Napoleon, directed by Ridley Scott, written by David Scarpa. Starring Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby. USA/UK, 157 minutes, IIB. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Anyone going into Ridley Scott’s Napoleon with a less than comprehensive knowledge of French history is unlikely to come out any wiser. With Scott and writer David Scarpa playing fast, loose and sketchy with history, the more you know, the easier it will be to fill in the considerable blanks.
With Napoleon, Scott has transformed himself into cinema’s premier epic auteur. And in truth, there are few subjects that could be quite as tempting for Scott’s large-format filmmaking as the life of one of history’s great military minds.
The meandering Napoleon is by no means a complete biopic. Instead, it dwells on general and eventually Emperor NapoleonBonaparte’s (Joaquin Phoenix, who was more engaging in Scott’s Gladiator) key Wikipedia-friendly milestones: Battles of Toulon and Austerlitz; his undoing at Waterloo; his exiles at Elba and Saint Helena, and his romance with consort, wife and later Empress Joséphine (Vanessa Kirby, the Mission: Impossible series’ White Widow).
The story begins with Bonaparte as midlevel soldier, insecure over his Corsican roots and eager to prove his worth. He scores several post-French Revolution tactical victories over royalists and the British, the Holy Roman Empire and the Russian armies before declaring himself emperor. Along the way he meets the manipulative, opaque Joséphine, who becomes his wife and empress — at least until she fails to provide an heir.
Napoleon, directed by Ridley Scott, written by David Scarpa. Starring Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby. USA/UK, 157 minutes, IIB. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Napoleon is, at times, an examination of a man who rose from humble beginnings fighting his imposter syndrome. His constant need to fit in among nobles, in Scarpa’s script, is what drives him to conquer Egypt and chase Russian tsar Alexander I (Édouard Philipponnat) with his Grande Armée all the way to Moscow. It’s what compels him to think he can outwit the Duke of Wellington (Rupert Everett). At other times, it’s an examination of toxic codependency; a portrait of a relationship that Bonaparte feared was always on the verge of collapse — one that he believed he could have prevented if he indeed became the great man Joséphine said she wanted him to be. Napoleon is also darkly funny, recasting some of history’s most towering figures as petulant elites who want their breakfast before their arrest, set to jaunty Edith Piaf songs.
The trouble is that the film isn’t enough of any of those. When it starts by interrogating Bonaparte’s inner demons, the impression is that we’re going to get a character study. Was he a tyrant or a misguided visionary? But then Scott and Scarpa pivot into the doomed marriage, and the impression is that we’re going to get an exploration of how the personal becomes political. But the duo pulls its punches, not pursuing either approach at length, but rather spins its wheels against a scattershot tone that’s simply exhausting.
To suggest Napoleon is less than worthy of its place on a big screen is simply contrarian. Stellar visual effects by Neil Corbould (Gravity) render the violence of cannon fire more brutally than ever. Immaculately detailed costumes by designer Janty Yates (Gladiator) and lush production design by Arthur Max (Seven) bring Napoleonic France to vivid life. Sweeping widescreen cinematography from Scott regular (since Prometheus) Dariusz Wolski efficiently encapsulates Bonaparte’s ambition.
Napoleon might have tipped over into greatness with just a little more detail, or focus, or breathing room — though it’s hard to describe the film as suffocated at over two and a half hours. Perhaps we’ll get a chance to find out if rumors about a four-hour director’s cut headed for producer Apple TV+ are true. It worked for Kingdom of Heaven.
