Movies used to be such a huge part of my youth, my parents were big fans. I haven’t kept that up as most movies look #madefortv to me. First let me say the upstairs theatre at our local film house is immaculate, the seating reminded me of First Class on an ✈️ . #Napoleon was a movie that peaked my interest hoping for an epic in the realm of Spartacus, Ben Hur or the 10 Commandments… heck I would have settled for Gladiator. I had a friend who scoffed, yuck 🤮 #history to which I laughed and said well that means bloodshed and sex 😳🤭. I held my 👃 at the 2 hour and thirty six minute run time and went because Joaquin Phoenix was riveting in the Joker so I thought the ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ were aligned for a good time ➕ my semester was over.
I’d been pondering how to do this review since Friday night as there was a bunch to consider. The costumes, set construction and scenery were amazing, I might even suggest award worthy. They did a great job with the lighting and music, just enough to keep my eyes 👀 focused on the screen taking in as much as I could while hoping for more. The battle scenes were interesting and well done in terms of not too much gore while staying true to the times. Watching Marie Antoinette meet the guillotine was fun, I am not sure I could have met it with such honor or beauty as they held 10 pounds of her up to thrill the crowd.
Napoleon is a historic figure on the level of Caesar, Alexander and even our founding fathers. This movie did him no justice tearing at his legend. It was more of a story of insecure man’s want & desire sprinkled depressingly with allusions to the basis of 50 Shades of Grey. We don’t learn or feel anything Nappy except pity and his battlefield greatness is invisible. Basically my take through the movie is just him crawling around looking for love and approval from people above his station. They could have played Led Zeppelin’s ‘Hey Hey What Can I Do’ to better effect and filled the rest of the movie with character development (check out the lyrics if you don’t know them 😉). Ridley Scott shot a blank for this $200 million dollars, they probably should have just redone the 80’s mini series and styled it as a tortured love story.
I would love to hear your thoughts on it.