I got interested in Napoleon when I was around 28, which is now 37 years ago. I was intrigued by looking at what I had achieved by that age (not much) and how a man who wasn’t even French had managed to be on the road to ruling Europe. It was the start of an ongoing journey to try and understand the genius of the man who had always been casually listed alongside Hitler in simplistic history pronouncements.
There was no greater example of the adage that history is written by the victors. The presentation of Napoleon in the UK was still based on propaganda from the time of the Napoleonic Wars. He was short. No, he wasn’t. He was a mad dictator. No, he wasn’t. He was a warmonger. No, he wasn’t.
As I found more books on the history of the times, I was led into the French Revolution, and why Napoleon was able to win the hearts and minds of the French people. When the world of podcasts opened I discovered that I was not alone in my interest. There are many terrific, detailed podcasts, (I would recommend The Age of Napoleon. There are currently 117 episodes, so you will understand that he is an interesting and endlessly fascinating man).
And so to the new film, Napoleon.
What a disappointment. What a missed opportunity.
Napoleon, one of the most significant figures in world history is invisible. In his place is a rather weak man, driven, it would appear, only by the desire to impress his lady friend and later wife, Josephine, portrayed by an actor who seems to have had a charisma bypass.
Napoleon led France from the turmoil of revolution into being the dominant country in Europe within ten years. He won the hearts and minds of the French. They loved him. He was a political master, dealing with the politics of a Europe still dominated by aristocrats and kings. He had to manage the challenge from the Catholic Church, the Pope not being too happy with the Revolution or the removal of power in what had been one of the most loyal states. That ability shone when he navigated the intense, dangerous situation of pairs, where many men were attempting to climb the ladder to the top. That is covered in the film with a quick look at the coup, but you are left thinking, why him?
Pre-revolutionary France had been a basket case of a country. The aristocrats were in charge of everything and had the combined intelligence of a carrot. There was starvation and excessive taxation. The Revolution had descended into the Reign of Terror with the guillotine needing oiled every day. Into this stepped Napoleon, who with brilliance and genius was able to build a new country.
Napoleon created Europe’s first meritocracy. He appointed experts, no matter what their background and the outcome was a country that led the world in education, science, health and infrastructure, with systems that still persist today. The Code Napoleon did not only change France, it influenced the future politics of Europe.
His army was led by generals that had risen through the ranks, and many of them were if not his equal, certainly his very able officers. One, Bernadotte, was asked to and became King of Sweden. He readily gave many of them credit for their contributions to the many great victories. Junot, Ney and many more were raised to the highest levels. The Imperial Guard would die for him, and to protect the Eagles of the battalions.
If you have seen the film, I challenge you to remember the name of a single character other than Napoleon, Josephine or maybe Tallyrand (a huge opportunity missed, he was the Dominic Cummings of his day).
Napoleon was arrogant. Who wouldn’t be if you were running Europe? He made his brothers kings of Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. Beethoven, who had written his Third Symphony to celebrate him, withdrew the compliment after Napoleon crowned himself Emperor. He loved the theatre and the arts and was almost assassinated in a royalist attack on the way to the opera.
None of the above is in the film.
None.
Instead, we see a portrayal of a moaning, weeping, dull, boring man who mopes about, with all the charisma of a wet rag. Joaquim Phoenix is forty-nine. Vanessa Kirby is thirty-five. Josephine was thirty-two when she married the twenty-six-year-old Napoleon. She was worldly wise and he was gauche.
There are no answers to the question why?
Why did the French love him, Why did they rally around so quickly on his return from Elba. Why was France so successful so soon after the Revolution?
The only partial successes in the movie are the battle scenes, but even then a key element of what made Austerlitz so amazing, was the march from the coast of France to Austria, without the enemy seeing them coming.
Waterloo is the highlight of the film, with a real sense of the bravery and brutality of battle, and the manoeuvre from line to square is brilliant (one for the anaroks).
Ridley Scott has hit out at the historians who expect a semblance of accuracy, by saying they weren’t there. But there are records and letters, and many many years of in-depth research. So why put Napoleon at the beheading of Marie Antoinette. Why fire cannons at the pyramids, intimating that he was a Philistine? Surely it is as easy to be accurate as to play fast and loose? Why show Wellington and Napoleon meeting, when it not only didn’t happen but was never going to happen. Napoleon leading a cavalry charge? Seriously?
The vast majority of people who will go and see this film will have little knowledge of Napoleon, and will come out with less, not more. The comparison with Oppenheimer, another big bio-pic is inevitable, and while it was subtle, challenging, and educational, Napoleon leaves the film-goer with a reinforcement of the old British version of a man who was all ego. This is reinforced by the bizarre decision to calculate the number of Frenchmen who died on the battlefield and the retreat from Russia. Is it some way to imply genocide? What responsibility did Great Britain have in funding the ongoing wars, in encouraging the breaking of treaties, supporting monarchies against the Republic of France?
None, if you believe this bad film, plenty if you read the history.
Thinking about Things... 
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