Historical Inaccuracies and Myth-Making of Napoleo

Let's Loosen Up and Embrace the Historical Inaccuracies and Myth-Making of 'Napoleon'
BY
SAMUEL WILLIAMSON
11/30/23
Fate has brought me this fantastic Ridley Scott movie.

Joaquin Phoenix covering his ears in Napoleon
THE BIG PICTURE
 Ridley Scott's Napoleon captures the essence of the historical figure better than anything before, trading truths for instantly iconic images and giving a damn for making cool art.
 Scott takes creative liberties, presenting a crash course through Napoleon's life rather than a traditional biopic, in order to capture the enormity of his myth and showcase his epic life.
 Joaquin Phoenix delivers a caricatured, grim-yet-goofy portrayal of Napoleon, aiming to capture the essence of the historical titan while providing moments of humor and highlighting his dysfunctional relationship with his wife.

These days, a lot of movies could use a real vibe check, don't you think? It seems as though Ridley Scott thinks so. With the release of his latest historical epic, Napoleon, Scott is back! And this time, he's here to school everyone in ditching our textbooks and playing straight for the vibe. Over the last few weeks, it seems as though everyone and their mother has come out of the woodwork with a Ph.D. in the study of the Napoleonic War and the French Revolution. Grab your tissue box, Bonheads, because Napoleon is historically inaccurate. I know, I'm devastated too. But wait, let's take a step back for a second... in a sea of Napoleon Bonaparte-based books, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and more, this one threw the facts in the trash and chased the myth of Napoleon instead? And people are upset about that?

Napoleon New Film Poster
Napoleon
An epic that details the checkered rise and fall of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and his relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his wife, Josephine.

Release Date
November 22, 2023
Director
Ridley Scott
Cast
Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Ben Miles, Ludivine Sagnier
Rating
R
Runtime
157
Main Genre
Biopic

Ridley Scott's Napoleon is a fascinating piece of biographical filmmaking. Instead of aiming for the facts, Scott and Joaquin Phoenix made a movie that captures the idea of Napoleon Bonaparte better than anything before it. Truths are traded for instantly iconic images, accents are exchanged for a dominating physicality, and giving a damn is abandoned for making cool art. There are people out there who find Napoleon slow and a bit narratively jumbled (bring on the four-hour cut!), and those are justified criticisms. But in a world where movies are consistently abandoning epic storytelling in favor of delivering uninspired depictions of well-trodden stories, something's gotta change. Audiences and artists have to learn to loosen up a bit and let myth-making take the reins again. Thankfully, Ridley and Joaquin are here to save the day.


Napoleon Bonaparte is One of the Most Well Documented Figures in History

If you're unfamiliar with the fine details of the life of Napoleon Bonaparte, you're probably at least aware of who he is. Everyone has at least heard about the short, globe-trotting Emperor of France, or, at some point, heard the term "Napoleon complex". If you're interested in learning more, there are plenty of resources out there for you to study this guy's life with. On the other hand, if you're only intrigued by the idea of this historical figure, and would like to see Joaquin Phoenix dressed up in the best Halloween costume ever, and want to see Ridley Scott go to town on some gobsmacking battle scenes, then I've got the movie for you. It's called Napoleon, and it rocks.

Now, if you're a history nut, and you can't stand the idea of artists taking a bit of creative liberty with the lives of figures like Napoleon a bit, then yes, you are bound to run into a little bit of trouble with this one. However, perhaps you should allow me a moment of your time to persuade you otherwise. This is a movie about Napoleon Bonaparte by Ridley Scott. You know, the director of movies like Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, and The Last Duel, which does, in fact, rip! That alone should excite you, and considering its successful opening weekend, Napoleon obviously excited a great number of people! But bear with me here. Ridley Scott is the kind of guy that operates best when he's given the biggest canvas possible. He is not necessarily known for capturing beautiful character moments or anything. Scott is a maximalist. And what historical figure is best suited for a maximalist biopic? Napoleon!


Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon charging into battle with a sword
RELATED

'Napoleon' Review: Ridley Scott and Joaquin Phoenix Blow Up History
Starring Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby, Ridley Scott's latest is one of his most grandiose projects to date.
Napoleon isn't the most traditional biopic ever made, though. There's a lot to tell, after all. This is a guy who conquered a great chunk of the world over a pretty vast period of time and had plenty going on at home in the meantime. So, instead of sitting in each moment and getting to know what makes every figure around Bonaparte tick, we're quickly checking off the boxes for every major event that he was a part of. Napoleon flies through its 28 years of history and does so without hardly ever looking back. Major milestones in his life go by in a flash, with new title cards coming up on screen to tell us that we've jumped another year ahead every five minutes or so. I can see why this might drive some people nuts.

Ridley Scott Tells the Myth of Napoleon
Vanessa Kirby and Joaquin Phoenix in NapoleonImage via Apple TV+

But why does Ridley do this? It seems to me that, more than anything, Scott isn't as interested in the nitty-gritty of Napoleon's life. Political interactions, battle sequences, and major events in life are merely glimpsed, because it seems that Scott is more interested in capturing the enormity of this man's myth. You can't capture the micro and macro moments of his life with flawless historical accuracy in close to three hours and expect this movie to be good. It just isn't happening. So instead, this movie is gunning for an epic vibe. It's easy to imagine Scott off to the side of the theater whispering to the audience, "Oh, you think that's all this guy did? Well, let me show you what he did next." And then we're off to the next conquest.

Scott captures everything in the widest scope possible with the most enormous sets that you can imagine. It will break your brain trying to figure out how they pulled everything in this movie off, and it seems that Scott is going this sensory-driven route to try and break your brain as to how Napoleon accomplished everything in real life. This movie has an unfathomably large scale because it's hard to comprehend how this man lived such an epic life.


Instead of giving us a multi-semester course on his travels and accomplishments, Scott is giving you a two-and-a-half-hour crash course. He's presenting a round-the-world slideshow, spraying you with a fake-blood-filled water gun, dunking ice all over you, scorching you with a heat lamp, and shooting off fireworks, all while hoping that you walk away with some semblance of the life that this man lived. And while you might look up and say "Wait a minute, Napoleon didn't fire cannons at the Pyramids!" or "Napoleon wasn't at the beheading of Marie Antoinette!", just let Scott go there. This is about building further and expanding upon this man's myth. He was a larger-than-life figure, so for the sake of this one single movie in a sea of other Napoleon content, let's shake it all off and have some fun. Sure, Napoleon shot a cannon at the Pyramids. Why not?

Joaquin Phoenix Delivers a Grim-Yet-Goofy Napoleon Performance
Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt Image via Sony Pictures/Apple TV+

Even Phoenix seems to be aiming for a caricature of Napoleon, rather than digging for the real deal. Instead of sporting a perfectly crafted, 18th-century French accent, Joaquin struts around with a smug-yet-buffoonish air about him. His performance is centered around the physicality of Napoleon more than anything; the way that he dominates a room in the presence of world leaders, his scowl when someone hits him with bad news, and his unaffected posture when riding up to an opposing infantry of soldiers. You get the idea. It might not be the right way to play a real-life figure, but it's the right way to play Napoleon in this movie. Had Phoenix thrown in a Pep; Le Pew accent and Scott captured Napoleon in a way that makes him look shorter than everyone else, we would have just ended up with a cartoonish movie. In the same way that Scott aims to capture the grandiosity of this man's life story, Phoenix aims to portray the idea of Napoleon without venturing into parody. Like Scott, Phoenix seems uninterested in capturing the little moments. This is about depicting the essence of a historical titan.


That being said, this version of Napoleon is also a total goof. When he isn't busy leading the charge into battle, he's having sex for the millionth time, crawling under a dining room table while snorting like a pig, and proclaiming that "Fate has brought me this lamb chop." Sometimes, this feels like it's meant to give him a little more humanity. Other times, it just feels like Ridley Scott is letting Joaquin Phoenix veer into a bit of absurdist territory. Seriously, try not to laugh when Phoenix furiously wails "You think you are so great because you have boats!" at a British diplomat. Don't get it twisted, Scott and Phoenix are in on the joke too. This might be the most important man of his time, but he also was a terrible person in many ways. Why not make him look like a bit of a clown?

'Napoleon' is Not a Soulless Film, but It's Not a Sentimental One Either
Napoleon (Joaquin Phoenix) movie posterImage via Apple

At its core, Napoleon is largely a sensory epic. It does have a heartbeat, however — a heart that is similarly uninterested in historical accuracies and more concerned with giving this film a soul. It's a dark, twisted, and occasionally hilarious soul, but a soul nonetheless. For the entire film, Napoleon longs for his wife, Jos;phine, who is played fantastically by Vanessa Kirby. She goes head-to-head with Phoenix like it's nothing. Although Napoleon and Jos;phine's relationship is awfully one-sided and highly dysfunctional, it is a fascinating note for Scott to keep calling the story back to. We don't harbor nearly as much about his successive sieges as much as we do his desire to be with his wife. That part of the story ends up going in some pretty hairy directions, but considering the way this movie wraps up, it's safe to say that Napoleon is more than just an exercise in epic filmmaking.

Whether you've given Napoleon a chance or not, maybe we should all reconfigure what we want out of historical films in the first place. Sure, if it's a story that's hardly been told, then maybe we should cover the story accurately a few times before liberties start being taken. However, with someone like Napoleon Bonaparte, the story has been covered plenty. If we're dealing with artists like Ridley Scott and Joaquin Phoenix, maybe we should submit to the choices of the artist rather than submitting purely to fact. Sometimes, a movie's vibe needs to be nothing but a big, weighty, sensory-driven epic. That is what Napoleon is. Thanks again, Ridley.