Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Sharpe , Richard.

Sharpe, played by Sean Bean, is a British officer leading riflemen in the Napoleonic Wars. Sharpe is dashing, handsome, an effective combat leader, the man Wellington selects for especially difficult missions. He has a beautiful mistress, later his wife, who is also a leader of Spanish guerrillas. She is shot in action, and dies in Sharpe's arms in the fourth episode. The villains are villainous, and get their just deserts. The costumes are great, the redcoats are bright red, the riflemen wear dark green with lots of buttons, the ladies dresses are wide and floor sweeping. Sean Bean has a much better role here than he did as Boromir in Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring.
Some British company did 14 episodes of Sharpe as a TV miniseries and Netflix has them all. The series is based upon a series of historical novels by Bernard Cornwall, and in my humble opinion the TV series does the books full justice. If you liked the Captain Hornblower mini series you will like this one. Good fun and good theatre.

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