100 Days of Napoleon: A history lesson that feels like homework

Should you watch this?

Honestly, probably not. Unless you are a die-hard fan of 1930s European cinema or have a weird obsession with Napoleon’s wardrobe, this is going to feel like a very long, very dry lecture. It’s for the history buffs who enjoy watching people talk in rooms, and it’s definitely not for anyone hoping for a sweeping, exciting war epic. If you go in looking for Waterloo levels of action, you’re going to be bored to tears within twenty minutes.

The whole thing feels a bit stuffy, like the actors are worried about wrinkling their uniforms. You can tell they were trying to capture something grand, but it mostly just feels like a stage play that got lost on its way to a movie set.

The vibe is... heavy

The pacing is rough. There’s a lot of sitting around and looking grave while discussing Parliament. I found myself checking my watch a few times during the middle act. It’s got that weird, stiff quality you see in some of the older stuff like The Holy City, where everything feels a bit too careful, like they were terrified of making a wrong move.

There is this one scene—I think it’s near the hour mark—where someone is talking about the road to defeat, and the camera just stays on their face for way too long. It’s almost funny. You can see the actor thinking about what they’re going to have for lunch while trying to look sad about the French Empire.

Oddly enough...

It’s kind of fascinating to think about who wrote this. Mussolini and Forzano? Yeah, that adds a layer of weirdness that you can’t quite ignore. It’s like, why is the dictator of Italy writing a script about a guy who lost his power? There’s an irony there, though the movie is too self-serious to ever address it. It lacks the charm of a movie like Horse Feathers, which at least knows how to be ridiculous on purpose.

• The uniforms are actually pretty impressive if you’re into that.
• The dialogue is incredibly formal, like everyone is reading from a textbook.
• Napoleon looks tired, which, honestly, fair enough.
• The lighting is very "old theater," lots of shadows hiding the budget.

It’s not a complete disaster, but it’s definitely a relic. It makes me miss the weird, low-stakes energy of something like Dinky Doodle in Egypt. At least that didn't take itself so seriously. Here, everything is so heavy and "important" that it just feels like the movie is trying too hard to convince you that this moment in history matters.

Sometimes you just want a movie to let its hair down. This one never does. It just stays in its lane, marching toward defeat with a scowl on its face. It’s a curiosity, nothing more.