Hyderabad: One takes to a period film with suggestions of historic credibility at one’s own risk. Director Ridley Scott’s Napoleon deals with only the story of the French emperor – where he is not a villain or tyrant but a misunderstood ruler, his love for Joséphine de Beauharnais, his role in the French Revolution, his […]
Published Date – 03:51 PM, Sat – 25 November 23
Hyderabad: One takes to a period film with suggestions of historic credibility at one’s own risk. Director Ridley Scott’s Napoleon deals with only the story of the French emperor – where he is not a villain or tyrant but a misunderstood ruler, his love for Joséphine de Beauharnais, his role in the French Revolution, his stature as one of the best military commanders in history and his efforts to make France a superpower. Not to mention, his fall, exile, and death.
The film begins in the year 1789. Marie Antoinette (Catherine Walker), the last Queen of France before the French Revolution is guillotined while young army officer Napoleon Bonaparte (Joaquin Phoenix) watches on. The Directory is afraid of being ousted by the invading Brits or the Royalists. Paul Barras (Tahar Rahim), the head of the Directory hands over the responsibility of liberating a fort occupied by the Brits in the town of Toulon. What follows is fight after fight, war after war and siege after siege.
In between, you see how Napoleon woos Joséphine (Vanessa Kirby), marries her, gets to know about her infidelity, how he overthrows the Directorate in a coup d’état and becomes the First Consul, how he becomes the Emperor of France (the famous snatching the crown from the Pope and wearing it), his divorce with Joséphine, his exploits in Russia, his exile, and finally, his death.
The octogenarian director is still in his prime and his brilliance is seen in the war scenes. Be it in Gladiator or here, Scott shows why he is the king of period drama. One would do well to not assume that this is your average period drama where you would generally have a protagonist and an antagonist. No. this is Scott’s version of Napoleon.
Tragically though, this 160-minute epic does not shed light on why Napoleon is deeply in love with Joséphine. While looking at the Wikipedia page on the emperor, you realise that Scott has covered most aspects and has almost given you a colourful pictorial representation on the life of Napoleon.
Joaquin Phoenix shows what he was named among the greatest actors of the 21st century by the New York Times. Be it as Commodus in Scott’s Gladiator or as Todd Phillips’s Joker or as Napoleon, he would definitely threaten the position of any top actor. He as an actor may not bring in the moolah, but he ensures that those few who come to watch him are not disappointed. He is pleasing to the eyes especially in the first war scene where he subtly adjusts his famous hat so that it is symmetrical and the emotional content he displays when he leads his first battle are so well done.
A few things go against the film. For one, there is too much blood and gore. One could argue that this being a period film on the life of one whose wars and campaigns are still studied at military schools worldwide. That is not the problem. The problem is the detail and depth to which the war scenes are shown. It is unnecessary to show body parts flying. We have our own set of Woods – Bolly, Tolly, Kolly, and the likes where we see enough and more.
Though Scott concentrates on the military escapades and the personal life of Napoleon, he fails to do an in-depth analysis on the character, his roots, why was he a success or why a battle was being waged. Hopefully Apple ’s four-hour director’s cut release later may have the answers.
Is this a visual delight, yes. Is this Avatar, definitely no. This is one of those films where you feel the big screen is not big enough to show the happenings. This, like Oppenheimer, does not feel long. There have been versions where Napoleon was showcased as a visionary and those where he was a tyrant responsible for the deaths of approximately 30 lakh people. This showcases something intermediate.
The film belongs to Phoenix and Phoenix alone. The rest of the cast including Matthew Needham as Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother, Rupert Everett as Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, Vanessa Kirby as Joséphine or Ben Miles as Caulaincourt, a diplomat and close advisor to Napoleon excel in the limited screentime presented to them.
Watch this for something new and something different that does not belong to the comic action movie genre. There is history in this. This is the story of a man who slowly and silently faded away post his peak.
— Abhinav.
