Napoleon – 4
Perhaps Ridley Scott watched The Crown and thought, Hey, I can do this for France. Unfortunately, his swings at royal romance, political intrigue and historical drama were all whiffs. For some reason, Joaquin Phoenix as the lead was made to appear uncharismatic, uncoordinated, a terrible lover, phlegmatic and taciturn – hardly the image of the almost-conqueror of Europe. Vanessa Kirby was at least interesting, while the plethora of courtiers were indistinguishable. As the title proclaimed, the movie was about one person, and he was boring.
I couldn’t agree more.
Ridley Scott, the consummate Brit, completely missed, or ignored on purpose, the genius of Napoleon. No wonder the French dismissed this movie.
I am a bit of a student of Wellington at Waterloo. The battle scenes were reasonably accurate. It was a pretty good demonstration of the value of infantry forming a square when attacked by cavalry.