I must say, there was a lot of hype surrounding the new Napoleon movie prior to its release. It has been decades since the last time the anglosphere has ever produced a movie on the Napoleonic wars, and one that features Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix has given so much hope for his portrayal of the Emperor of the French. Nevertheless, I left the cinema disappointed, despite the warnings by my historian acquaintances on social media.

Napoleon was reduced to a mere caricature of a dictator, and the British defeated this monster.

Firstly, the writing is confusing. Even to a layman who knows a zilch of Napoleon, the plot is rushed. It is very hard to compress Napoleon’s eventful career into a 158-minute movie, but the reason why Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer (2023) was a cinematic masterpiece was because Nolan knows how to link every scene together into a compelling story. David Scarpa, the writer of Napoleon, on the other hand, didn’t even know how to pick and choose the scenes that were to be highlighted. Honestly, Scott and Scarpa looked like desperate politicians who were trying to sell a certain narrative: Napoleon was reduced to a mere caricature of a dictator, and the British defeated this monster. They made this attempt so pathetic that they omitted figures like Klemens von Metternich, who played a huge role in arranging Napoleon’s second marriage and his downfall, to make the British take all the credit. Without a sufficient amount of context on the transitions between phases of Napoleon’s career, this movie is just perplexing to watch.

Then, we have the scenes depicting the romantic life of Napoleon, which was very much entangled with the scenes depicting his career, literally. They centred on the relationship between him and Josephine de Beauharnais, his first wife. I have no idea what to say about the portrayal, but the ones that depict human copulation do not do how the writers intended (supposedly it was a passionate romance); instead they are, together with the narrations of Napoleon’s letters to Josephine, made the comedy relief that we never thought would be needed. The perceived age differences between Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby already seemed awkward to watch (those who know the characters’ age differences in real life would feel worse), and neither of their award-winning acting could save it. Even Josephine was the main force to the plot, supposedly, she just seemed to be “just there” for some breathers between the campaign scenes.

The score is lazily done and it is very obvious that they did not put in an effort unlike Oppenheimer. Playing Edith Piaf’s rendition of “Ça Ira” (a famous song around the time of the French Revolution) at the start of the movie is forgivable, but Dario Marinelli’s “Dawn” from Pride and Prejudice (2006) in a scene depicting an intense conversation between Napoleon and Josephine gives me a jump scare—at this point I think they should have played “Waterloo” by ABBA in the scenes depicting the Battle of Waterloo. Like come on, Napoleon and Josephine isn’t Mr. Darcy and Lizzie Bennett… I was clearly frustrated to see this relationship being treated like just another Regency-themed romance when la Régence ended a century ago.

Alas, this film was praised for the cinematic recreations of significant battles such as Austerlitz and Waterloo, and I got to agree on that (even I am very disgruntled over the fact that Leipzig was not featured when it arguably triggered the beginning of Napoleon’s end in history). By no means I am a professional historian, but I found the battle scenes particularly entertaining, at least. It’s clear that Scott found inspiration from Waterloo (1970) for the scenes showing the ultimate end of the emperor’s career. Another notable thing in this movie is the inclusion of people of colour characters, which was a rarity in similar historical films. This is a faithful recreation of French society at that time, as populations from the colonies settled in their respective European sovereigns. Nevertheless, even though I am glad to see Thomas-Alexandre Dumas (an Afro-Caribbean French general in the French Revolution who later fell out of favour in the imperial era) in this, throughout the film I was staring at the screen blankly like Dumas in the background watching Napoleon’s shenanigans in Egypt.

To be honest, I have a lot more to say about this film, but I must remind myself that I am reviewing it as a media critic for Forge Press, not as a Napoleonic era enthusiast. Even so, the thrilling, dramatic battle scenes in the movie could not save the awful storytelling overall. It is so bad I want to give it a 0, yet due to that being an impossibility and my respect towards the battle scenes (which do indeed deserve their credit) I am willing to raise my score up to a 2 out of 5.

Verdict – 2/5

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