‘Napoleon’ Review: Joaquin Phoenix Excels As A Master Of War In Ridley Scott’s Psychologically Complex But Brilliantly Staged Biopic
deadline.comThere are ghosts on and off the screen in Ridley Scott’s 28th feature, chief among them being Stanley Kubrick’s unrealized biopic of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Corsican military strategist who inveigled his way up through the ranks of the military to become the leader of France not once but twice.
That at the age of nearly 86 Scott has stepped up to finish what Kubrick couldn’t is something the British director will no doubt relish.
But though his take on the story is his own, there’s still something elusive about Bonaparte’s story that doesn’t make a coherent whole: as is consistent with history, Scott’s Napoleon is a lover and a fighter, an incongruity that leads to sharp changes in tone and a restlessly episodic narrative that can be overwhelming in its dates, names and places.
For Napoleon to work at all, it needs an imposing but charismatic presence, someone like Marlon Brando, who played Bonaparte in the strange 1954 historical romance Desirée.
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