NAPOLEON IS A (FLAWED) MASTERPIECE-REVIEW OFFERED. RELEASED 22ND NOVEMBER Richard Fitzwilliams, film critic, has lectured on epic films, attended the preview and is available for review on 07939602749 www.richardfitzwilliams.com @RFitzwilliams
Ridley Scott is a remarkable director and this brilliant film is likely to make a very significant impact. Stanley Kubrick abandoned the project, though his script will be adapted by Steven Spielberg in a seven-part series for HBO. Scott, whose section in Germania in the superlative Gladiator is, to my mind, the finest part of an epic ever filmed, gives us a fascinating vision of this charismatic tyrant.
It is an amazing piece of filming, the set pieces, especially the scenes of revolution, the coronation and the extraordinary battle sequences are among the most awesome ever filmed. Joaquin Phoenix has the lust for glory and ruthlessness Napoleon, a military genius, undoubtedly had, the character is humanised by its depiction of his affair with Josephine, played with sensitivity by Vanessa Kirby.
It is flawed, its partly Scott’s personal vision, but it is an amazing piece of cinema, another era comes to light. The opening, showing the beheading of Marie Antoinette and then the chaos of revolution, shows how it was possible for a charismatic brute to threaten Europe. Anyone who loves cinema should see this.
Scott’s Alien and Blade Runner were remarkable. His Kingdom of Heaven, 1492: Conquest of Paradise and Exodus: Gods and Kings were flawed but fascinating. The Long Duel was, despite its terrible box office, compulsive. We await Gladiator 2 with great interest.
This brings back memories of Abel Gance’s extraordinary epic, Napoleon, also of Sergei Bondarchuk’s gargantuan War and Peace and also his Waterloo, which, though spectacular, failed financially and relied on stereotypes. The Hollywood version of War and Peace made in 1956 seems very dated now.
The French attitude to Napoleon is ambiguous, President Macron reclaimed him in a controversial speech in 2021, though not his misogyny and his reintroduction of slavery. The 200th anniversary of his victory at Austerlitz was not celebrated by President Chirac.
The epic film is one of cinema’s most exciting genres. Scott is a master of it and this thrilling spectacle with fascinating psychological insights into its characters should draw cinemagoers like a magnet to the large screen.
