Movies…with a little bit of obscure culture and sports mixed in
This second preview of the infamous and world-changing French man plays a lot more towards a populous audience, highlighting large scale military set pieces and an immediately recognizable popular rock song as its music bed. This trailer is fast-paced, punching the audiences with director Ridley Scott’s accomplishments and the award prowess of its two main stars.
“The film is an original and personal look at Napoleon Bonaparte’s origins and his swift, ruthless climb to emperor, viewed through the prism of his addictive and often volatile relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine.”
Director: Ridley Scott
Writer: David Scarpa
Staring: Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Ben Miles, Tahir Rahim, Ludivine Sagnier, Catherine Walker
Release Date: November 22, 2023
IMDB
Two Napoleon (2023) within a month of each other? I will take it.
This second preview of the infamous and world-changing French man plays a lot more towards a populous audience, highlighting large scale military set pieces and an immediately recognizable popular rock song as its music bed. This trailer is fast-paced, punching the audiences with director Ridley Scott’s accomplishments and the award prowess of its two main stars.
Beginning at the start of this sneak peek, we get a quick glimpse of a Napoleon (Joaquin Phoenix) power nap. He is awoken by one of his subordinates saying that they have been found. Naturally that was all part of Napoleon’s master plan. Time to cue an ice battle where multiple enemies are sent to the endless bottomless frozen abyss.
The opening to this Napoleon trailer reminds me of the forgotten 2004 Antione Fuqua directed King Arthur. If you haven’t seen Clive Owen and Keira Knightly slay some Saxons, I would recommend it. A great random action/adventure flick.
Back to late 18th century France.
The Napoleon trailer gets its metronomic beat from Black Sabbath’s War Pigs. There is a through-line in the third stanza of the song to voiceover of Napoleon near the start of the trailer.
“Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor, yeah”Compared to:
“Those in power only see me as a brute. Unfit for higher office”
War Pigs compared to Napoleon trailer
Napoleon is the “role of the poor” at the start of his maniacal journey. It is his justification for everything that comes after. He has self confidence to start with, and his ego only grows more when he realizes that power he wields as the ultimate disrupter.
The choice by Scott to include War Pigs in the trailer seems a bit on the nose, but this movie is a seemingly dreary period piece. You need to popularize the story and make it swallowable for modern audiences. Not many saw Scott’s underrated The Last Duel (2021), which also had a thick barrier to entry, so perhaps this is his attempt to rope in different audiences.
Back to the trailer.
We don’t get as much Vanessa Kirby as Josephine in this look ahead, but what we get is still very substantial.
We get two spoonfuls of Napoleon and Josephine’s relationship and in both we see who wears the pants. It’s the character who doesn’t wear pants. Josephine knows that Napoleon is attracted to power, and she shows him in very provocative terms that she holds the power of him. Napoleon is drawn to her and to the idea of power. That is both his humanizing and fateful flaw.
The part of the trailer where Napoleon places the crown upon his own head is a great example of the French Ruler not wanting to be handed anything. He wants to take it. He gets satisfaction from being a stubborn mule, denying help and claiming the prize at the end with the ability to say it was all his brilliance. Nothing like a good ego trip.
You always need someone to keep you in check though. That is Josephine. The last words we get from her in the trailer are “You want to be great, but you are nothing without me. Say It.” She needs to ground him, yet at what point during his life does she ultimately lose sway?
One other quick note about Napoleon. It would appear that a character by the name of Wellington will be a political enemy to Napoleon. I don’t know enough about Napoleon to know if Wellington succeeds, but it will be cinematic entertainment regardless.
Can we talk about the fall that Apple is having in regards to original films? Killers Of The Flower Moon (2023) comes out the weekend I am writing this, and Napoleon comes out in a month just in time for Thanksgiving. November 22, 2023. Mark your calendar for the release of a sure-to-be Oscar contender.
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