Ridley Scott reunited with Joaquin Phoenix decades after Gladiator to bring the story of French leader Napoleon Bonaparte’s rise to power to the big screen. Amid that, a real-life battle is surrounding the movie. Since the 2023 new movie release hit theaters, historians have been taking shots at major historical inaccuracies -- and they can't seem to stop. On the other hand, one defender stated that not every historical event in Napoleon is untrue.
It’s not easy to portray historical events on the big screen that one wasn't even alive to experience (and that can even be true with stories that a filmmaker lived through). Critics weighed in on Joaquin Phoenix and Ridley Scott's latest with a variety of thoughts. Some felt that the film didn’t effectively into who the titular character was and focused too much on his romance with Josephine. While Napoleon delivered epic battle scenes that caught critics' and general audiences’ attention, history experts were more concerned with the inaccuracies Scott’s latest movie laid out in regard to the military events surrounding the French emperor. These academics spoke about historical insights you could learn from the movie and others they believed to have been added only to make the production more entertaining.
