Napoleon (2023): Triumphs and Tragedies—Fiction in Ridley Scott's Spectacle

Sometimes I wonder if many years ago movies were failure after failure, may be now days with the existence of this much technology where we can verify things instantly we have become more aware of things, in instance separate facts from fiction and on the movie Napoleon there are a few things that just by looking up on internet you will find inaccurate but I'm not writing this article to note them since I'm no expert or historian but again all it takes is ask the right questions to your favorite search engine or now days your favorite AI chat bot and some things will start to sound vague on the movie. It is for this reason that since the trailer came out many were expecting the movie to be "bad" although from the point of view of any regular viewer who knows nothing about Napoleon and have not seen the trailer I would tell you that person will most likely find the movie entertaining, probably a bit boring during the times it was all about Napoleon and his wife Josephine but still entertaining and some times fun drama to follow.

Many consider Napoleon as a Biopic, a film that dramatize the life of a real, non-fictional individual; by definition it covers a real person and the real events of this person so there is not much room to work with changes, things have to stick but then why isn't it a documentary? , truth is if we start to put all the dots on the I, we might never finish and I see very hard that you could fit Napoleon life into a single movie, no matter how people try it might not be possible to satisfy the audience, its a very hard task to accomplish and very few productions with the right combination of director, writer, actors, etc can pull this off, sometimes we expect too much from movies, this is the reason why I have move more into TV series because you have way more time to develop a story except with Disney and Marvel who keep doing mini series with time been its worst problem.

The movie starts with a hard scene where I assume they decapitate Maria Antoinette, there are similar situations during the movie where extreme actions are taking, now days to decapitate someone under law I think would be almost impossible with all the human rights flying around but essentially its like trying to eradicate some one genes out of earth existence, this is one of the many scenes criticize because it is suppose that Napoleon was not there at the moment, I really don't care about online ratings when I'm about to watch a movie or TV series since I take my own decisions about it, I don't let others make decisions or opinions for me, when the movie started I said "oh yeah bloody mess...like it" I was expecting some savage scenes during war times, but it fall short.

Napoleon was rising fast as a great strategist, he was called to give his opinion and latter on lead the way into the Siege of Toulon helped politically by Paul Barras, on the movie this was Napoleon first victory what had a big impact on his carrier, since the movie is not 100% accurate and it has been called out many times I will refer to scenes on the same terms "on the movie" trying to keep the historian-trolls away on their caves.

After the Toulon victory Napoleon Bonaparte was award the rank of General so now he is a big shot and as such starts to behave this way, a proud soldier now General, I do not know if it was a military tradition but he would always wear his uniform during the movie, every day he was dress very similar on the other hand there were others who change from time to time, I think this was part of the Napoleonish attitude and that's exactly how on the movie its mention how he met Josephine, the guy was staring at her and when ask what you wearing he answers back "this is my uniform" after mention how he won the The Siege of Toulon, during that mission it look like he was about to shit himself, this scene makes me think he was not dress appropriate for the occasion but he is a proud soldier just promoted and will show it to the world, after all it seems that at the time that's all he had, his proud and honor as a French soldier.

There is not much context about how Josephine's son got to ask Napoleon for his father Saber, Josephine had a son and daughter before getting married to Napoleon. After he understood who the kid was decided to take what ever Saber from an armory and bring it to her home, here their love encounters start but I wonder if the scene where she fully throws at him opening her legs and tell him to look that really happen, a slut move if you ask me and she is trying to secure something for her and her kids. Remember I'm just a regular viewer who don't know much about French history this also makes me wonder what was the "Reign of Terror" since she was told during that time that her only way to survive was to get pregnant may be because a man would provide for her and who would best fit than General Napoleon Bonaparte.

Eventually Napoleon and Josephine gets married, for some this is the boring part of the movie but let me tell you it does get interesting because it becomes a big part of Napoleon during the movie, when Napoleon goes to Egypt, the first thing she does was to get a lover and would not hide him at all, almost everyone knew it, it was all over the papers and Napoleon was the only fool who didn't know, according to the movie, but it seems there was a reason and your boy Napoleon was show as a failed in sex, every time there was a sex scene between both Josephine always look bored and not satisfied and for the few seconds that she was shown with her lover she looked different, little more spiced up.

To cut the three from its roots, lets shop the Napoleon Josephine failed marriage, same as the failed scene from the Egypt battle both suck, I was expecting a big battle considering they move an entire army from France to Egypt with a couple of thousands miles between each and all they talk about was how Napoleon was missing Josephine and she never answer back, why? because she was fucking another guy at home while Napoleon was directing an army thousands miles away, until he was told about it and went back home as soon as possible to find out it was true she was cheating on him, they stay together until Napoleon became Emperor, not King that's different; Josephine couldn't get pregnant by Napoleon and seems the problem was her after they test him with a virgin 18 year old who got his bastard son, Napoleon and Josephine were force to divorce, the reason I took this route is because I find Josephine an interruption during the rest of the movie.

Austria and Russia join force during the period Napoleon rise to political power so he had to go to war, he was still with Josephine during this time so you will listen to him constantly wining about war and been far from her, the part where I think some people will find Napoleon as a simp, from all the Napoleonic Wars the one at Austerlitz was a master piece, if only all war scenes were like this one could probably be a better movie, he let the enemy find out about his camp when in secret he got all flanks taken the moment they enter their camp let them get a bit of advantage to send reinforcements so when they felt overwhelm push them towards a frozen lake and shoot the canons to brake the ice and let the frozen lake falling apart swallow the entire army, this was a moment of glory that makes him walk like he was twenty feet tall so close to the son and Zeus, this is when he got cocky as fuck.

During the battle of Austerlitz he mention during the movie that he should have taken both armies as prisoners and he didn't as an act of good faith, he did that because he felt superior end of the story. Latter on a love and hate story begins between France and Russia but Napoleon probably because of this cocky attitude end up been enemies with Tsar Alexander who already hate him enough for loosing at Austerlitz, Napoleon was loosing men like he was leverage trading crypto, even with the support of Austria since he was married to Marie Louis an Austrian Archduchess, for this he was taken away from his arm and the rank of General, France send him to exile on an island but eventually came back and took his fifth army for the last time, soldiers were still local to him, I would find this possible since it was different during those times, all men had was their word and winning so many battles next to Napoleon was a big deal. Napoleon and Duke Welington hate each other so much that they were finally going to war on land, Welington knew he can't win but now has the support of Russia, he almost loose this battle if it was not for the Russian army who got in time.

Napoleon was once again exile to an island but this time he had no army to claim back and it was France, Russian and England against him so his days of General were over, he lost badly the battle of Waterpool against the Russians and English, this probably totally destroy his army and he ran away from the battle field, its funny how on the movie on the last battle he specially refers to him a "Your Emperor" and reminds his soldiers that they are the "Brave of Austerlitz".

After everything he went through Napoleon was so lucky he was not killed, he went from been a regular soldier to Emperor of a Nation, this is the kind of story that doesn't matter how hard you try it wont fit into a movie but I do agree that you can't be changing historic events accuracy, its different when you produce a game or anime adaptation to a movie that you literally take history that has been written and study for many years specially some one like Napoleon who left so much written content behind because keep in mind that besides his letters to books written about him after all he became emperor so I'm sure during that time historians had to have records about his decisions, sign papers, etc, etc.

Now lets talk about Napoleon (2023) as a movie that you went to watch and know nothing about him or the movie, was it bad? the short answer is NO, reason is because actors in my opinion did a great job, people are mad because they were let down by the inaccuracy and how much the director shows about Napoleon love live with Josephine but even that aspect of the movie was very interesting, when Napoleon had his first son in the movie he brought him to Josephine not to show off but because that was suppose to be their son, the son they never had, they love each other but had responsibilities to their country, an heir was one of them.

That's the problem with this kind of posts, take me a good amount of time to put everything together and I cant stop writing about the entire story so I had to shop it into pieces, this time I try to make the images less complex because I still try to narrate my post through images.