Having read a 1000 page biography on Napoleon before seeing this, it's interesting how some elements are actually pretty accurate while other elements are either pure fantasy (Napoleon meeting Arthur Wellesley for breakfast on the Bellerophon, as we previously speculated) or been switched around (Josephine requesting the divorce instead of Napoleon and before rather than after meeting Tzar Alexander) or otherwise modified.
The battles take a lot of artistic license, but they have to. If you read a historical account of a major battle like Waterloo, it can sometimes be a bit tedious despite the subject matter. You need a map to keep track of all the hundreds of units on the battlefield, it's an incredibly complex affair (and also the reason why Napoleon became less effective the larger his battles got due to the unavoidable need to delegate command). Often there is not much happening, then suddenly a hundred things happen simultaneously, often miles apart. Not an easy thing to put on screen.
Napoleon often came across as a bit idiosyncratic in Andrew Roberts' biography and Ridley dialed it up for the film.
You could see from his cringy love letters that he was probably going to be a bit awkward in the bedroom and his mind was often all over the place even during battles when he should have been focused on one thing only.
But in other respects, Phoenix's Napoleon actually reminded me more of his Commodus character from Gladiator.
Despite the various historical inaccuracies elsewhere, the costumes looked spot on and quite simply amazing. Wolski and Scott's cinematography look fantastic. A lot more colour here than in The Last Duel as befits this period in history complete with Scott's trademark craneshots. And no-one else on the planet does interior candlelit scenes as well as Wolski/Scott. Arthur Max and Scott's production design was top notch as always. The degree of filigree is often mind-melting at times. Martin Phipps' score was quite serviceable and suitably waltzy, martial and bombastic at times.
Bring on the directors cut!
