Mark Kermode reviews Napoleon

Mark Kermode reviews Napoleon - Kermode and Mayo's Take

okay so um Napoleon directed by Ridley

Scott from a script by David scarper the

tagline he came from nothing he

conquered everything you say that both

of those it's a great tagline complete

rubbish yeah I'm just total rubbish in

both section I'm just setting it up okay

so the film follows Napoleon's rise you

know through the the ranks of authority

to war from Warrior to Emperor from

Emperor to Exile from Victoria from you

know

Victorious uh leader to Vanquish anyway

huge battles vast Globe trotting

narrative you know we can't go into

winter it's Russia the horses won't make

it massively compressed historical

narrative and of course the Fab line

which you quoted in that interview you

think you're so great because you have

boats said to the British ambass which I

think should now be put on the you know

on on the British passports we think

we're so great because we have like he

wanted to say was I effing hate the

British I know I know however with all

that I have to say that for me the

central uh theme of this is the

relationship between Napoleon and

Josephine as you know Phoenix says it's

part historical drama part character

study there has been much praise for the

spectacular battles I should say the

spectacular battles are really Grim I

mean they first for a start they're

murky I mean they're shot kind of yeah

they're battles it's mud it's rain it's

violence it's you know people running at

each other with pointed implements and

horses getting hit by cannonballs and

you know blood it's like Saving Private

Ryan Napoleonic style I thought that the

battle scenes were horrific and I I

think they're meant to be and when you

you know people talk obviously about you

know the battle scenes huge and

spectacular they're they're Grim um it's

interesting to knowe incidentally that

that's a movie by you know Ridley Scott

who everybody used to accuse of being

all spectacle and no substance that I

think what this is the substance that's

more interesting than the spectacle so

Napoleon is not sympathetic I mean he

may be a brave Warrior on the

battlefield she calls him a brute but in

private he is a weasy little boy out

there in the world he leads armies into

death and destruction the death tolls

are astonishing and are much is made at

the end of just what the death tolls

were. 

When he's with Josephine, he is to

use a word that wackin Phoenix used in

that interview whiny bratty kind of like a 

schoolboy she exerts her power over him —

in a

in a a particular scene in which she

says to him they're sitting opposite

each other and she's sitting on a chair

and she says to him if you look down you

will see a surprise and once you see it

you will always want it 

now it takes a

very fine actor to deliver that line and

get away with it luckily Vanessa Kirby

is a very fine actor and so the whole

she's a big fan of the podcast by the

way well good that's great and she

delivers that line as you know a a

threat a tease a come on a stale I mean

there's so much power in the way she

delivers that line 

Phoenix talked in

that interview about the Absurd humor of

their relationship and I think that

absurdity is Central — I mean in fact that

on one level the movie itself is

preposterous : Ridley Scott’s Napoleon

would cover you know and I'm,

“What all of it?!”  — preposterous.

But actually that preposterousness is particularly

apposite considering the nature of their

relationship — people have talked about

the great love between 

Napoleon & Josephine;

The Love scenes are ludicrous

deliberately-so  : he makes this weird

sound when he wants to be with her 

just this kind of weird gesture you know 

I I want to be with my — and then the scenes 

of them together he's — they are they are 

played for ludicrousness —

They're not, you know, long 

languorous passionate scenes;

quite the opposite, they are 

perfunctory and canine in 

the way that they're Played-out —

the madness of him crawling

underneath the table and during that

scene about you know why aren't you

pregnant yet the other thing that I

think which hasn't quite been flagged

enough is this is a film that manages to

portray Josephine as a sexually

independent strong woman without ever

demonizing her for it she is who she is

you take it or leave it she asks him

straight off right at the beginning I

have a past is that going to be an issue

and he says no she takes lovers she she

says to him have you had lovers he says

oh oh yes yes you think no you haven't

no you haven't it's just what she does

she's completely charismatic she's also

three-dimensional I mean when she said

in that interview you know first that

she wants a kind of you know distance

avoidance thing with him but then later

on she thinks that she genuinely does

love him she's never portrayed as a

demonized force and this is very unusual

for mainstream C to do something that

and I think that's it's partly to do

with the filming but I think a lot of it

is to do with Vanessa Kirby coming in

and taking control of that role and

making it the kind of lightning rod at

the heart of the film as for Phoenix's

Napoleon I mean he's a narcissistic

lunatic he's kind of like a a calicular

figure actually weirdly enough in terms

of performance there are flashes in his

performance of Malcolm mcdow's cular

petulent whiny brtish also his previous

Emperor for Ridley Scott kodus

is exactly that kind of exactly and

those things they not you know you know

what a fantastic uh you know uh

admirable leader quite the opposite

whiny bratty and brave in as much as the

winter is coming we have to stop no

we're going to carry on oh look

everyone's freezing to death there are a

couple of other performances is worth

mentioning rer Everett is very very good

he is as Sensational as Wellington just

having a fantastic time it looks like

he's drunk an entire bottle of

bitterness and fantastic uh you know and

thank heavens for the for the support um

there was that weird thing when you

compared you said that you know people

have said that uh Tony Scott is like

Napoleon the weird thing when you said

that Ridley Scott is like Napoleon but

he's a benevolent dictator actually the

comparison is between uh uh Ridley Scott

and Stan kuri because of course Stanley

kubric tried for years to get a Napoleon

project together he you know he

researched it it was called the greatest

movie never made uh he just never got it

done abble G's version originally wanted

it to be six films you know even though

the the the the end result of that

Napoleon is considered to be one of the

greatest works of Cinema it wasn't the

full thing that he wanted to do Ridley

Scott just went I'm going to make

Napoleon oh there we are I've made

Napoleon apparently there is a

director's cut coming later on which is

4 hours that we'll come to

yeah coming to Apple TV but so you know

if you look in the history of Cinema you

know the fact that that Ry Scott just

went I'm going to do Napoleon there we

are I've done Napoleon I mean man he

shoots fast 62 days the whole film took

breathtaking breathtaking you know

kurick decades didn't happen abble G

huge amount of su and only did some of

what he wanted to do but I do think that

at the end of it the thing that makes

the film interesting is the portrait of

aoon as this whiny weasly bratty

narcissistic ciglar like figure and the

portrait of Josephine as a strong

independent um three-dimensional

character who absolutely has the measure

of him at the beginning of him and and I

think Vanessa Kirby is the key to it I

think those people who think that uh

Ridley Scott likes events not

explanation will find this as more more

proof of that I think the events are

better than the explanation in terms of

who Napoleon was and who he there is no

explanation as to why he is that guy

there is no explanation as to like for

example the incredible reforms that he

passed the man who reintroduced slavy

reintroduced slavy into the French

colonies where you know where is that

going there are other people like Andrew

Roberts historian who said he was the

Enlightenment on a horse that's how

where where is that where is that

Napoleon so I don't think so when and

when Ridley Scot that's a great phrase

when challenged by Dan snow and others

about the historical accuracy instead of

saying it's a film I've just done a

version he has this Preposterous line

where he says were you there no well

shut up then or stronger language that's

not how history worked absolutely that's

not how history worked so I do think

Ridley needs a little bit of firm media

yes but I want I want to be clear

firstly I'm reviewing the film not the

history exactly and secondly Ridley has

always been like that Ridley has always

been like that anyway it's it's

spectacular if you get a chance to see

it on a big screen do that before it's

on your laptop or your phone because but

the battle scenes are brutal they're not

lavish and G glorious they are but it's

like Gladiator you know it is it's

brutal stuff also when I said Commodus

Emperor Commodus it wasn't Mark Commodus

obviously it was Oh I thought he' played

me oh well he could do he could play me

wacking would be great he would I mean

you know he did Johnny Cash he could do

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