Napoleon movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Napoleon

This epic movie is now playing in theaters. It will be released on AppleTV+ in January 2024.

RATING: R

LENGTH: 2 hours 38 minutes

MOVIE REVIEW MOM GRADE: B-

IN A NUTSHELL:

I was just in France 3 months ago and even visited the opulent Versailles again for the second time. When you see that palace dripping in gold, it’s not hard to see why the poor, starving French people revolted and wanted to kill the crown. That’s how this movie begins. It covers decades of Napoleon’s rise and fall of power, as well as his tumultuous relationship with the love of his life: Josephine de Beauharnais.

The film was directed by Sir Ridley Scott. Some people have been excited about that, while others thought the film was doomed the minute it was announced. What did YOU think? He’s known for his epic battle scenes but also for struggling with drama. As anticipated, the movie has both of those things.

Writing credits go to David Scarpa.

THINGS I LIKED:

Academy Award winner Joaquin Phoenix gave an excellent performance, as everyone expected. I’ve been a fan of his for many years. Ridley Scott is a fan too and stated that they spent hours together, working on every detail of Joaquin’s scenes. They also worked together on the 2000 film Gladiator. https://amzn.to/3QXO5lV
Vanessa Kirby is wonderful and beautiful in her role as Josephine, who was 6 years older than Napoleon. I imagine both she and Joaquin will, at least, be nominated for an Oscar. I’ll be surprised if the film is nominated for Best Picture though.
The rest of the cast is terrific too and includes Ben Miles, Tahar Rahim, Sir Ian McNeice, John Hollingworth, Paul Rhys, Catherine Walker, and more.
Visually, the movie is gorgeous to watch. The film is filled with French music, style, period costumes, and real locations, creating a fantastic look and feel.
The set designs are fantastic.
Beautiful costume design by David Crossman and Janty Yates.
Impressive battle sequences, which was expected at Ridley Scott’s hand.
I never really studied Napoleon’s troubled relationships with his wives, so the information in this movie was a revelation to me. Is any of it true? Well, sadly, yes. There are historical accounts of letters Napoleon wrote to Josephine that were filled with controlling, emotional blackmail and passionate declarations of love at the same time.
Right before Napoleon died of stomach cancer in exile, his last words were “France, the army, head of the army, Josephine.” He died at age 51.
Empress Josephine died from pneumonia at the age of 51 too.
Napoleon has a reputation for being short. He was my height: 5’6”. Joaquin Phoenix is 5’8”.
The coronation scene is a recreation of the painting called “Le Sacre de Napoleon by painter Jacques Louis David, played by actor Sam Crane. The painting is currently in the famous Louvre Museum in Paris. I just saw it a few months ago when I was there! His coronation took place inside the historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. I went there, too, on my recent trip to Paris. It’s currently covered in scaffolding due to the devastating fire in 2019. Rumor has it that it’ll be finished in 2025.
Filming took 61 days, which is pretty impressive considering the large scale of the movie scenes. The battle scenes utilized 11 cameras, all filming at the same time.
There is some humor, but this truly is a drama.
At the end of the movie, we see statistics that reveal that 3 million people died in the battles Napoleon Bonaparte waged in Europe.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

It felt like the movie has an equal number of sex scenes as battle scenes. Showing Napoleon’s almost violent lovemaking reveals how he approached life, but we didn’t have to see that over and over again.
The run time is just way too long, even though I wanted to learn more about Napoleon in the end. Director Ridley Scott announced that his 4-hour director’s cut will be released exclusively on Apple TV+ in January 2024. Is that something you think you’ll watch? He credited Apple for backing and trusting him. If not, you might be more interested in Steven Spielberg’s HBO miniseries that is in development. Don’t hold your breath for that one though, as he has been working on it since 2013.
There are some inaccuracies in the movie. For example, one of the earlier scenes shows Napoleon watching the execution of Marie Antoinette; however, he did not attend that in real life. Sir Ridley Scott would not be happy that I pointed that out. When people have criticized the historical inaccuracies in the movie, he recently said, “Get a life.” Ha ha

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Kids will be bored. Plus, this is not an appropriate movie for them to watch anyway.
Bloody, gory violence with various weapons and hand-to-hand combat
Extremely high dead-body count in the battle scenes
We see a woman (Marie Antoinette) beheaded by the bloodied guillotine.
A man commits suicide.
Talk of infidelity
We see a man vigorously back-door his wife in several scenes.

THEMES:

Ambition
Revolution
Toxic relationships
Narcissism
Power
Loyalty
Duty to country
Sacrifice
France
History
Insecurity

FUNNY LINES:

“You think you’re so great because you have boats!” – Napoleon (Joaquin Phoenix)

INTERESTING LINES:

“Terror is nothing more than justice: prompt, severe, inflexible, and, therefore, an emanation of virtue.” – Robespierre
“I’ve promised you brilliant successes and I’ve kept my word.” – Napoleon (Joaquin Phoenix)