Napoleon – My Favorite Ice Cream Flavor

Napoleon is the story of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and his rise to power alongside his wife Josephine.

I had a very positive theater experience. My wife and I headed to the movies after Thanksgiving dinner, making it the third straight year we’ve done so, officially turning it into a tradition (Previously we’ve seen Encanto and Glass Onion on Thanksgiving night).

I seem to disagree with a lot of the discourse about this film. Most things I’ve read online talk about the film feeling disjointed and poorly structured. I completely disagree. For a biopic, jumping around in time to tell someone’s life story is common, and while this film is missing a need for a narrative push forward, it never feels like it loses momentum or like we’re watching something pointless.

Joaquin Pheonix’s portrayal of Napoleon is great, essentially playing a child in a man’s body. He is a truly pathetic man, but that’s what makes his rise to power so interesting to watch unfold. Perhaps the better performance is Vanessa Kirby as Josephine, Napoleon’s beloved wife. I’m sure she’ll have more screentime in Scott’s director’s cut (which I am excited to watch one day). Their strange, toxic relationship was the highlight of the film for me.

The film does a great job of showing the horrors of war. Director Ridley Scott does not shy away from the violence and gore required to tell a story of this magnitude. People are killed in the most gruesome of ways without fanfare, most of it the fault of our titular Napoleon. This is hammered home with the on-screen text at the end of the film, giving us the death toll of various battles Napoleon lead – over three million. It sent chills down my spine in the theater.

While criticized for its historical inaccuracies, I didn’t know any better, and therefore I did not care. Maybe if I was a historian, this film would’ve been highly offensive to me. However, focusing on the story and filmmaking techniques, I did not care that Scott took creative liberties with how Napoleon shot cannonballs at the Pyramids. It was a powerful and chilling moment, and that’s what affected me.

I had a good time with this. It certainly could’ve been better – but as a film it does a good job of showing Napoleon as both a stunning leader and an absolute fool. The nuance of this dichotomy makes this film fascinating. It is a modern day Barry Lyndon.