4/5
No thumb down. This time next year, the most anticipated fall blockbuster will be Ridley Scott's long-awaited 'Gladiator 2' starring Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn and Denzel Washington. Not to mention Connie Nielsen, Djimon Hounsou, and Derek Jacobi, reprising their roles from the 90s, golden era, landmark classic. But until then, despite his height, you can look up to this year's winter movie, the great Scott's 'Gladiator' reunion with Joaquin Phoenix like Ridley's 'Robin Hood' one with Russell Crowe. The epic 'Blade Runner', 'Alien' and 'Kingdom Of Heaven' director has a Napoleon complex, but don't thumb your nose at it, as he returns to his arena of battle royales like his 'Last Duel' with Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, or the 'Exodus' of 'God's and Kings'. Only Spielberg 'Saving Private Ryan' wages war on screen quite like Scott, and one strategic battle, volleying cannonballs on ice (this is not a Disney movie) sees Ridley reflecting Napoleon Bonaparte's art of war like Sun Tzu. It will remind you of 'Game Of Thrones', and why, just like my friend said, that this Apple + production might have been better served as a series in this day and age of prestige TV. Then again, on the idiot box of a small steaming screen, you wouldn't be able to experience this, and the still on top of his game at 86, Ridley Scott's, cinematic classic for the mainstream movie making circuit. Turning big-screen blockbuster battles into an art-form in the same year the explosive 'Oppenheimer', merged with 'Barbie' and the 'Dead Reckoning' of an unstoppable train and Tom Cruise in 'Part 1' (that's how you do movie television) of the latest 'Mission: Impossible' fuse got everyone taking their theatrical seats once again.
The grandest of finales sees definitive direction that we've never seen before from Scott, boxing us into the blood and bruises, as the defences are formed with no room for squares from the man who chipped the pyramids. Ridley dressed up cameramen and other stagehands as soldiers to get as close as possible to the gut-wrenching scraps in the mud that would soon turn to flowers like the change of a season. And you thought the soldiers that just played drums or flutes, leading the brigades, had it bad. These really get it in the neck. There's a big-three trilogy of fights here and a couple of other set-pieces that seem like small skirmishes in comparison, but what really compels is Phoenix's powerhouse acting from the fire to the ash. 'The Master' of walking the line and giving depth to 'You Were Never Really Here' and 'I'm Still Here' (they sound like break-up and reply movies like Sofia Coppola's 'Lost In Translation' and Phoenix's own 'Her' with Spike Jonze), is truly terrific as a bona fide Bonaparte, to death does him part. Before 'Folie à deux' and a newborn star going Gaga as Harley Quinn, will the French general garner another Oscar for Joaquin, who achieved the impossible in attaining another Academy Award for 'The Joker', after the late great, previously thought untouchable Heath Ledger? Turning the Clown Prince Of Crime into our new Hamlet. You can expect a nomination for a man who has given us great acts for years, from an 'Inherent Vice' to 'C'mon, C'mon'.
Before parting this mortal coil (c'mon, c'mon, that's not a spoiler), Bonaparte's hair gets noticeable thinner (I feel your pain) as his paunch gets clearly more profound (ditto), like a literal version of that meme about hair and muscles not growing, but your stomach being like, "I got you". But what's really complete, when it comes to Joaquin's commanding portrayal, is the very first time he storms a castle and leads his men into battle. And just how anxious he actually is. Phoenix channels the nerve and war orchestrating hand gestures perfectly, like he and Ridley were studying old paintings for mannerisms. All for a bad mannered man who would end up just standing around in cocksure confidence in the heat of battle before getting stuck in. But in this war epic and historical account of the French Revolution that has been crippled by critics in France ("history is a set of lies agreed upon"), scripted by David Scarpa, and bookended by great roles from a charismatic Tahar Rahim, and a scene-stealing Rupert Everett, it's Vanessa Kirby who is truly revelatory as Empress Joséphine. The love of Napoleon's life, his wife, his muse and the reason for his tortured soul to the letters, as more brutal battles play out in the bedroom than they do on the battlefield. In the chambers of his heart, 'The Crown's' own Princess Margaret, Vanessa Kirby (who starred this summer in the aforementioned 'M:I' movie), replaces new Ridley favourite Jodie Comer, but still kills it like Eve. Even turning the basic instinct of what may shock the 'Downton Abbey' crowd into a position of real power. At times, she's Lady Macbeth to our general, at others a solitary soul who stirs the loneliest and darkest reaches of our hearts. But always her own, powerful person. 'Napoleon' begins with the beheading of Marie Antoinette, but even more heads will roll after as Scott gives us more than cake. If you want a thing done well, get Ridley to do it. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
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