Knock on Wood

This year, we’ve been treated to an unprecedented run by some of our greatest working directors — Martin Scorsese, Greta Gerwig, Wim Wenders, Christopher Nolan, Hayao Miyazaki, Sofia Coppola, Wes Anderson, William Friedkin (R.I.P.), David Fincher and many more released new features in 2023. Still, none of them have the frequency of Ridley Scott. Since Scorsese’s last release (The Irishman in 2019), Scott has released three films, each of them period pieces centering around a historical disaster of some kind.

His latest, Napoleon, tells the life story of the titular French General, later Emperor, from the start of the infamous Reign of Terror until his death nearly thirty years later. Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix plays Napoleon Bonaparte, who blazed across Europe and Africa in an effort to emulate Alexander the Great and conquer as much of the world as he could for the glory of France.

Whatever your opinions are about historical epics, overlong movies, and surrealist performances that clash with the film’s tone, Napoleon will get you thinking, for better or for worse, about what you just saw. It’s nearly three hours long but almost feels rushed, skimming over major historical events and spending the most time on trivial details. Apparently, the theatrical version is a slimmed version of Scott’s “proper cut,” which runs around four hours and will be released on Apple TV+ later this year.

The version we got is focused both on character development and on the spectacular battles Napoleon spearheaded in his campaigns, but it’s telling that I felt even the character work was lacking. We spend so much time with characters that we’re barely familiar with beyond their broad strokes and archetypes, and that’s not exactly the best way to build sympathy and drive a narrative.

What I thought was most interesting about Napoleon is its attitude towards its protagonist, which I’ve never seen in any other movie centering around Bonaparte. The film cements Ridley Scott’s clear hypothesis that many notable men across history were, in actuality, pouty, insecure children with little to no emotional intelligence and anger management problems (this is a trend continuing directly from Scott’s 2021 films The Last Duel and House of Gucci). It’s a fascinating stance for a movie to take, especially one that, by all rights, should be predicated on the glory and massive accomplishments of its subject. That’s what Abel Gance’s revolutionary five-hour Napoleon masterpiece did in 1927, and to see a story that does almost entirely the opposite is bizarre but refreshing. Alas, I wish it were enough to save the movie.

Joaquin Phoenix, while clearly on board with the film’s tone, delivers a performance that feels out of place, sometimes anachronistic, which may be intentional but it does nothing to enhance the believability of the quasi-historically accurate world that Scott has painted. Vanessa Kirby is a bright spot — she plays Empress Joséphine, whose chance encounter with Napoleon during the early days of his military career changes the course of her life entirely. Joséphine is a tragic figure, albeit one in control of her own destiny, who (along with almost every other character in the film) unfortunately doesn’t get the spotlight she deserves.

Napoleon almost feels incomplete. We get no backstory on our protagonist, and the film doesn’t delve anywhere below the surface when it comes to its themes, which could be powerful in any other film. It also doesn’t seem to care very much about the historical politics that its characters are based in, which takes part of the punch out of the “period drama” aspect that should have been a selling point. Some visuals are spectacular, but it’s a lot of story to run through, so much so that we’re rarely able to savor or enjoy any given moment because we’re constantly moving on to what’s next. Still, the battles are great, the violence is brutal, and it’s much funnier than I expected. There are worse ways to spend three hours.

Napoleon is playing now in theaters and will release on Apple TV+ in spring 2024.