First Take: Napoleon - the big historical epic is back, Ridley Scott style

SYNOPSIS: An epic that details the checkered rise and fall of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and his relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his wife, Josephine.

Oh how filmmakers have grown to love Apple - funding big, big projects in exchange for the exclusive streaming rights to the awards season contenders, and just like they were able to hand Scorsese $200 million to make Killers of the Flower Moon, they’ve done the same for Ridley Scott on what was initially a Fox project, but following mergers, pandemics and Hollywood business antics, now resides with Sony.

And only Ridley has the guts to make a film of this scale these days, which is saying something - it’s only 2 hours 38 minutes as well, and yes, it might be excessively long but you could do a full feature of that length just on a single battle, which David Scarpa’s script deliberately doesn’t do, focusing mainly on 6 of the 81 battles Napoleon led - with most of the film covering Toulon, 13 Vendermaire, the Pyramids, Austerlitz, Borodino, and of course Waterloo, as well as the personal life behind the Emperor, and his struggles to find an heir to the throne (in incredibly graphic detail). Yes, it might not be fully historically accurate but will mainstream audiences know the ins and outs of the story? it’s unlikely, but an entertaining (if a little self indulgent) script either way. The rest of the tech side is fantastic too, with Scott’s DOP for his last 7 films Dariusz Wolski once again delivering the goods (with one eye firmly on an IMAX release), and Martin Phipps (the man who took over from Harry Gregson-Williams and Lorne Balfe on The Crown’s music duties) turns in a relatively decent score.

But this cast is where the film truly excels - a lot was made about the involvement of Joaquin Phoenix being cast as Napoleon, but having now seen the film, all the ‘friendly’ stuff shown in the trailer is only a taste of what he gets up to, as it is an intense, commanding performance that will get clipped up come Oscar time for the inevitable Best Actor nomination, and paired up with Vanessa Kirby as long-suffering wife Josephine, those two will easily gain the attention of the voters. Plus, with an ensemble that includes Tahar Rahim and Rupert Everett, this is truly a film Ridley Scott was destined to make, and sure, the French have ripped it apart, and mainstream audiences will see the runtime and think 'this is too long’ - but it packs a lot into that 2 hours 38 minutes, and the fact we even have a film like this in cinemas is something worth celebrating.

THE VERDICT

Napoleon is big, bold, loud, and designed for the big screen - and while it does mess with the historical accuracy (as well as a heavily truncated runtime - there IS a 4 hour directors cut on the way according to Ridley himself), it’s a smartly made film with fight sequences worthy of the IMAX uplift.

RATING: 4/5