Sharpe's Rifles / Sharpe's Eagle DVD > Reviews > King George commands and we obey

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Unmemorable
Soundtrack	Average

Advantages:	Everything  -  plot, characters, acting, literally everything
Disadvantages:	Nothing .  .  . if I'm pushed I could possibly say that they are long for single episodes .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

My boyfriend has recently got me completely hooked on the Sharpe series, both in film and in book form, and this was the first of the movies that I saw after becoming fascinated with the books. The two on this DVD are the first two in a series of 16 TV episodes of Sharpe, which when you consider that each episode is 100 minutes long, they would take an awful lot of watching back to back. Although it is the first chronological film, Sharpe's Rifles is not the first chronological novel, which would be Sharpe's Tiger when he starts as a private, but the events described in that book are placed much later in the TV show.

DETAILS

Title: Sharpe's Rifles / Sharpe's Eagle [1993]
Date DVD released: 29 April 2002
Runtime: 200 minutes
Number of Disks: 2
Format: PAL
Director: Tom Clegg
Main Actors: Sean Bean, Brian Cox, Daragh O'Malley, Assumpta Serna, David Troughton
Price: It is available from Amazon.co.uk from £1.25 to £5.98

BACKGROUND

For those who either have never heard of Sharpe, or have never been truly interested...Sharpe is a complex character, set in the period of the Napoleonic wars with the bloody conflicts and battles that go with this period. The books and the films are actually quite scarily historically accurate, they portray true battles, true events and Bernard Cornwell's research around this period is quite extraordinary. Both Sharpe's Rifles and Sharpe's Eagle are set in 1809, and with both of these two episodes the book and the episode are very similar, with only slight differences. The knowledge of the period is not however only limited to the battles and events, but a very in depth knowledge of how the army in that period worked, and how the weapons were used, including the difference between rifles and muskets which I had never realised before getting involved in this series. Bernard Cornwell does admit freely that he has manipulated history to allow him to slot his character in, with deeds being given to Sharpe often when there was no record of the name of whoever actually did the act, or even on occasions 'stealing another persons thunder'.

SHARPE

When Sharpe joined the army he joined as a Private, a complete no ranker who will be treated more or less like an animal by any commissioned officer, or for that matter any higher ranking non-commissioned officer. In the TV series he is shown in the first episode as a Sergeant, but in the early books you see him as a Private who more or less gets sentenced to a death sentence of 2000 lashes. But throughout the series you see him rising first through the non-commissioned ranks, and then into the commissioned ranks when Sir Arthur Wellesley promotes him into a Lieutenant (into an Ensign in the books), and you follow his journey through.

Sharpe is such a wonderful character because of how complicated he actually is, son of a prostitute he doesn't fit into the officer ranks because he came from the gutter, not from a family with money, but equally he cannot be part of the ranks because he is now an officer and not in the same class anymore. This means that he is in the rather unenviable position of being stuck somewhere in the middle.

If there is one thing I have to say about the character of Sharpe is that Sean Bean is an absolutely brilliant portrayal of this character...and maybe this is just me being very female, but who couldn't be won over by him in that green uniform! As an added interesting point it says something when even the writer of the novels says that when he writes Sharpe now he actually thinks of Sean Bean. This is actually shown quite clearly as in the earlier novels Sharpe never says the word 'lass', but Sean Bean does and this is written into the later novels.

SHARPE'S RIFLES (1809)

--Plot--
Right at the beginning of the episode Sergeant Richard Sharpe (played by Sean Bean) saves Sir Arthur Wellesley (played by David Troughton) from three French Dragoons, and is rewarded by a field commission to Lieutenant. In Sir Arthur Wellesley's words; 'You've done me a good turn Sharpe, so I'm going to do you a damn bad one, I'm giving you a field commission.' Sharpe is then put in charge of a select group of 'chosen men' who are led by Rifleman Patrick Harper (played by Daragh O'Malley) a wonderful Irish character, but to begin with the two men hate each other with a passion as Harper feels that Sharpe is not a 'proper officer'.

The mission Sharpe and his 'chosen men' are being sent on is to find a James Rothschild who was meant to be meeting Wellesley to lend him some money to pay his troops, except he has disappeared and Wellesley is getting worried. So Sharpe and his troops are sent out to find the banker and escort him safely back to the base, but this gets tangled in another mission as they find themselves surrounded by a group of Spanish guerrillas when Sharpe and Harper are indulging in a fist fight...or bar brawl. Harper ends up in chains, shackled to a horse, as a prisoner for hitting a superior officer, as well as gross insubordination and mutiny. This then leads to one of the best scenes in the film when Harper is left guarding a chest while being tied to the horse when he gets ambushed by 3 men. The leader of the group gives him the choice to desert but he refuses, so the two soldiers attack him on the basis that one of them will die, but that he cannot reload quickly enough to kill both, and the one to survive will get 100 guineas. You soon find out why they are called 'chosen men'. When Sharpe gets back with the rest of the company he finds Harper happily sat on the grass verge with a massive grin on his face and powder burns. After a short discussion Sharpe just tells him to fall in.

Spanish leader: Shouldn't you get the highest honours for what you just did?
Harper: (massive grin) He gave me high honours sir, he told me to fall in!

The main task ends up being to escort these Spanish guerrillas to the town of Torrecastro and more or less take it from the French...another brilliant scene. And the rest you'd have to watch!

--Main Characters--
Sir Arthur Wellesley's: Based on a true representation of the historical figure of Arthur Wellesley. A lot of the characteristics that are shown in the portrayal of Wellesley are characteristics that Bernard Cornwell has picked up from extensive research including the reading of correspondence that was sent between different historical figures at the time.

Patrick Harper: A large Irish Catholic Rifleman, and although him and Sharpe are initially enemies they become very close friends and both rely massively on the other. Although he would appear at first glance to be a very intimidating character it becomes clear very early on that he is a gentle giant who has a love for bird watching. An interesting fact is that in the Sharpe novels, Harper's middle name is given as Augustine, but in the Sharpe TV series, it was changed to Michael.

Daniel Hagman: One of Sharpe's 'Chosen Men', the best shot in the company and is always singing or humming some song. A former poacher and thief before he joined the army but a thoroughly likeable character. He is played by John Tams.

--Best Quotes--
Richard Sharpe: Gimme a pick-lock, Cooper.
Cooper: Pick-lock, sir? Catch me with a pick-lock!
Patrick Harper: They did, Coop. But when you got out of Newgate prison, you got another set, and that's the one the officer wants.
Cooper: Do I get it back, sir?
Richard Sharpe: Trust me.
Cooper: It's very hard to trust a man who wants to borrow your pick-lock, sir.

Patrick Harper: There are two kinds of officers, sir: killin' officers and murderin' officers. Killin' officers are poor old buggers that get you killed by mistake. Murderin' officers are mad, bad, old buggers that get you killed on purpose - for a country, for a religion, maybe even for a flag. You see that Major Hogan, sir? That's what I call a murderin' officer.

SHARPE'S EAGLE (1809)

--Plot--
Sir Arthur Wellesley prepares to invade Spain in which the French had occupied, the film and the book are set around the Battle of Talavera. The first mission Sharpe is sent on is for him and his company to go with Sir Henry Simmerson (played by Michael Cochrane) who is an incompetent Lieutenant Colonel who has bought his rank (which was normal practice for officers at the time), but has no battle experience. I have to admit he is one of my favourite enemies, purely because of how cleverly the character is written and staged, but he is a nasty piece of work. The story line includes disastrous battles, near duels (which Wellesley had decreed were illegal and carried an immediate death sentence), murder, intrigue and attempted rape. Put this together with an incompetent Colonel who hates Sharpe because he is an outsider, and because he's a commoner he shouldn't be an officer. Then Simmerson's nephew Lieutenant Gibbons who Simmerson wants to get a promoted into Captain so there is a great deal of rivalry between the two.

Nobody is impressed with Simmerson, even before he messes up big time, least of all Sharpe and Wellesley. The company he has brought with him are all complete green recruits who Sharpe has to teach to fire 3 rounds a minute in one afternoon, in case anyone doesn't know - to fire three rounds in a minute from a musket or a rifle was very difficult, because they had to bite the bullet, pour the powder into the gun barrel, spit the bullet into the barrel, tap the but of the barrel against the ground, take the metal ramrod out, use it to ram the bullet into the barrel of the gun, re-set the ramrod, prime the lock of the gun with the remaining powder, then cock and fire. This is not the easy way of loading a gun today. It is also clear that these troops are whipped soldiers and in Sharpe's words:

Richard Sharpe: They're flogged soldiers, sir. And flogging teaches a soldier only one lesson.
Maj. Hogan: What's that, Richard?
Richard Sharpe: How to turn his back.

The title of the book however gives a fair amount away about what the main climax is going to be, and again, in case a history lesson is needed, the Eagle was the French standard, their version of the Colours. Each Eagle had been touched by Napoleon himself, and like losing the English colours would be a major sign of disgrace, the same would be true of the French Eagle.

--Main Characters--
Same as before except for:
Colonel Simmerson: He is a recurring villain, portrayed as a stereotypical snobbish and tyrannical English aristocrat. He is narrow-minded, militarily inept and cowardly; while he is not presented as a clever man, he does display a certain cunning and deviousness. He has a large political backing and can use this as a way to stay in positions of power even when he messes up big time.

Lieutenant Gibbons: Simmerson's nephew, and is an even nastier piece of work than Simmerson, but at least he has the excuse of youth. Needless to say he also has a hatred of Sharpe, and this leads to massive, massive conflict.

--Best Quotes--
[Gibbons has challenged Sharpe to a duel]
Maj. Hogan: Oh, give me your hand, sir! You're a brave fellow, Gibbons! Sharpe's a killer! Killed three French cavalrymen and saved Wellesley's life - three seconds, slash, cut thrust! And that was when he was still a sergeant. Shall we say six o'clock tomorrow morning, in the field behind the camp? Or should we say it was damn dark, and you made a damn bad mistake?
Gibbons: Silly mistake. Say no more about it, eh?
Maj. Hogan: Good thinking, Gibbons. Sharpe would have shot out your left eye at a minute past six, and you'd have spent all day tomorrow looking up at nothing with the other.

Leroy: We have to stop him.
Patrick Harper: You can't stop Captain Sharpe, sir. You can walk away from him or you can stand behind him, but don't ever try and get in his way.

ACTING

The acting in both of the episodes is brilliant, and this continues throughout the series. All of the acting of the main characters is brilliant and very believable. My brother did complain that at the beginning of Sharpe's Rifles the acting was slightly wooden, and he does have a point, my guess would be that this was because the actors were still getting used to each other. The acting improves as the episode goes on, and I had no issues with it even at the beginning. One of the things that really did impress me was the acting of the horse riders, it takes a great deal of skill to fall from a galloping horse in a battle scene, and that was played brilliantly and I have utmost respect for the riders.

ENDING SONG

Each of the Sharpe episodes end with the same song which comes from a traditional English song but the lyrics were made specifically for the Sharpe series. There is no lyrics for Sharpe's Rifles, but there is for Sharpe's Eagle, and although the chorus will always stay the same each of the verses is different.

Chorus:
O'er the hills and o'er the main
Through Flanders, Portugal and Spain.
King George commands and we obey
Over the hills and far away.

Verse:
Here's forty shillings on the drum
To those who volunteer to come,
To 'list and fight the foe today
Over the Hills and far away.

SPECIAL EFFECTS

Umm...none, or at least very few. I think the explosions are the only real special effects in either episode. It does however have to be remembered that in the earlier episodes the budget was very, very low and most of that would have been spent on the uniforms and such like which cost a fortune. They did get around this to a point as a large amount of the supporting actors were from that select group of people who actually take part in the historical re-enactments, so they already have the uniforms and would have been perfectly willing to take part in it for a pittance.

CONCLUSION

I am completely and utterly addicted, in addition I very rarely find that film adaptations are as good as the novel, with these I had no complaints whatsoever. I'm still trying to work out whether they are equal to each other or if the films are actually better.