Top 5 most explicit scenes in Napoleon

❘ Updated: 2024-03-13T18:47:03

Joaquin Phoenix riding into battle in Napoleon.

Columbia/Apple TV

He lived a life that was full of sex and violence, and Ridley Scott’s full-blooded biopic doesn’t shy away from either aspect, as the most explicit scenes in Napoleon prove.

Ridley Scott indulges in big, bold filmmaking as seen most prominently in Alien thanks to its iconic chest-burster scene that made audiences sick in the 1970s. Hannibal’s brain-munching had a similar effect in 2001 and the director did dabble in onscreen sex via films like Someone to Watch Over Me and The Counselor.

Big-budget biopic Napoleon features both of these elements, via battles, executions, and curious goings-on in the bedroom, even if the movie isn’t always historically accurate.

Now that Napoleon is available to stream, here are the film’s most explicit scenes. SPOILERS AHEAD…

5. Marie Antoinette’s execution

Marie Antoinette's execution in Napoleon

Napoleon pulls no punches when it comes to explicit scenes, opening with Marie Antoinette’s execution at the height of the French Revolution in 1793.

Sent to the guillotine, the former French Queen is paraded through an angry crowd, with members of the mob throwing food at her. Once she reaches the platform, the deed is done – and instead of the camera panning away at a pleasing moment, it stays on Antoinette’s head until it is completely severed.

Worse than that, the executioner then picks up her head for the crowd – and therefore us – to see, which is oozing and dripping with blood. Though the scene isn’t historically accurate, it certainly sets a precedent of what’s to come, as Napoleon watches on while the severed head is paraded in front of baying crowds.

The explicit theme continues a few scenes later. After a few years have passed, French Republicans devise a small comedic play based on Antoinette’s execution – which includes simulating sexual acts with the head.

4. The Siege of Toulon

The Siege of Toulon is another explicit scene featured in Napoleon and the first large-scale battle epic viewers are treated to.

Though it remains argued whether Napoleon led any charges, much of the scene is characterized by typical battle sequences and loaded cannons sinking boats near the Toulon harbor.

Before his revenge on the British can get started, Napoleon’s horse is hit by a canon, with its guts disemboweled from the animal’s stomach and straight into the eye-line of the viewer. Once Napoleon has achieved victory, he goes back to the decaying horse corpse the morning after. There, he reaches back into the body to retrieve the cannonball to send it home “for mother.”

3. 13 Vendémiaire

In a short but brutal scene, Napoleon’s involvement in 13 Vendémiaire effortlessly sums up what made him such a ruthless leader.

While Royalist protesters take to the streets of Paris, Bonaparte and the French Republicans form a defense line to hold them off – which includes full-sized cannons. As the crowd approaches, Napoleon gives the signal for the cannons to be fired, wiping out the entire first row of protesters.

As the remaining Royalists flee, the dead are left in exactly the state you might imagine, with severed bodies, fatal injuries, and gouged body parts littering the streets.

2. Napoleon and Josephine’s sex life

Though it isn’t a setting for violence — despite Napoleon’s physical abuse toward Josephine coming in later — the Emperor and Empress’ sex life is also a fairly explicit part of the movie.

Meeting at a “survivors party” in the middle of the French Revolution, the pair’s intimacy says a lot about their relationship. Making love in an animalistic way with no room for pleasure for the Empress, Napoleon will only ever have things fulfilled to his liking.

This ultimately leads to the couple’s divorce, with Josephine unable to provide Napoleon with an heir to the throne.

1. The Battle of Austerlitz

One of Napoleon’s most famous battles is the Battle of Austerlitz, with the fictional version seen in Napoleon living up to Bonaparte’s myth.

Taking on both the Russian and Austrian empires, Napoleon is seen cornering the approaching armies on a frozen lake, which the French Army later blasts with cannon fire. These brutal tactics are what Napoleon became best known for, although whether this particular instance happened remains vague.

Nonetheless, soldiers are plunged to icy deaths, with thousands sinking in the freezing water. Viewers are left to watch this in slow motion as the screen slowly fills with blood.

With that out the way, find out how Napoleon died, see the new movies coming soon, or check out the best movies of all time.