Napoleon has done nothing wrong, ever, in his life, in new Ridley Scott trailer
Joaquin Phoenix's Napoleon makes no mistakes in the trailer for the Ridley Scott epic, premiering November 22
Film News Napoleon
“I’m the first to admit when I make a mistake,” Napoleon (Joaquin Phoenix) graciously states in the trailer for Ridley Scott’s latest epic. “I simply never do.” That’s just the kind of guy ol’ Napoleon is: an emperor; a lover; a tyrant; a legend; the subject of an ABBA song. Of course, Napoleon—which premieres in theaters November 22—is less “Waterloo” the song and more Waterloo the actual event, highlighting the grim realities of war in the conqueror’s bloody rise to the top.
“The film is an original and personal look at Napoleon’s origins and his swift, ruthless climb to emperor, viewed through the prism of his addictive and often volatile relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine, played by Vanessa Kirby,” reads a synopsis from Apple TV+. “The film captures Napoleon’s famous battles, relentless ambition and astounding strategic mind as an extraordinary military leader and war visionary.”
The trailer highlights a lot of what’s famous about Napoleon: his ruthlessness, his quest for power, his passionate affair with his first wife. It doesn’t highlight his most infamous quality: that of being the original short king. Joaquin Phoenix is a man of average height, and according to the Encyclopedia Britanica, so was Napoleon, apparently. But that doesn’t stop Josephine from denouncing him as a “tiny little brute that is nothing without me.”
Directed by Scott with a screenplay from David Scarpa (All The Money In The World), Napoleon also stars Tahar Rahim, Ben Miles, Ludivine Sagnier, Matthew Needham, Youssef Kerkour, Phil Cornwell, Edouard Philipponnat, Paul Rhys, John Hollingworth, Gavin Spokes, and Mark Bonnar. Additionally, the film boasts “some of the most dynamic practical battle sequences ever filmed,” according to Apple TV+. This may mark the definitive modern Napoleon biopic—at least until Steven Spielberg finally gets that Stanley Kubrick-penned version off the ground.
88 Comments
That looks really good, actually. Man, intrigued by this movie a lot.It’s kind of funny, I never realized before it was explained in numbers, but essentially if you look at the number of Napoleon’s victories and the general relative level between his army to the opposing armies, he is essentially the greatest general of that period of warfare by a wide margin. Like he was genuinely a genious at war.
The other thing I’ll give him: he was excellent at PR spectacle. Melting down the cannons of your enemies and using the metal to forge your victory monument. That’s a powerful message.
It also says something that when he escaped from his first exile, the army sent to arrest him immediately switched sides and helped him take Paris.
One of the most brilliant military minds of all time to be sure, but also underrated as a reformer at home. He never knew when to stop, but there’s no denying his genius.
His judicial and law reforms, the ‘Code Napoleon’ is the most copied in the world.
I read some blog from a math and statistics nerd who plotted great generals with simple variables of soldiers relative to the enemy and number of battles won, and Napoleon had the lead by a completely dominant margin.
“Napoleon was the greatest general of his era” isn’t really much of a hot take, is it?
I mean I’ll take the duke of wellington over him every day of the week
It is if you listened to the Sports-War Radio of the time.
In some ways he betrayed the principles of the French Revolution, like by becoming emperor for example. But he used its ideas to strengthen the French military, by opening up promotion to merit instead of letting aristocrats buy commissions. Turns out this makes your military a lot more efficient
Waiting patiently for all of the historical accuracy warriors to start yelling about how Napoleon wasn’t born with a cleft palate.
Weird Radiohead cover in the trailer is a nice touch.
Is it??
It’s the Radiohead/Napoleon mash up we’ve always wanted
“It doesn’t highlight his most infamous quality: that of being the original short king.”Napoleon wasn’t considered short for the time period. A slight exaggeration probably by his enemies.
https://www.thelocal.fr/20220804/french-history-myths-napoleon-bonaparte-was-short
Article literally mentions his average height in the very next sentence
Hitler on a horse.
not even close, he wanted no more monarchs, not no more jews.
Napoleon crowned himself EMPEROR. He didn’t dislike monarchs, only that he wasn’t one. There was a lot more to dislike about Hitler than genocidal antisemitism.
He also made his relatives kings of various countries — even of countries that didn’t have them before! I think the confusion with Napoleon is that he kept the tricolor and all the propaganda from the Revolution like liberty, equality, and fraternity, without really believing in any of it.
Kind of a mix, really. He did end feudalism so the aristocracy he created had courtesy titles and public pensions rather than actual lands to tax and serfs to terrorize. He also democratized local institutions and regulated the laws so that they were uniform rather than the previous patchwork. It seems like he was pragmatic about it, keeping monarchical practices when they helped him achieve his goals and adopting revolutionary methods and terms when those better suited his aims.Clearly he was no fan of democracy but he was also well aware that the Empire was entirely dependent on the unique abilities of the Emperor. I wonder what he thought would happen if he died on the throne with his son still a child? I’m sure he had time to think about all that on St. Helena.
His views on Jews were complicated. On one side he abolished the ghetto system (in which Jews were forced to lived in designated areas) in lands he conquered, but on the other hand he subscribed to a lot of the typical antisemitism of the time about greedy Jewish bankers and the like and wrote that Jews needed to be assimilated to get rid of their bad traits “as a people”.
Not simping for Napoleon or anything, but I can think of a few things that Hitler did that were worse…
A couple. “Hitler on a horse” is a little bit flip but the analogy of megalomaniacal, murderous conqueror is valid.
Napoleon himself compared himself to Caesar and Alexander, which were fair comparisons — people who get considered “great men” despite causing many, many needless deaths.
he was the proto hitler though.
Funny. I don’t remember Napoleon murdering 6 million people in death camps.
12 million people died in Hitler’s camps.
The 6 million that Napoleon killed were ethnically diverse.
Stalin on a Stag!
Putin on a Pony?
Mao on a Mule?
Napoleon on a Narwhal.
Hannibal on a helephant.
He was far more of a military genius than Hitler, who wasn’t a military genius at all. Unlike Hitler, his ambition wasn’t rooted in his hatred.
“Hitler on a horse” is a little bit flip but the analogy of megalomaniacal, murderous conqueror is valid.
Thank you.
I’m afraid it’s more complicated than that, as history often is. Revolutionary France was actually attacked by all of the crowned states of Europe during the Wars of the First and Second Coalitions. During these conflicts, Napoleon rose through the ranks to eventually wear the imperial crown. What most people think of as the Napoleonic Wars begin in 1803 with Britain breaking the Treaty of Amiens and declaring war on France. The War of the Third Coalition began in 1805 when Britain’s allies Austria, Russia, Naples, Sicily, and Sweden all declared war on France. After Austerlitz, the Third Coalition broke up the same year.The War of the Fourth Coalition began in 1806 when Britain, Prussia, Russia, Saxony, and Sweden all declared war on France yet again. France beat these powers on the continent yet again, resulting in the Treaty of Tilsit. France did start the Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal in 1808, which would eventually help lead to Napoleon’s downfall. The Peninsular War led to the War of the Fifth Coalition, in which France again prevailed after the Battle of Wagram. France wasn’t decisively beaten until the War of the Sixth Coalition, started by Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 and ending with the occupation of Paris in 1814. Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815 and the Seventh Coalition came after his brief restoration to power called The Hundred Days. So, unlike Hitler, these wars weren’t simply the result of Napoleon’s megalomaniacal pursuit of murder and conquest. Here’s a Wikipedia link for greater detail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_WarsThank you.
The “Hitler-on-horse” memes miss the fact that France didn’t initiate the fighting in the majority of Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
This is Genghis Khan erasure, and I won’t stand for it!
“Napoleon has done nothing wrong, ever, in his life, in new Ridley Scott trailer”
TIL that some people think that “making a mistake” and “doing something wrong” are the same.
Huh.
this movie’s gonna be dynamite
Wacka wacka
TINA!
I am definitely intrigued, but I hope the actual film lighting doesn’t look as dark as it appears in this preview. I probably won’t get a chance to see it in theaters and all this low lighting makes me think it will hard to follow on my home TV. Seems like Scott was going for a Barry Lydon-type lighting but without the ultra-expensive kit Kubrick used to make the effect work.
Remember that at the time these events took place they didn’t have the lightbulb yet, so everything was in fact darker. Even outside during the day.
Ridley Scott is such a treasure – he’s getting up there in years and I’m going to miss his work when he’s gone. He’s taken some big swings and had some misses, but man. He takes his shot and he’s made some great, great films in his career. Very excited to watch this.
I feel exactly the same way. I don’t even want to think about his age, I don’t want to think of these next couple of outings as victory laps, but am just glad he’s still at it. Funnily enough, one day we’ll be able to look back and see his ‘big picture’ and realize he was just producing a historical tapestry of it ALL(!)… the Prometheus Engineers came, provided the dna, and life and history begins… Exodus: Gods and Kings, Gladiator, The Duellists, Kingdom of Heaven, gave us the magna carta in Robin Hood, comes to the new world in 1492, American Gangster, Thelma & Louise, A Good Year, and then goes off-world, The Martian, Blade Runner, Alien…
He thinks BIG PICTURE for sure. Hard to imagine someone else doing it like him, in quite that way. Genius gets thrown around but… genius.
Boy does this ever look bad. Just what everyone longed for: a gloomy, glum, CGI’fied action movie (where someone literally shouts, “it’s a trap!” when Napoleon famously tricks the enemy into falling into ice?).
He did famously do that, though. The historical record is unclear on whether or not Admiral Akbar was heading up the Russian army at the time, however.
https://www.military-history.org/feature/the-battle-of-austerlitz-napoleons-masterpiece.htm#:~:text=Too%20late%2C%20Buxh%C3%B6wden,a%20likely%20figure.
it was Akbar’s half-French cousin, Reggie Ackbar, who initially coined the phrase. The good Admiral just took it into outer space…
Pick up a history book. You’re expecting a movie about war to be happy and bright? He was a general and dictator. What about that is happy go lucky?
If Joaquin’s Napoleon doesn’t say, “It vexes me. I’m terribly vexed,” then I’m not watching it.
That should have been his calling card as an actor, like Tom Cruise insisting on always riding a motorcycle at some point.
I want him in exile to say the palindrome “Able was I, ere I saw Elba”, and maybe explain 1) Why he felt he should say it in a palindrome and 2) Why in English
Able was I, ere I saw Idris Elba
Hopefully they go with the full quote, “Able was I, ere I saw Elba, a man, a plan, a canal, Panama. Kayak.”
“Are you not cannonade?”
Sidenote: up until now, the greatest performance as Napoleon was by Herbert Lom (yes, the guy from Pink Panther) in King Vidor’s epic adaptation of War and Peace. Not much screentime, but he fully embodies everything you’d imagine Napoleon would be like.
Herbert Lom is seriously underrated
I’ve never seen that version, but I thought whoever played Napoleon in the 1970s BBC version of War and Peace did a great job. Too many portrayals of Napoleon fall into the “Effeminate Frenchmen” trope, but the guy in this brings the kind of magnetic masculine bravado that you would expect for someone who was so inspiring to his subordinates.
Oh good. More warfare and violence, as lush as Merchant and Ivory. Blood-soaked mud and drawing rooms. It looks really boring, to be honest.
What I’d really like to see is a version of War & Peace in which Pierre, Natasha, and all of them are Ukrainians and Napoleon is short warlord Putin with his Russian army invaders.
DynamiteEdit: Someone beat me to it.
“Fun” fact. Napoleon’s wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. was actually OLDER than Napoleon by six years. This was actually a pretty big deal at the time! Vanessa Kirby is 13 years younger than Phoenix. It’s strange. You think they could find an age appropriate actresses given the treasure trove of talented women in that age rage…but they go 13 years younger. I just can’t think of a good reason why.
She also had remarkably bad teeth from growing up on a sugar plantation.
Note to self: Once I become Emperor, I will look for an Empress who grew up on a fluoride plantation.
I’m thinking of moving to Montana and raising some dental floss.With a small tiny horse that’d be perfect for Napoleon if he was short, but he wasn’t, so never mind.
Barr on a Bison!
/thread
It’s just ageism. While Ridley Scott can be super accurate for some historical details, he’s also very likely to ignore important ones just because he feels like it, and he gets away with it because he’s Ridley Scott.
Based on my extensive knowledge of Assassin’s Creed Unity, the English accent Napoleon spoke with here is historically accurate.
This. Why would all the French had English accent? This was made for International release right? I understand that most historical movie set in Ancient Rome and Greece had English accent because they based on a play. But Napoleon?
Honestly, for historical pieces like this where the dialogue is all in a language that the characters did not actually speak, the most sensible thing is simply to have every actor use their native accent.
How did Josephine inspire such devotion in Napolean?She blew his Bonaparte.(Thanks, dad, for telling me this joke just in time to get me in trouble in sixth grade history class.)
your dad seems like a righteous dude…
Napoleon being short is one of those amazing pieces of propaganda that even hundred of years later, people still think its true
By today’s standards, he was short. But so was everyone else. I went for a tour of HMS Victory, and below deck is impossible to move in at my height (6ft2). It makes me wonder why average height increases over time. Is it nutrition? It’s well known that North Korean soldiers are especially small compared to South Korea. So, could be that.
Northern European men in the middle ages (800-1100) were almost as tall as us, then height declined by up to 2 1/2 inches by the 1700s, and didn’t come back until the last century.https://news.osu.edu/men-from-early-middle-ages-were-nearly-as-tall-as-modern-people/I’d always assumed people just generally got taller in pretty much a straight line thru history, but it’s more complicated than that.Fun Fact: Princess Di dwarfed most of the great men of that period.
https://stephenliddell.co.uk/2015/06/18/200-years-after-waterloo-the-napoleon-small-man-syndrome/
And in reference to HMS Victory, Lord Nelson at 5’4″ was shorter than Napoleon, but you never really hear him singled out as short.
Yeah everyone was shorter back then. Blame better nutrition these days. But the whole idea that Napoleon was short comes from propaganda at the time of his reign by the British.
Height is basically hitting your nutritional potential when puberty sets in, but not going through puberty early due to obesity.Probably the near-constant warfare of the 18th century and early 19th in Europe didn’t help maintain a constant supply of food to the general population.
The casting of Verne Troyer as Napoleon in the Bruce Campbell syndicated show Jack of all Trades is probably largely to blame for the Napoleon is short myth
Josephine was five years older than Napoleon. Kirby is 13 years younger than Phoenix. They could have at least tried to cast a forty-something actress. Jodie Comer, who was originally cast, is even younger than Kirby.
Napoleon wasn’t that ruthless*. Nor did he even initiate most of the wars which bear his name. *By that I mean relative to other emperors he wasn’t especially harsh or punitive. English propaganda still holds sway centuries later, making him an ogre, but ol’ Alexander I or Francis II aren’t better.
While I’m certainly interested by a decent-looking Napoleon biopic, Joaquin Phoenix seems like a bit of bad casting, IMO. He’s a good actor, but Napoleon was in his early/mid-20’s during his rise to power (which appears to be shown in the movie), was made First Consul at 30, and crowned himself Emperor at 35. Phoenix is 48.
I guess it’s not nearly as bad as Ridley Scott casting a bunch of white actors as Egyptians, but it seems a tad off to me.
Im shocked they didn’t cast him with a black lesbian with one side of her head shaved.