Ridley Scott’s ‘Napoleon’ paints a fairer picture of the Emperor than any depictions in British history
Ridley Scott and Joaquin Phoenix occasionally paint Napoleon as someone to be pitied but for the most part he is portrayed as brilliant in mind, brave in motion, and more complex a character than we’d ever thought.
If you think you have too much drama going on in your life, spare a thought for Napoleon. Becoming an army general at 26 and having led no less than 80 battles throughout his life, the Emperor had it pretty tough compared to most world leaders.
Once stating he craved peace above military action, Napoleon has often been pictured through history as a bit of a cuck, especially when that history is being painted by British writers and artists. But not director Ridley Scott.
Scott’s recent biopic Napoleon doesn’t butch the situation up much, either, no matter how many wars the man led, lost or won. From the first images we see onscreen of Joaquin Phoenix’s uncanny portrayal of the general-come-emperor, he appears very vulnerable. Or maybe it’s just that twinkle in Joaquin’s eye when he faces a camera directly that makes him look like a kid giddy on his first day of school. With that one glint you temporarily forget you’re about to watch the life story of the man responsible for some three million deaths.
Scott had his directorial work cut out for him. Forget that tens of thousands of troupes had to be captured and generated on screen, the director then throws in a trio of elements to make his battlegrounds the most challenging. Through Ridley’s lens, troupes fight one another under rainfall, snow and scorching sun – and that’s a heck of a lot of action for a director to take on.
The director does a good job at condensing the Emperor’s life down to two and a half hours, picking key battles to focus on and ensuring every scene is epic. Even when a scene is just a two-hander – like when Napoleon and his mind-wandering wife are at it cosplay-style – the moment is less intimate, more massive.
History would generally have you believe that Napoleon was an awkward imp for the most part, one of his most famous portraits being that of him looking pudgy, his right hand tucked into his left bib… like a kind of crutch. Again, it’s good to remember much of that history was written by the Brits, who were on the losing end of some major battles with the French.
Despite descriptions of ‘saviour’ and ‘peacemaker’ that facilitated Napoleon’s rise to power in 1799, art and literature – particular that of British origin – would have you believe he was a right twat. When you hear him whinge to the British commander, “You think you’re so great because you have boats” you can’t help but think of him as precocious (cue a few dozen memes on TikTok).
The British have always behaved as if their morals were of a higher ground than those of the French.
The scowls of disgust on the face of the Duke of Wellington, played in vile style by Rupert Everett, are enough to make even the greatest Francophile despise the French Emperor, no matter which side you may stand in any given battle situation. Everett, ever the patronising English consul keen to impress us with his wit, wisdom and irony, can’t help but make you laugh at his stuffier-than-thou attitude. It’s so caricaturist, I was waiting for him to break out in some Monty Python-type dance routine.
Rupert Everett as the Duke of Wellington: stiff upper lip, stuffy attitude, and just short of choking on the plum in his mouth.
Ridley Scott and Joaquin Phoenix do regularly paint Napoleon as someone to be pitied but they’re also eager to present his brilliance in strategising, braveness in his motion; as a more complex character than we’d ever imagined. Sometimes the man was cunning, sometimes he was careless, occasionally he was an arrogant brute, but always he was a go-getter, fuelled by spirit as much as by monopoly of land. He did once say, “There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.”
Both director and actor also present him as unwavering – right up to the point of the disastrous French invasion of Russia in 1812, after which Napoleon abdicated the throne and was exiled the island of Elba. Still, you don’t go into 80-plus wars and win around 80% of them if you’re constantly quivering in your boots.
Napoleon is a well-produced, if not over-produced, film that depicts the legacy and notoriety of a dictator in equal measure. It certainly paints a fairer picture of the general-come-emperor than any film before it, British, American, or French.
‘Napolean’ is in cinemas now.
Discover more from
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
