[ad_1]
Written by Cynthia Biddlecombe
Los Alamos
Ridley Scott’s latest film, Napoleon, is worth seeing for its period details and epic battle scenes alone. The film is intended to be a biopic of Napoleon Bonaparte. In fact, his dying words are quoted at the end, in case you missed the point. His three loves, “France…the Army…Josephine”, appear to motivate this complex character, perhaps in that order.
Joaquin Phoenix (2020 Best Actor Oscar winner for Joker) plays Bonaparte, a classic outsider from the French island of Corsica, an officer with a flair for military strategy, and a clumsy and often short-tempered lover. , a loyal Frenchman who is tired of the idiots trying to rule him. After a nasty revolution. He won the loyalty of his army, even if it wasn’t his wife Josephine in the first place. His popularity leads him to place a crown on his own head when he is appointed leader of the nation.
The film provides an overview of this period of European history (1793-1815), and shows changes in trade and military alliances. At that time, wars were commonplace, with multilateral alliances fighting each other. Napoleon was a man of his time and a military man at heart. He leads the Alliance to war on many fronts, leading his nation against competing trade alliances. It must have been difficult for Ridley Scott to choose which of Napoleon’s 61 battles to recreate. It was also clearly difficult to provide consistent clues about Bonaparte’s personality.
Opposite Joaquin Phoenix is Vanessa Kirby (Princess Margaret from 2016-18 in The Crown). She plays Josephine de Beauharnais, the widowed Duchess when Bonaparte meets her. He is captivated by her beauty and, after many failures, convinces his girlfriend to marry him. She seems fascinated by his strength and focus. There was evidence of an inner kindness within him that she could glimpse early on. It was a committed marriage, but a troubled and emotionally codependent one.
Napoleon is 158 minutes long and quickly travels through 22 eventful years. The passage of time is not clearly shown in the video. The caption displays the name of the year and event depicted. As we begin to learn more, such as why Napoleon is making this man so excited and when his mother comes to the palace to show him around, the movie moves on to decidedly more interesting battles.
On a positive note, I have to admit that this movie is beautifully shot. The epic battle scenes are staged using thousands of extras, horses, and cannons. In palaces and castles, surviving aristocrats wear luxurious gowns, suits, and uniforms. This movie is a visual feast.
However, Napoleon is rated R for “strong violence, some gruesome footage, sexual content, and brief language.” In fact, the historical stage is set with the beheading of Marie Antoinette at the beginning of the film. (Guys, the bleeding, severed head is just a prop.)
No matter what anyone thinks about this movie, it has to be said that audiences are likely to leave the theater with more questions about Bonaparte and the history of Europe than when they entered.
[ad_2]
Source link