerous critically acclaimed films over the years including his debut in 1977 with 'The Duellists' followed by the likes of 'Alien', 'Blade Runner', 'Thelma & Louise', 'Gladiator', 'Black Hawk Down', 'American Gangster', 'Prometheus', 'The Martian', 'The Last Duel' and 'The House of Gucci' most recently. This film had its World Premiere screening in Paris on 14th November, was released in the US, the UK and here in Australia last week before streaming on Apple TV+ at a later date, cost somewhere in the region of US$150M to produce and has so far recouped US$84M in Box Office receipts and has garnered mixed reviews.

On 16th October 1793, amid the French Revolution, young army officer Napoleon Bonaparte (Joaquin Phoenix) watches Queen Marie Antoinette (Catherine Walker) being beheaded by the guillotine for depletion of the national treasury, conspiracy against the internal and external security of the State, and high treason. Later that year, Revolutionary leader Paul Barras (Tahar Rahim) has Napoleon orchestrate the Siege of Toulon whereby he successfully storms the city undercover of darkness and destroys the British ships anchored in the harbour with artillery. After Maximilien Robespierre (Sam Troughton) is deposed and executed at the end of the Reign of Terror, French leaders, including Napoleon, strive to restore some semblance of stability. Again employing artillery, Napoleon quashes the royalist insurrection on 5th October in 1795 in Paris. 

Napoleon actively courts aristocratic widow Josephine de Beauharnais (Vanessa Kirby) and the two marry on 9th March 1796. Despite their very active sex life, they bear no children much to Napoleon's ongoing disappointment as he is intent on having a son and heir. In Egypt, he prevails again at the Battle of the Pyramids in 1798, but rushes home when he hears Josephine has had an affair with another man. The Directory criticises him for abandoning his troops, but he condemns them for their poor leadership of France and, as part of a trio, overthrows them in a coup on 9th November 1799, and becomes First Consul.

Napoleon is crowned Emperor of the French by the Pope on 2nd December 1804 at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, during which he audaciously places the crown on his own head. Foreign Minister Talleyrand (Paul Rhys) suggests to Austria an alliance, though the Austrians dismiss the idea. A year later, Napoleon out manoeuvres and defeats the Austrians and Russians at the Battle of Austerlitz on 2nd December 1805, forcing them to retreat over a huge frozen lake before bombarding the ice with cannons and drowning them in the icy waters below. Afterwards, he invites Austrian Emperor Francis II for wine, which Russian Tsar Alexander I (Edouard Philipponnat) declines to attend, and tells Francis that since he did not totally destroy their armies, he expects the latter to be grateful. 

Letizia Bonaparte (Sinead Cusack), Napoleon's mother, hatches a plan to determine whether her son, or Josephine, is incapable of producing a child. She has him impregnate an eighteen year old mistress, proving that Josephine is infertile. At an intimate dinner with a handful of friends on 30th November 1809, he let Josephine know that, in the interest of France, he must find a wife who could produce an heir. Josephine agreed to the divorce so the Emperor could remarry in the hope of having an heir. The divorce ceremony took place on 10th January 1810 and was a grand but solemn social occasion, and each read a statement of devotion to the other, but not before he publicly slapped her in the face when she initially refused to read her portion of the decree. However, the two remain on good terms and continue writing letters to each other. Napoleon marries Marie Louise of Austria (Anna Mawn) in a formal ceremony in April of 1810, who bears him a son one year later.

In 1812, Napoleon invades Russia after Alexander back tracks on a peace treaty with France. He prevails, despite fierce resistance by Cossack guerrillas, at the Battle of Borodino, but finds Moscow empty and later set aflame. Napoleon retreats during the harsh winter to France, having lost about half a million men. In 1814, the Coalition force Napoleon's abdication and exile him to the Mediterranean island of Elba, arriving on 4th May. He was allowed to keep a personal guard of four hundred men and was nominally appointed sovereign of the island. After staying for almost ten months, he escaped back to France having commandeered a ship on 26th February 1815 having heard that Josephine was unwell. 

Josephine, having been forced into a reclusive life at her former family home near Paris died of pneumonia before he arrives. King Louis XVIII (Ian McNeice) sends the Fifth Regiment to prevent Napoleon from advancing, but he charms them into joining him. Napoleon returns to power in March of 1815 and at the Battle of Waterloo on 18th June, Napoleon, having amassed 125,000 troops, confronts the British army under Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington (Rupert Everett). French cavalry charges are thwarted by British infantry squares, and a desperate Napoleon commands his remaining soldiers and officers forward, but this advance is decimated by re-formed lines of enemy infantry. The forces of Prussian Marshal Blucher arrive to bring support to Wellington, and the French are overwhelmingly defeated. As Napoleon retreats, he salutes Wellington. 

Napoleon is exiled for a second and final time to the island of Saint Helena, a remote volcanic tropical island about 1,200 miles west of the coast of south-western Africa in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where he arrives in October 1815. He is seen bantering with a pair of young girls, and writing his memoirs that would become a worldwide best-seller. He died there on 5th May 1821, with his final words being 'France - Army - Josephine'. An epilogue notes that roughly three million soldiers died fighting his wars.

Despite the historical inaccuracies reported on, or the fact the this film fails to elaborate on much of the good that Napoleon brought to the French nation during his reign as Emperor, or his political or strategic machinations, one cannot deny that Director Ridley Scott knows how to stage large scale battle scenes and his penchant for never letting the truth get in the way of a good story! Instead we have a storyline that concentrates almost exclusively on Napoleon's often tumultuous relationship with his first wife Josephine and five key battles out of the eighty os so fought during his lifetime. Scott also has a keen eye for the detail and this is reflected in the production values which are top rate, and in casting Vanessa Kirby as Josephine he hit pay dirt, but not so much with Joaquin Phoenix portrayal of Napoleon who scowls, throws temper tantrums and at age almost fifty is some 20+ years older than the character he is playing seems just a tad miscast here. This is certainly not Ridley Scott's finest production, but it is worth a viewing on a big screen if for nothing else the spectacle of the battle sequences. 

'Napoleon' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-