Napoleon Review: a lot to pack in a two-and-a-half hour movie

First off, I liked it. If you’re thinking of seeing it, go. In a glut of bad reboots, sequels, and superhero movies, it’s refreshing to get something historical at this scale for a change. I hope we reward Hollywood for it at the box office and get more.

As you may know, I’m a huge history and military buff. The Napoleonic era is probably my favorite. I’m not an expert in it, but I certainly love visiting. This movie did what I wanted it to do, it took me there. The sets and costumes looked authentic and live-in. The weapons and action sequences felt real. 

At first look, I didn’t think Joaquin Phoenix looked like Napoleon but he sold it to me as the film went on. I’ve always thought Phoenix was weird and creepy, which is why I didn’t like him as Johnny Cash, but he captured the Emperor’s awkward social ineptness perfectly. Honestly, I couldn’t imagine anyone else doing a better job. 

I won’t go too much into historical accuracy because, as I’ve said, I am no expert in the Napoleonic era. I feel they got the main beats correct but certainly compressed and oversimplified many events, as we do when we hammer very complex history into a novel or movie. The movie does this abundantly. So much so that I think people who aren’t familiar with the history might be lost and confused about what’s going on. It felt like a quick dash through these events when there was so much more story to be told. I felt the Battles of Austerlitz and Waterloo suffered from this immensely. The scale seemed grossly underwhelming as well. If you want to see a truer depiction, watch the 1970 film Waterloo. In fact, you could watch the Napoleon movie up to the first abdication, then switch to the 1970 Waterloo for the rest. It has Christopher Plummer as Sir Author Wesley which brings up another one of my nitpicks. The guy in Napoleon was too old to be forty-six-year-old Wellesley. I think he could certainly play Prime Minister Wellesley during Victoria’s reign, but seemed out of place in this movie.

The theatrical release was about two and a half hours. I understand there’ll be an over four-hour version on Apple+. That might fix the pacing problem. Napoleon’s life and career are quite a bit to be stuffed into a single movie. This might have served better as a series. Regardless of my critiques, I’m grateful to have it. I think this was a win for us historical novelists. The big blockbuster movies can do much to get people interested in history and perhaps interested in our books as well. We’ll see. I hope you go see Napoleon too and please, tell me what you think.

In the meantime, check out Book 1 of my series. Book 5, The Prussian Prince, comes out early 2024.