The Big Picture

Ridley Scott’s Napoleon is a monumental film that showcases the scale and grandiosity we’ve never seen from the director before. Joaquin Phoenix delivers a commanding performance as Napoleon, portraying the character’s brilliance on the battlefield and his complex relationship with Empress Joséphine, played by Vanessa Kirby. The screenplay by David Scarpa expertly covers almost thirty years of Napoleon’s life, offering an engrossing, hilarious, and compressed narrative that explores both the personal and historical aspects of the French leader.

Napoleon Bonaparte is one of the most frequently portrayed historical figures in the history of film. He has been represented on film for almost as long as the medium has been around, appearing in everything from Abel Gance’s 1927 epic Napoleon to 2015’s Minions. At this point, it’s hard to imagine there’s much more to cinematically explore about the infamous French leader and emperor. Yet Ridley Scott has never found a historical story he couldn’t put a compelling twist on, whether in the trifecta of stories in 2021’s vastly underrated The Last Duel, his exploration of the Roman Empire in 2000’s Best Picture winner, Gladiator, or the claustrophobic terror of 2001’s Black Hawk Down.

Napoleon Release Date November 22, 2023 Director Ridley Scott Cast Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Ben Miles, Ludivine Sagnier Rating R Main Genre Biopic Genres Biopic, Drama
Napoleon, the newest film from Scott, may not be the best adaptation of Bonaparte’s life and military career, and it’s not Scott’s best film (a hard title to claim, to be sure). But put together, Scott’s take on Napoleon—along with a commanding performance by Joaquin Phoenix as the title character, is certainly one of the most memorable. It is a fascinating example of just how much a master director Scott has become as he shows a level of scale and grandiosity that we’ve never quite seen from him before.

What Is ‘Napoleon’ About?

Napoleon begins with the beheading of Marie Antoinette, which the young, ambitious Corsican captain Napoleon Bonaparte watches uncaringly—almost as if she was simply a disposable obstacle for him to overcome in his quest for power. In just a few years, Napoleon rose in the ranks to general. In fifteen years, he’s the emperor of France. It doesn’t take long before Napoleon is seen as France’s Caesar, who has the potential to conquer the world.

In the nearly fifty years that Scott has been directing feature-length films, few of his films—if any—have had quite the level of size and ambition that Napoleon has. Scott starts out small, showing an early battle from Napoleon—then a captain—as there’s a very clear fear, and a dedication to prove himself, yet his genius on the battlefield can’t be understated. Even when trying to take a port from the British, we can see why Napoleon rose up the ranks. Scott shows us Napoleon’s major battles, and in doing so, we see his cleverness at work, as he utilizes a frozen river to take out his enemies at Austerlitz, right down to his miscalculation at Waterloo.

Ridley Scott and David Scarpa Bring the Brutality of War to Life
Image via Apple TV+

As we’ve seen in previous films from Scott, he never undersells the brutality of the period and the horrific reality of these situations. Antoinette’s beheading is unnerving right at the start, and the battle scenes are just as horrendous as they need to be. Cannonballs and bullets take out entire human beings, impale horses, and leave people scattered in blood and limbs. It’s also just fascinating to watch a master auteur like Scott direct a story of this magnitude and do so seemingly with ease.

But this is all material that is covered in history books, and while it’s tremendous to see Scott bring the battles and the brilliance of Napoleon to life, the most bombastic scenes Scott and screenwriter David Scarpa (reuniting with Scott for the first time since 2017’s All the Money in the World) present come from the moments at home between Napoleon and his wife, Empress Joséphine (Vanessa Kirby). Their relationship can quickly shift from unending love and devotion to betrayal and disappointment, and watching how badly they need each other speaks volumes about who these two people were.

Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby Are Excellent in ‘Napoleon’
Image via Sony Pictures/Apple TV+

This dynamic certainly wouldn’t work without Phoenix and Kirby, who are both exceptional in their personal battles. Phoenix has excelled at playing unpredictable characters, which makes him a perfect fit to take on Napoleon. Scott has said that he was inspired by Phoenix’s performance in Joker for this role, which reunites the two for the first time since Gladiator, and it’s easy to see why that performance in particular left an impression on Scott. Phoenix’s Napoleon is completely lacking any self-awareness, a character who will easily present the faults in others, while ignoring his own issues. But Phoenix makes Napoleon work as a character by presenting him as—essentially—a big baby. He may be unparalleled on the battlefield, but he’s also the type of character who is led to have sex by his mother, will argue with his wife at a dinner party, and will scream “You just think you’re so great because you have boats!” Napoleon is the type of role that Phoenix thrives in, and the match of subject and actor couldn’t be more perfect.

Yet in the relationship between Napoleon and Empress Joséphine, the latter holds all the power, and Kirby is equally great at showing her strength. Kirby’s Joséphine is a character that Napoleon can’t take his eyes off of, and the same is true for the audience, as Joséphine wraps Napoleon around her finger. She can make him abandon his soldiers in Egypt because of an affair, and can completely cause him to break down at the end of his life. Kirby’s command of each scene is fantastic, putting Napoleon in place when he needs to be, but also showing a humanity and love that he clearly needs to get by.

This combination of the personal and the massive battles works quite well because of Scarpa’s screenplay. He manages to hit all the obvious notes that this story needs to cover while imbuing them with the internal life of Napoleon that truly guides him. Napoleon covers almost thirty years in Napoleon’s life, and this screenplay manages to never feel like it’s cramming too much into 2 1/2 hours, nor does it seem like a rundown of Napoleon’s career. Scarpa’s script, along with Phoenix and Kirby’s excellent performances, makes Napoleon engrossing, frequently hilarious, and a strong compression of this towering person’s life.

Napoleon is a grand film, both in terms of Scott creating a story with a size we’ve rarely seen from him, and the bold, large choices made by a completely game Phoenix. Between films like Napoleon, The Last Duel, and 2015’s The Martian, we’re still getting peak Scott, and it’s hard to watch Napoleon and not think that Phoenix and Kirby are two of the best actors working today. It’s fascinating to watch this trifecta work together here. Napoleon might’ve been a notoriously small emperor, but there’s nothing minuscule about what Scott is doing with Napoleon.

Rating: B+

Napoleon comes to theaters in the U.S. on November 22. Click here for showtimes near you.