Review: Napoleon

Sir Ridley Scott's Napoleon is a spectacular attempt to portray the enigmatic Corsican soldier who ended up ruling most of Europe. Starring Joaquin Phoenix (Joker) as Bonaparte and Vanessa Kirby (The Crown) as Josephine.The astonishing force of nature that is Sir Ridley Scott takes the historians head-on with his latest epic Napoleon.Well into his 80s now, Ridley Scott is showing no signs of slowing down, let alone retiring. His track record is astonishing - and not just his glittering CV, including Alien, Thelma and Louise, Blade Runner and the rest.There are his recent films - The Martian, All the Money in the World, House of Gucci and The Last Duel. Say what you like about them, you can't deny their size and their scope. And now Scott takes on an even bigger one - Napoleon.Napoleon Bonaparte has defeated some of filmdom's best, it should be said. Stanley Kubrick famously tried and failed to bring to life the unlikely tale of the uneducated Corsican corporal who rose to pretty much conquer the world. It's a story that defies organising into a story. How do you tell it?Scott isn't the sort of producer/director to faff about looking for hidden meanings in a narrative. "Damn the torpedoes" seems to be his attitude, as he starts with Bonaparte's first victory - against his own people as it happens, the rabble fresh from executing Queen Marie Antoinette.Napoleon is played by Joaquin Phoenix - no stranger to saturnine, slightly unlikable people like The Joker and the villainous Caesar in Scott's own Gladiator. Like all previous Bonapartes, Phoenix plays him swarthy, humourless and self-centred. Having conquered the streets of Paris, he now takes on the English, who France is at war with as usual.Returning from the Battle of Toulon, he goes to a victory party in Paris, where he catches the eye of a famous courtesan. Vanessa Kirby rather flatters the actual Josephine who in real life was older than Napoleon and far from classically beautiful. No matter, Kirby is still the best thing in this Napoleon.The trouble with any account of this period is it's almost impossible to make sense of it all, particularly the height of the French Revolution. Every week, someone new seemed to be in charge, with the previous incumbent, as often as not, sent to the guillotine. Anyone who could survive in such circumstances was not only brilliant but lucky - a perfect illustration of the famous adage 'chaos is a ladder'. And for years Napoleon was both. He was a gifted soldier and his record speaks for itself - 61 battles, most of them won. …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details