This film is a production spectacle that is known for, rightly, a great deal of technical innovation and achievement at the time, i.e. lots of fast cuts, double exposures, montages, etc.. and several other technical innovations and a storyline that captures the chaos and spirit of revolutionary fervor of the French Revolution. The film really focuses more on the sensation of the French Revolution brimming out to the rest of the world with Napoleon leading that charge but the core of the story lying in the movement of the French people and not so much Napoleon, although his virtuosity and bravado is a huge part of it.
The film is kind of panned for lacking storytelling subtlety and acting subtlety, which I don’t find totally true. A lot of the beats hit correctly in terms of what you need, although I will agree that much of the performance is pantomimed as opposed to performed.