Joaquin Phoenix in Ridley Scott’s Napoleon

NAPOLEON
Directed by Ridley Scott
Certificate: 15
☆☆☆☆

PICTURE a classic French countryside scene. A country lane with a mature avenue of trees either side. This is a legacy of Napoleon. One of the thousands of laws passed under his rule was to compel landowners to provide shade for peasants walking their produce to market.

This minor aside illustrates the untold stories of Napoleonic rule, and is the type of tale no film-maker has ever tried to relate.

In Ridley Scott’s grand epic, he carries on with the usual image of Napoleon formed partly by the British press, who lampooned him as the devil across the Channel. Apart from being beaten at Waterloo, his story is taught as a war-hungry conqueror whose godlessness was illustrated by his dislike of monarchy.

But read Vincent Cronin’s biography and a different picture emerges, a story of a man who rose from lowly beginnings, who never wanted to be an emperor, who sought to run a collective government, ensured a separation of Church from State, laid down what equitable justice meant, founded state schools, and saw the care of the peasantry as the reason to wield power.

Scott’s biopic does not seek to understand what special powers he possessed, nor his motivation to wield them bar through the prism of his infatuation with his wife, Josephine.

Instead, we get a monstrous film whose size and scale is beautiful, sometimes awful, and always mesmerising.

He could hardly have done it any other way, when Abel Gance’s 1927 Napoleon film is considered a religious relic by film buffs, its cast of thousands breaking ground in visual bravado. Scott does this in spades.

With a lot of history to get through, we understandably swoosh over much. Scott starts with the Corsican artillery officer who has shown nerve mixed with tactical intelligence. The French Revolution has collapsed into Robespierre’s Reign of Terror, and a royalist faction is emerging to threaten the Republic.

Napoleon’s (Joaquin Phoenix) skill is recognised by the men at the top, and called on by statesman Barras (Tahar Rahim). Along the way, Napoleon falls in love with Joséphine de Beauharnais (Vanessa Kirby) who enjoys her power over the most powerful man in France, but isn’t so enamored to ignore dashing cavalry officers while Napoleon battles in Egypt.

This relationship is the narrative drive, making this a personal story of the impact two individuals had on each other.

Watching Napoleon win the battle of Austerlitz, his march on Moscow, and Waterloo are big-screen choreographic perfection.