Napoleon - Apple TV+ - Ridley Scott & Joaquin Phoenix

Homelander

I wouldn't say this is a bad film. It's pretty well made, looks great, and the performances are good.

It's just far, far too much to cram into a single movie and it completely fails to capture what Napoleon was trying to do, his motives, and what his actual achievements were.

It skips entire years randomly with almost zero context for the latest situation/battle being portrayed.

It would be like watching a biopic about Hitler and it suddenly jumps from the invasion of Poland to the Battle of Kursk or D-Day with basically no context offered.

I would say it's worth watching, but it's messy and a pretty terrible biopic. It almost treats the viewer like they should possess a working history of the Napoleonic era.

Would have been far better if they focused on something far more specific, eg how he came to power, how he reached the height of power, the disastrous invasion of Russia, or whatever.

Still I'd rate it worth a watch.

murpho999

Saw this yesterday and was disappointed.

It was spectacular and has great production values but I come out of it knowing little more about Napoleon than I did before.

The focus is mainly on his relationship with Josephine which in itself could be a film, as they had an interesting and unusual love affair so for me this was more of a "Napoleon and Josephine" film than a Napoleon biopic.

Hardly anything of his background or rise to power is shown or his reasoning for campaigning and for that I don't think he has been done justice as one of the world's most famous and divisive political figures.

I am also annoyed at the historical inaccuracies and I'm not accepting Scott's curt response to the journalist a few weeks ago when asking "Were you there?"".

The movie is presented as a true story, not an alternative history and even backs the story up with battle death toll statistics at the end so to completely fictionalise parts of his story is just wrong.

Foxtrol

Quite a mess of a movie. First time in a while that I saw people get up and leave from an IMAX given the cost to get in and how awkward it is to get out.

All the pieces were there for something great but there was no coherent plan of what the story they wanted to tell. It was a random selection of moments of Napoleon's life that didn't really fit together, nor show his character developing.

Production values were good but again no idea why they decided to just suck all the colour out of it - why was everything having a losing fight with grey?

Weird attempts at comedy throughout, at times it felt someone had watched too many Marvel movies with quippy one liners that didn't fit.

Final weird decision was the accents. Can't fathom how no one put a halt to the complete inconsistency of characters from the same and different nations. I normally let that stuff go but it totally pulls you out of the experience when you have to think about it as it doesn't make any sense.

AMKC

So seen it today. It was OK. Some great scenes and battles in it. Some of it was hard to hear. Regretted not going to see it with subtitles .

Some great scenes in it and some depressing ones too.

Spoiler Warning

Hem having sex with her for instance. He was supposed to love her yet treated her like a sex toy. I supposed thats how it was back then. Women were not supposed to or not allowed to enjoy sex 😞

BuffaloTengo

Saw it at the weekend, loved it. Ridley Scott is one of the few filmmakers to get me into a cinema for a 2 hour 40 min film. One of his strengths is creating a world and putting the viewer in it.

I’m not a Napoleon scholar, if a film takes historical liberties fine, just entertain me. To quote a line from another Scott film, Are you not entertained?! Well I certainly was.

santana75

Saw it last night and overall I thought it was good. Like others have commented though, I came out not really knowing much about Napoleon, it was a fairly disjointed film, hopping from one campaign to the next without much explanation. The battle scenes were top, as was the acting. I mean the scale of the thing is immense, its all up there on the screen but I think there was a better movie in there, given the source material. Also as a side note, The music score seemed to be similar to Barry lyndon, especially for the final battle and Im wondering if this was intentional given that Stanley kubrick had worked for years on a film about napoleon but abandoned the project in favor of Lyndon. Even the scenes by candlelight seemed reminiscent of those in barry lyndon

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121428877#Comment_121428877

one reviewer mentioned the Lyndon film as how to film battle sequences, use tight shots to only show parts of a battle to make it more realistic if you are on a budget or dont have access to the Soviet Army (Waterloo)

Tombo2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121424541#Comment_121424541

Not having watched the movie, I think nonetheless this is enough to put me off. His relationship with Josephine was certainly not what defined or distinquished Napoleon. Sounds a bit like if you made a movie about Macron that looked only at his relationship with his older partner, and omitted to record his presidency. Who cares.

I read a fairly detailed biography of Napoleon recently, certainly an interesting man but this sounds like a no-no.

Rowley Birkin QC

Did anyone else catch, what I've decided has to have been, a totally bizarre refence to a well known video of a man being arrested?

WrenBoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121431929#Comment_121431929

I let out a laugh at that, not sure if intentional but what are the odds its a coincidence like ?

WrenBoy

I wonder if there's a directors cut ? Seemed like large chunks were cut to me, especially his campaigns which were cut quite short in my opinion.

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121441576#Comment_121441576

Yeah, Ridley Scott has already confirmed a longer director's cut version - potentially around four hours - will be released on Apple TV+.

Fysh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121441576#Comment_121441576

Apparently there has been talk from Scott that the version which will arrive on Apple TV+ will have a 4 hour runtime. Whether that is a better version or simply a longer one is another question...

Dick phelan

Very disappointing. Apart from the visuals of the battle scenes. A complete mess. Skips massive chunks of time and provided no background or context of major events. Spends way too much time focusing on his relationship with Josephine. Failed to show what a brilliant military commander he was.

Phoenix doesn't capture the charisma Napoleon had and why he was able to become emperor. Major events like his invasion of Egypt and Russia are only given a few minutes. Would have been better to do a proper TV series.

Spon Farmer

I went in expecting it to be 50% Napoleon and Josephine and 50% Napoleon’s greatest battles so I was disappointed that half of the battles were only the opening charge.

However, it is very well made and great performances. It has made me want to pick up a few history books to learn more about his mother and Waterloo (was the battle really over that quickly?

NAPOLEON & JOSEPHINE is a much more suitable title

Butson

The Austerlitz battle scene was fantastic.

I think the easy thing would have been to reem through all his famous battles but really he was such a complex character and Josephine had such a profound impact on him.

Can crib about historical inaccuracies (Pyramids did look cool though) but most people going to watch a movie couldn't care less. Phoenix was immense as usual.

I enjoyed it and do look forward to the directors cut to fill in the obvious gaps.

El Duda

Napoleon – 4/10

Nap-ole-on and on and on...

Outside of the battle scenes, this is exactly as dull and tiresome as I expected.

Foxtrol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121462492#Comment_121462492

I didn't feel they did a good job digging into complexity of his character.

It was more they flashed to him at different times of his life and for the most part he was the weird way he was and didn't really develop.

Decuc500

Thought this was a beautiful and immersive movie. Phoenix was excellent. Finally a 'blockbuster' movie made with artistry and care that was worth a trip to the cinema.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121441602#Comment_121441602

I think that might be the version I'll wait for.

A buddy of mine went to see it and simply said "You'll hate it".

😄

I also heard that he blows up the pyramids during the French campaign at the turn of the century?

Oh dear...

Montage of Feck

A solid good looking film, as you'd expect from Scott but left me disappointed. Maybe it's too much to expect an adequate portrayal in a popcorn movie, the result wasn't historically accurate or particularly exciting.

Should have been a series or focused on a particular campaign such as Egypt.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121513499#Comment_121513499

A trilogy could have worked really nicely without some axe-grinding Brit making a mess of it. One could take three moments: Napoleon's rise & Austerlitz, Leipzig/Moscow & Waterloo and build up to each with plenty of room to flesh him out.

Instead, we got this.

Agent Coulson

The next Apple film to go to VOD and hitting the high seas today before it actually gets released on AppleTV+

expectationlost

really weird considering how many deaths he was responsible for that people are on here describing him as successful and a great military leader

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121602841#Comment_121602841

How would one be a great military leader without causing many deaths?

bodhrandude

Enjoyed it, not knowing the definite history I thought it was visually amazing, the eye for detail and period drama opulence I thought was brilliant and the battle scenes were amazing.

expectationlost

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121603234#Comment_121603234

fight as little as rarely as possible.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121604744#Comment_121604744

What point are you trying to make here?

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121602841#Comment_121602841

Do you know what an oxymoron is? Because you're really close, if not bang on, here.

How can one be a "great military leader" and not be responsible for death? By virtue of the fact that Napoleon led his armies to a number of victories (some of which are quite remarkable) obviously means that he is responsible for the death within the ranks of the armies he defeated.

thinkabouit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121604745#Comment_121604745

Maybe a truly great leader doesn’t get 3 million soldier’s killed under their leadership.