Vladislav Bodnaruk

Of course, from the perspective of visuals the movie looks amazing, as it should considering its budget. However, I do find certain issues with the movie. Throughout the movie the audience doesn't seem to have the chance to grasp this man's charisma and brilliace, what made thousands of men want to go into battle and throw themselves into the slaughter. This is further worsened by the fact that the battles seem to have no strategy whatsoever: men in different uniforms from different units run into battle. This mess on the battlefield negates any tactics and stategies that Napoleon employed and once again dull his characters, while the tactis that are used resemble more the trench warfare of WWI than the battles of the early 19th century. The near absence of Napoleon's generals and marshals feels like a void in the entire film: these men were his friends since the Italian campaign (which is also completely absent!), and their betrayal of him to serve their own interests (such as the cases of Bernadotte and Murat) would have made Napoleon's unraveling even more interesting. Speaking of Napoleon's downfall, the time period between the Russian invasion (1812-1913) and Napoleon's first abdication (1814) is completely missing. The battles of Leipzig and Danzig, the parade of Coalition troops through Paris, all gone! Napoleon's downfall could have been used to induce emotions in the audience and to create a sense of revenge from the Coalition rulers, particularly Czar Alexander and Emperor Francis I.This is despite the fact that in those missing two years, the dynamics of European politics changed dramatically. What surprised me most was the reason why Napoleon leaves Egypt in the movie. Not because of the French fleet's destruction at Abukir at the hands of the British and the multiple defeats the French army suffered in the land war in Egypt, but rather because of news of Josephine's infidelity. In reality, Napoleon simply realized that Egypt was a lost cause but did not want to admit failure, opting instead to board a ship and return to France. What I did like was the scene of Napoleon's confrontation and conversion of the royalist troops sent out to apprehend him after his return to France. The script does not do justice neither to Joaquin Phoenix as an actor, nor to Napoleon Bonaparte as a statesman and military leader. Speaking of all this (and much more), it is of course difficult to fit Napoleon's life into one 2.5 hour long movie, however simply by discarding at least some of the historical inaccuracies that have been pointed out by various critics, the movie would have been so much better.