Control Review: Napoleon
I, Daniel Trump, aka Dalton Lewis, watched a movie called Napoleon. It was, not surprisingly, a big, overwhelming biopic by a famous director about the titular world leader. I expected brilliance — the director is Ridley Scott, director of Gladiator, Alien, and Kingdom of Heaven — which is a favorite of my family because it’s big, bold, has a wonderful cast of characters and shows something that feels real in the midst of the far past.
I don’t know. I didn’t love it more than life itself. It was kind of okay, to tell the truth.
This feels like a story that is showing the reality of a man who fights countless battles, often as the head of the army, and wins almost all of those fights. Tsar Alexander and the other heads of state from the time show up, and they mostly fight over who gets to stop Napoleon from taking over the world — or securing peace for France.
A lot of the movie concerns his obsession with a woman, Josephine, played by Vanessa Kirby as someone who may or may not be trusted to have Napoleon’s best interests at heart. She may or may not betray him repeatedly in the story. I think that she is an interesting woman — having to do scary things to survive in a society which degrades women and encourages them to do whatever men tell them to do. Her stance that she has to be able to stand up for herself makes the character effective.
The movie starts out with a captain — Napoleon — needing to take a fort in order to stop some ships in order to secure a victory over the English. It provides for a big introductory action sequence in which Napoleon must use his intellect to win a giant battle and impress the French government that he be their leader.
Napoleon ends up in war after war. He fights battle after battle in which tens of thousands of people die. I don’t know if he could have avoided any of these fights, but maybe he should have. The numbers are frightening — he lost a lot of soldiers, especially in Russia during the winter. Never fight a land war in Asia — that’s good advice.
Things degenerate. He stops being able to predict everything. He stops being able to out-think everyone, every time. People begin to understand Napoleon’s strategies and tactics and use everything they have to try to combat them. He fights with the other leaders of France. His people don’t trust him; he doesn’t trust them.
He obsesses about having an heir. He thinks that his son will rule France once he is old and no longer able to be in charge. He is clearly delusional — he does not see the reality of the crumbling situation around him.
To be emperor of France — that is a special thing. Napoleon is a special person, one with enormous gifts of combat and strategy and persuasion. I cannot fathom how powerful he was. He was able to will himself into being Emperor over most of Europe and almost Russia. He almost took over the world.
I’ve never taken over a nation. I’ve never taken over my neighborhood. I’ve never fought a battle.
That’s impressive.
Let’s be honest for a second.
This movie isn’t great.
The characters — they aren’t great. Napoleon is a monster who gets hundreds of thousands of people killed in an attempt to take over the world — and the story tries to make him into a hero and a clever genius who simply never makes mistakes. The wife is a character who cares for him but cannot have his child. She isn’t particularly likeable, either. And none of the other characters are intriguing enough for me to remember who they are. They aren’t memorable.
During the big fights I have a vague idea who he’s fighting against — and even vaguer idea as for the stakes during each fight. The fights have soldiers fighting. I don’t understand what’s going on other than people shooting and cannons shooting.
I’m usually positive, but I have to tell the truth. Ridley Scott is a fantastic director who has made a movie that is damned to be pretty good.
Thanks, and take care, friends.
