Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Napoleon (2023) - Scott's best in many years, a thumping epic

12/09/2023

Napoleon (2023) - Scott's best in many years, a thumping epic

♥♥♥♥♥

A wild scene of fierce battle makes up the striking motif in this poster for Ridley Scott's Napoleon

Corsican army officer Napoleon Bonaparte rises in the years following the French revolution of 1788, by 1804 becoming Emperor of France. His countless military battles around Europe and beyond it and his passionate but childless marriage to empress Joséphine define the man.

Napoleon is written by David Scarpa (All the Money in the World (2017)), based on the real historical figure, and directed by English master filmmaker, co-producer/director Ridley Scott (The Duelists (1977)), whose 28th feature it is.

Opening with a brutal, vivid rendering of the execution of Marie Antoinette, France's last queen, Scott intentionally throws his audience immediately into a fantastic, adventurous depiction of a severely different time and place than the common day, - anywhere that it may be lived on this earth. Napoleon springs along without wasting time, to various countries and battles, with a narrative anchor in the central love story, which is never shown with present-day affinities but rather with unflattering, somewhat theatrical, perhaps honest insight into the actual marriage. Co-producer/star Joaquin Phoenix (Irrational Man (2015)) is the man to lift such a bombastic mega-ego commander on the big screen and gives a memorable performance, and Vanessa Kirby (Kill Command (2016)) is very good as Joséphine, although the character is invariably reactive in nature: He conquers; she largely home-sits. And fails to get pregnant, which was her main job. The importance of this ultimate failure is dealt with seriously, and is part of the film's incredible allure.

Helping to build the bulky, striding picture are also incredible costumes, locations and battle scenes, - the Austerlitz battle is especially captivating, but there are striking images and a very engaging sense of primal, boyishly gleeful but of course deadly serious 'war' about all the battles in Napoleon. Dariusz Wolski's (War Machine (2017)) cinematography is wonderfully free of the now so often seen soaring drone shots that reveal a mass of CGI-created details. This film's digital effects are never glaring; and the achieved realism helps transport us to this far-away time and place. Martin Phipps (Black Mirror (2011-16)) relishes the film with strong musical choices, classical and some more idiosyncratic, but all apt and commendable. The film also has some noteworthy supporting actors; Paul Rhys (Borgia (2013-14)) as the French foreign minister is fantastic, and so is Rupert Everett (Muse (2019)) as the Duke of Wellington. The film is a deft display of Scott's unsentimental knack for bravado storytelling, entertaining the masses and telling a great story at the same time. This French legend strikes one as very French here, while the sub-level humor and brazen, unadorned form is very English.

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Prometheus (2012) or, Even Then, Space Eggs Were Bad News
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2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

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Robin Hood (2010) - R. Scott's grand film of the English legend

2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

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Body of Lies (2008) - R. Scott's terror actioner is a fatiguing turkey

2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

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American Gangster (2007) - Great American - now black - gangster picture
A Good Year (2006) - Ridley Scott likes Provence

Matchstick Men (2003) - Great Cage job highlights entertaining Scott crime dramedy

Hannibal (2001) - Grisly highlights in low-yielding Scott sequel

2000 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Gladiator (2000) - Experience the grandeur of the Roman Empire in Scott's dramatic masterpiece

G.I. Jane (1997) or, The Amazing Seal Woman!

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Alien (1979) or, Space Eggs Are Bad News

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 200 mil. $

Box office: 140.1 mil. $ and counting

= Too early to say

[Napoleon premiered 14 November (Paris) and runs 157 minutes. Shooting took place from February - May 2022 in England, Paris, France, Morocco and in Malta. The film opened #2, behind The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, to a 32.7 mil. $ first (5-day) weekend, falling out of the top 5 in its 2nd weekend in North America. Together with Martin Scorsese's The Killers of the Flower Moon, it is the first major theatrical picture from Apple Studios, who will also base the two films' success criteria on their performance on their streaming service as well as at the 2024 Oscars. The film has been criticized for a long list of historical inaccuracies/creative inventions; Scott has told the critical historians to "shut the fuck up". He has also stated that he hopes to later release a 4 hour 10 minutes long director's cut version of the film with more about Joséphine. Scott returns with Gladiator 2 (2024). Phoenix returns in Polaris (2024). Napoleon is rotten at 58 % with a 6.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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