Ridley Scott’s new film Napoleon is the kind of movie that’s not often made anymore. It’s a historical drama with epic battles, gorgeous costumes, spectacular palaces, luxurious coaches, romance and a beheading. (Spoiler alert: the film opens with Marie Antoinette getting the neat neck slice.) This is a big movie with big ambitions.

Napoleon (Joaquin Phoenix) is a successful military leader (well, up until overplaying his hand in the battle of Waterloo). He combines his bravery, his military skills with his political acumen to become Emperor of France during this period of French turmoil. 

He spots, woos and weds Josephine (Vanessa Kirby) and goes to work trying to sire an offspring but she is unable to bear him a child. (Their lovemaking is depicted in a less than erotic and seemingly functional manner.)

Napoleon appears to have, as they used to say, “a cast of thousands,” in some of its battle scenes. Or, in these days of clever effects and AI trickery, maybe a bunch of soldiers and horses copied and pasted over and over. In any case, the war scenes are violent and bloody. Some of the distant shots of camps and hordes of advancing troops are obviously manipulated, but the closeup warfare looks good and many sequences are memorable.

Despite all his accomplishments, Napoleon was responsible for a great number of lives lost on battlefields. The film’s end notes offer up a scorecard of sorts listing casualty totals, a number that led to his being sent to live out the last few years of his life in exile on the island of St. Helena.

A question that arises is… Is Joaquin Phoenix the right guy to play Napoleon? Napoleon is a complex character; so is Joaquin. He’s a big star, yes, and a recent Oscar winner. He’s had box office and critical success. And having him cast in the role was likely a major reason the movie was able to get made. But as I watched the movie, I kept wondering if Ridley Scott had considered others for the role or was he locked in on Phoenix from the get-go? 

Maybe that thought occurred because of the handful of laugh-out-loud moments in the movie that  would not have been included in an epic, spectacle movie like this just a few decades ago. 

Because of the grand scale of the battles in Napoleon, this film should be seen on a movie theater screen. The same has been said of several films that have been released this year but in this case the suggestion is one to seriously consider. Of course Napoleon will be on streaming platforms shortly but if you can catch it on a big screen, do so.

Napoleon is not a “must-see” film but… if you enjoy those big, epic films and if you are a Joaquin Phoenix fan, go for it. Rated R.