SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Winifred The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

blanche-2 "Conquest," a 1937 film directed by Clarence Brown, stars Charles Boyer and Greta Garbo as Napoleon and his lover, Marie Walewska.The film is based on the true story of Polish patriot Marie Walewska, a married woman who becomes the mistress of Napoleon with the belief that it will help her country gain its independence. The two have a great love affair, but politics intervene. The power of love becomes the victim of the love of power."Conquest" is a little uneven and unsure of its plot. It begins very dramatically, with the Cossacks, horses and all, crashing into Count Walewska's (Henry Stephenson) palace. From there, we get the love affair and then Napoleon's battles, exile to Elba, and his return.The film isn't really a Garbo film; it's a rare film where she is secondary. Napoleon (Boyer) is really the main character. The love affair becomes secondary to Napoleon's battles, both political and on the field.Garbo is good, but I guess it's a little jarring not to have the film all about her. Boyer is fantastic - tough, passionate, conflicted, and ambitious, a man seen as a savior to some and a bully to others. Truly one of his greatest roles.Worth seeing for the cast, which also includes diminutive Maria Ouspenskaya, sets, and costumes.

MartinHafer This film reminded me of another MGM costume drama--MARIE ANTOINETTE. Both were late 30s MGM epics with lavish costumes and the full MGM treatment (the typical high-budget music, dialog, pacing, direction, etc.). And, both were pretty boring--at least to me. Now I know these films were well-received at the time and they both starred MGM divas (Norma Shearer in MARIE ANTOINETTE and Greta Garbo in CONQUEST), but didn't change the fact that these were very stagy and unengaging films. To put this in some perspective, I love movies from Hollywoods Golden Age and I am a history teacher and I still was bored to tears by the films. I think it is films like these that got students to really hate history! My advice--watch a documentary about Napoleon or watch a romance but don't combine the two into a static and unappealing film like this.

Prof_Lostiswitz This has to be one of the most intelligent movies exploring the theme of power and its corrupting effects upon love. Napoleon (admirably played by Charles Boyer) is not shown as a complete monster or idealist, but as a man who gradually loses his humanity as he becomes consumed with dreams of universal power. Even at the end, he rejects a woman's love in order to become a legend, exiled alone in St. Helena.Greta Garbo does a really stirring job as the woman (Countess Marie Walewska) who genuinely loves him just for being a human being, and is distressed to see him corrupted by increasing dreams of worldwide domination, founding a new dynasty, etc. It is remarkable how she manages to avoid romantic clichés and deal in direct and honest fashion. In this respect, the movie seems remarkably modern.I really recommend this film to anyone interested in human relationships, not just French history. Garbo, as always, is as intelligent and humane as she is sexy, and has many interesting things to say. I still reckon her best performance is in Queen Christina, still this is not far short of it. You can feel the decades melting away just listening to her.

alberto f. cañas Ever since I first saw "Conquest" back in '38, I've been convinced that the first half of the film is a magnificent production, while the second half is terribly slow,as Clarence Brown's films always tended to be. The magnificent opening, with the cossacks invading the Walewski Palace, is typical of the best Clarence Brown, even if reminds you of Josef von Sternberg's "The Scarlet Empress". The trouble with the picture is that it starts telling the story or Marie Walewska, and in the middle leaves Walewska (and Garbo!) behind to tell us the political and military fall of Napoleon, which it does very badly. It is typical of this Garbo film, that its best scene omits her, and is a verbal duel between Charles Boyer and Maria Ouspenskaya. Garbo is magnificent, but Boyer was a more talented performer, and is the only actor ever to "steal" a picture from her. Magnificent production, a screen play that has no unity, and a direction that drags, conspire to make you admire Garbo, Boyer and Ouspenskaya during the first half, and sleep through the second.