He was a notorious workaholic, meticulously organized and an energetic intellectual - little of which is present here, making Napoleon’s rise to power sometimes hard to fathom.īut that’s also part of the point of “Napoleon,” which surely has some contemporary echoes. A quality like ambition, you’d think, would be prominent in depicting Napoleon. Phoenix’s characterization may at times have more in common with some of his past depictions of melancholy loners (“The Master,” “The Joker”) than any factual record of Napoleon. That mix - Scott’s spectacle and Phoenix’s the-emperor-has-no-clothes performance - makes “Napoleon” a rivetingly off-kilter experience. Here is a sweeping historical tapestry - no one does it better today than Scott - with a damning, almost satirical portrait at its center. Hollywood historical epics have traditionally leaned toward aggrandizement, not the undressing of fragile, deluded male egos who exclaim over dinner: “Destiny has brought me here! Destiny has brought me this lamb chop!” Helena where he died at age 51 in 1821, it’s startling how much disregard the movie has for its protagonist. In “Napoleon,” which begins with Marie Antoinette at the guillotine and ends with Napoleon on St.
