Horatio Hornblower - Complete Series and New Adventures
(Two
Complete Boxed Sets)
Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B Film: B+
The first Horatio Hornblower was launched in 1998
on British television, which offered two-hour episodes. The first four were The Duel, The Fire Ships,
The Duchess and the Devil, and The Wrong War. These four ran from 1998-1999. Then again in 2001, two more episodes
surfaced: The Mutiny and Retribution, which would be followed
again in 2003 by Loyalty and Duty.
The first six programs are now packaged together in a set from A&E
Home Video, with the two episodes from 2003 sold separately in a two-pack
entitled The New Adventures. Andrew Grieve who comes from an all-TV
background doing episodes earlier in his career of Poirot directed all eight of
these episodes. He brings to life the
C.S. Forester stories and puts together a decent production where a lot of the
money is on the screen.
Rather than try to cover
the synopsis of each segment it would be much easier to give an overall idea of
the program and give an impression on the series as a whole. First thing that should be noted is the fact
that this is a program designed for the appetites of those who favor history,
ships, and anything of historical significance even though these shows are not
trying to retell any part of history.
With the recent release of Master
and Commander from director Peter Weir and starring Russell Crowe, there
might be a sudden boost in the popularity of these shows. Not only that, but with the success of summer
2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean,
there is a bigger market for movies about ships.
What works particular well
for these shows is the authenticity of using real ships and making all the
battles and drama quite believable. Add
to that the worthy cast led by Ioan Gruffudd as Midshipman Horatio
Hornblower. The production value seems
to boost as the series progresses due to its popularity. It is not necessary to see the earlier shows
in order to understand some of the later in the series either, although it can
be helpful for making a more complete overall story. This set makes that all the more easy by
putting together the shows with some extras as well.
The episodes have been
letterboxed with a 1.85 X 1 transfer, which was a good choice to make the video
look more like a film presentation.
There are certain scenes that look more like video while others maintain
a better film-like quality. For those
unfamiliar with this, it would be like comparing a TV Soap Opera to an actual
film drama. The quality here is somewhat
consistent across the years from 98-03 while the later episodes do appear to be
shot with better video mostly due to the fact that the industry has come a far
way in just those short years. Colors
look semi-drab, which was mostly on intent.
The shows have a darkened look to give it a more authentic reproduction
of the time period. The biggest drawback
is the softness that is inherent on all of the shows as well as poor detail
reproduction. Other than that it works
fine. The 2.0 Dolby Digital soundtrack
is nothing overly impressive, but gets the job done. Since the show was never intended for more
than a mere TV viewing anything over beyond a stereo mix seemed feasible.
The extras for these shows
are sporadic and do not make a lot of coherent sense. Each disc contains something different, so
there is little continuity. There is a
commentary track for the Loyalty and Duty episodes with director Andrew
Grieve as well as photo galleries. The Duel contains information about C.S.
Forester, The Fire Ships contains nautical terms and definitions, The Duchess contains behind the scenes
making of, and The Wrong War contains
bonus feature about England’s Royal Warships hosted by Edward Winsor.
If anything can be said
about Horatio Hornblower is the
simple fact that once you get into the show, you are hooked. This set makes for a long evening of
entertainment that provides enough action and drama all in one. It can be enjoyed by a vast demographic of
people, which might be increasing with the recent interest on the big-screen
with historical ships and sea battles.
A&E serves up the goods with a fair reproduction on the DVD
format. Given the already limited
capabilities of using video versus film, there is nothing wrong with the
transfers, just the format that was used.
- Nate Goss
