Joaquin Phoenix gives the absolute worst performance of his career as Napoleon Buonaparte, choosing to portray one of history’s most famously charismatic leaders, as a wooden cutout. No movie these days would be complete without Reddit/Marvel-tier quipped dialogue, and this screenplay provides it in spades. Many of the events that would naturally adapt to the big screen are skipped in favor of shots of Phoenix crawling under tables like some fucked up dog. No mention is made of Italy, and Spain and Haiti are skipped over as to avoid portraying the subject in any kind of negative light. Irresponsible and reactionary filmmaking shines through in a script that truly feels like it was written by chatgpt. The film concludes with him suddenly dying in a part that reminded me of the poochy “my planet needs me” bit. Do not waste your time. I was expecting a cheesy Hollywood retelling and it didn’t even do that, despite having more than enough source material to do so.
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more like napoleon bonerfart
First French Empire in absolute shambles.
One of the worst things about this is that Ridley did make an absolutely amazing Napoleonic Era movie - his first one, The Duellists. He knocked it out of the park with literally his first one, and now we’ve gotten to “When I have issues with historians, I ask: ‘Excuse me, mate, were you there? No? Well, shut the fuck up then.’” (like, my guy, how the fuck do you think history works? “were you there”, what kind of retort is this even)
When I have issues with historians, I ask: ‘Excuse me, mate, were you there? No? Well, shut the fuck up then.
the soyjak “i studied this for my entire career”
vs. the chad “did you see the big bang? didn’t think so”
“When I have issues with historians, I ask: ‘Excuse me, mate, were you there? No? Well, shut the fuck up then.’”
Ridley Scott talks like a Redditor.
No movie these days would be complete without Reddit/Marvel-tier quipped dialogue, and this screenplay provides it in spades.
I want to imagine Napoleon Bonaparte played as Napoleon Dynamite.
I imagine Blucher and his Prussians arriving on Napoleon’s flank at Waterloo by stepping out of Avengers portals.
That would have been better. Instead they appear off-camera and you get a shot of a geriatric Wellington going “thank god they’re here” and you never really see them.
>tfw I’m a better film maker than Ridley Scot
I love the part where Napoleon said “It’s Napoleo time” and then Napoleo’d all over the British
There’s a part where Napoleon is treating with a British envoy and as he’s storming off, he turns around and petulantly quips, seemingly on the verge of tears, “YOU THINK YOU’RE SO GREAT JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE BOATS!” And I could absolutely see Napoleon dynamite delivering that line to one of his classmates.
If Napoleon Bonaparte is history on horseback, Napoleon Dynamite is history riding a llama.
This movie already managed to turn me against it once I saw a poster for it featuring vegan activist Joaquin Phoenix riding a horse
The perfect Napoleon movie exists and it’s free
It’s called watching War and Peace (1966) following by Waterloo (1970)
you can add in Toussaint Louverture (2012) as additional content
Many of the events that would naturally adapt to the big screen are skipped in favor of shots of Phoenix crawling under tables like some fucked up dog.
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I knew it was gonna be dog-shit when I saw Ridley Scott’s name attached to it lol. It does make me want to rewatch Barry Lyndon, which is actually a good movie unlike Napoleon.
edit: I was too harsh on Ridley. I didn’t know he directed The Last Duel, which is one of my favorite films of the 2020s so far. Defo not washed up.
I like Ridley as a cinematographer, his movies always tend to -look- gorgeous, but he’s a shit story teller. So overall I think the wrong Scott brother died.
Englishman Filmaker Ridley Scott ancestors telling him to make napoleon look as wooden and lame as possible
The poster in Hexbear dot net are not happy with the Napoleon movie
That’s okay, I will still watch that garbage
Waterloo is a way better movie. All real extras. All from the actual Soviet army.
War and Peace is better and has the same director (and also has Napoleon!).
Rod Steiger was so good in his portrayal of Napoleon that I think he could play a good Mussolini
and he did apparently
so i guess we’re not getting a historical epic revival any time soon, huh
Oppenheimer was pretty good I thought, even though it was such a Christopher Nolan movie
Unfortunately it looks like the History Extended Universe is going to have to wait a bit.
I lost all interest in the movie when Ridley Scott trashed historians for suggesting he might try to study history for his historical biopic. He had Napoleon shoot the Sphinx because it “was a quick way to show he conquered Egypt”.
Fucking idiotI lost all interest when Ridley Scott decided to cut the part where Napoleon falsely tries to convert to the true faith of the prophet Mohammed which led to his downfall in waterloo
A movie just on Napoleon in Egypt would have been more interesting. Its a less explored topic than say the battle of Waterloo.
or napoleon in italy. poor, badly equipped soldiers, little plucky nobody napoleon betting big AND ACTUALLY PULLING IT OFF.
and it’s not fucking waterloo. who cares. most covered part of the whole thing, because the english were in it.
“Auteur” theory is fucking bullshit and it’s ruinous.
Well it did give us Reds. So what I’m saying is it’s ok when we do it. Most of the time it just gives us dumb bullshit from long-past-relevant prehistoric filmmakers trying to relive their glory days by making shitty mobster films and casting their prehistoric actor buddies and deaging them so they look like an affront-to-god experimental lab creature that looks 35 but acts 100.
idk why you had to unload a mag into Scorsese but his films all kick ass even (especially) the one with de-aged grandpa De Niro
Some people are very good at specific things, and yes that includes being very good at directing movies, or acting in them, or writing them, or the like. What I say is bullshit is the “this visionary genius who has the most prominent name on this movie you like is implied to have singlehandedly made that movie and therefore unfettered control over an upcoming movie will surely be at least as good” belief that almost never goes as promised.
What I say is bullshit is the “this visionary genius who has the most prominent name on this movie you like is implied to have singlehandedly made that movie and therefore unfettered control over an upcoming movie will surely be at least as good” belief that almost never goes as promised.
so like Nolan?
Oppenheimer’s pacing was so weird that I fast fowarded the movie on some part
“THIS IS NOLAN THAT MEANS THIS IS AN ADULT MOVIE FOR GROWN-ASS ADULTS. IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT YOU ONLY LIKE MOVIES FOR BABIES, BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM” takes are all too common regarding Nolan and yes I count those as Auteur Theory
Disclaimer for readers: yes yes it is okay to enjoy the BWAAAAAAAAAAMS but please stop pompously assuming anyone not BWAAAAAAAAMING with you is some sort of barbarian, child, or barbarian child.
This movie and Oppenheimer had a lot in common, although this made Oppenheimer look like a masterpiece. Both films suffer because they’re both so obsessed with their subjects that they claustrophobically center the entire movie on them instead of exploring the interesting worlds they inhabit.
It’s even worse than that - they shoot the pyramids.
well of course it is, it’s late era Ridley Scott
Hey he made The Last Duel just 2 years ago and that movie slaps
Exactly, he made a good movie too recently for this one to be anything but trash
I have more complaints about this movie than I feel would be polite to heap on people that I actually like, but for everyone’s sake, either avoid this movie in favor of Sergei Bondarchuk’s Waterloo, or if it’s too late for you, go watch it to get the taste out of your mouth. It’s free on youtube, and it’s pretty good quality.
Rod Steiger’s performance as Napoleon is regarded as hit or miss, but I personally feel it gets across Napoleon’s charisma, mental acuity, and mercurial temper perfectly.
And importantly, unlike Napoleon, which I felt was trying to be three different types of movie at once and ultimately had no real identity, Waterloo is very tightly focused, and also unlike Napoleon, is (for a film anyway) extremely well-researched and historically accurate.
Then of course my favorite part, the sheer number of extras the production pulled together for the big battle. Napoleon’s battle scenes were a travesty, resembling not at all the actual history and being so much smaller in scope. Does anybody know if Scott used live extras for the battle scenes? I can’t be fucked to check. At any rate, Bondarchuk pulled in something like 15,000 people for the battle scenes, and the way they’re shot gives the impression of an honest to god Napoleonic army up on screen.
Most importantly though, Waterloo is actually entertaining, which Napoleon was not. And if you ask me that’s the one unforgiveable sin for any movie. How can you fuck up making an actually entertaining movie about such a huge personality as Napoleon? I’m not even gonna get into the weird psychosexual stuff, or Letizia Bonaparte being turned into a creepier version of Barry Lyndon’s mom. Just go watch Waterloo, or Barry Lyndon, or anything else.
Umm aktually according to rotten tomatoes Waterloo has only 27% rotten tomatoes rating.
Further proof that RT must be scourged from this earth
Sergei Bondarchuk’s Waterloo
I love that movie! So, do good! Stieger and Plummer are perfect
The only factor that matters when casting a character is if the actor has a similar nose and similar eyes. Everything else is secondary.
