Ridley Scott treats battlefields as open canvases upon which to paint monumental scenes of heroism and spinelessness, glory and disgrace, sacrifice and selfishness. No contemporary director has staged them with the verve he’s brought to Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Kingdom of Heaven, Exodus: Gods and Monsters, and now Napoleon, his muscular historical epic about the rise and fall of the iconic French emperor.
Staging his color-coded melees with a step-by-step lucidity that provides both macro views of strategic maneuvers and movements and micro snapshots of gallantry, foolishness, and pain, Scott imagines Napoleon’s campaigns as rousing expressions of his protagonist’s grand ambitions and reckless arrogance, as well as thrilling showstoppers that put his big-screen competition to shame. Exhibiting a flair for old-school clashes and carnage that’s unmitigated by his (canny) use of CGI to expand the scope and scale of his tableaus, he’s modern cinema’s maestro of mass warfare.
Napoleon (in theaters Nov. 22) is a testament to Scott’s peerless directorial skill at bringing traditional combat to blistering life. It’s also, however, a sturdy bio-drama led by a commanding Joaquin Phoenix as the man who sparked so many wars that they named them after him. Written by Scott’s All the Money in the World collaborator David Scarpa, the film envisions Napoleon as a complex mix of the imposing and the absurd, his dreams of conquest—and single-minded ability to make them a reality—matched by his folly and awkwardness.
