Napoleon’s spectacle overshadows its subject
The Lord bless and protect Ridley Scott. The legendary director is 85 and still working, at a prolific pace that his younger peers would be envious of. His latest is “Napoleon,” a project that has besotted many a filmmaker, perhaps most notably Stanley Kubrick, who spent years researching and developing a film only to never actually get around to it (no studio would commit to the price tag). Scott’s “Napoleon” bears a price tag of an estimated $200 million, which Apple and Sony are hoping will see a return on their investment. “Napoleon” almost went straight to Apple’s streaming platform, which would’ve been a shame as Scott is one of the best shooters on the planet, and his knack for visual spectacle is one of the strongest features the film has to offer.
Joaquin Phoenix plays the historical figure in his first reunion with Scott since 2000’s “Gladiator.” Vanessa Kirby (“The Crown,” the last two “Missions: Impossible”) is Josephine, Napoleon Bonaparte’s lover and object of obsession. As the film begins France is going through its revolution. Tumultuous times indeed, with the new power structure scrambling for some stability. Bonaparte makes a name for himself with a successful mission to repel British invaders, and becomes an instrumental figure in the new establishment, one he will eventually usurp entirely. Meanwhile he falls in love and marries Josephine, but their complex relationship will ultimately vex and consume him, until the very end.
Brutal, fast-paced, detailed
David Scarpa’s script plays fast and loose with historical accuracy, which is to be expected with a big-budget, prestige Hollywood biopic. The spectacle is what the marketing is selling and it’s what we’re here for, with Ridley Scott at the helm. Few directors have his gift for depicting clashing armies, from “Gladiator” to “Kingdom of Heaven” to “Robin Hood” to “Black Hawk Down.” The fighting is brutal, fast-paced and detailed. Like Michael Mann, Scott establishes the lay of the land so viewers understand how battles move and progress, become stuck and break through. You’re not confused as to what you’re seeing, like some lazier directors who think quick cuts and carnage are all you need. It’s imperative in a project like “Napoleon,” because your main character is vaunted as an exceptional military strategist, and that authority needs to be established.
While the spectacle side is a sight to behold, and not just the war scenes but the pomp and celebration, the landscapes and travels, the feasting and excess of parties … what suffers is the characterization. While the spotlight is on Napoleon and his relationship with Josephine, ultimately he remains inscrutable, out of focus. Josephine, he felt, was the only person to truly get him. We understand this, even seeing how her own infidelity couldn’t bring him to extricate her from his life. We see that the victories and laurels go to his head, leading to hubris that eventually undoes him, leading to defeats on the battlefield and in the hallways of power. He is outfoxed and outplayed by younger opponents who learned from his own playbook. There is also the petulance and almost juvenile way he is with Josephine, mewling like an infant or engaging in foreplay under a dining table with footmen present. The film struggles to reconcile these aspects of the man, playing them off one another the way Bonaparte himself played his enemies at his height.
There is a feeling that material has been left on the cutting-room floor, a feeling that was confirmed by Scott himself when he talked about a 4-hour director’s cut that had much more of Josephine’s life in it. Perhaps that would explain the less-than-elegant turns of behavior and make the whys a little less obscure.
While a Ridley Scott film is always worth seeing in a theater, this falls shy of his greatest work. Granted, the last “no notes, total crowd pleaser” of his was 2015’s “The Martian,” but as the director’s cut of “Kingdom of Heaven” improved that movie immensely, fingers crossed “Napoleon” will be even more satisfying on a human level when its director’s cut comes out next year.
