Sharpe’s Rifles/Eagle/Company/Enemy (TV
Mini-Series)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: D Telefilms: B-
Around
the time He was being seen by international audiences in Martin Campbell’s Goldeneye (1995), the film that
relaunched the James Bond films, he was also involved with a limited TV series
based on Bernard Cornwell’s novel on British officer Richard Sharpe. All fourteen episodes, at the Telefilm length
of 100 minutes each, have been issued by BFS over the last few years. These initial titles were the first set of
four offered on DVD, and therefore are covered here in this first review of the
series.
Rifles (1994) sets things up, as Bean is joined by actress Assumpta Serna (who
will be his love interest throughout the series), Brian Cox (the original
Hannibal Lecktor in Michael Mann’s Manhunter, L.I.E., and X2 as a good guy
for a change), and a decent cast of actors and extras who do as nice a job of
bringing the Napoleonic Wars alive as anything in Peter Weir’s long and drawn
out Master & Commander. Under Wellington, Sharpe and company are going
behind French borders to do their best to win the war against the great
dictator. This debut installment takes
forever to get started, but these episodes never get muddy again once everyone
gets into gear.
Eagle (1995) has Teresa “The Aguja”
(Needle) becoming more prominent in Sharpe’s life as he takes men in to make up
for a massacre that he took very, very personally. This is an even better show, and the big
battle pieces are very good for a TV production, something that runs through
the entire first four shows.
Company (1995) is lucky in adding the
terrific Pete Postlethwaite (Bryan Singer’s The Usual Suspects) as a more challenging a new opponent, Sergeant
Obadiah Hakeswill. This is his arch nemesis,
and as he has become so involved with Teresa as to marry and have a child with
her. The stakes for Sharpe are at a new
high. Yes, the plot thickens.
Enemy (1995) continues all that, and
adds a then less-known Elizabeth Hurley into the mix. Now, Wellington himself (Hugh Frasier) feels all
this chaos affecting his hold on power and control in taking Napoleon’s men
down. The way things conclude almost
feels like an Act One completing itself.
The full
frame, color image is not too good on most of the transfers, though Enemy has color fidelity and slight
definition improvements over the first three installments. That still is not a significant enough to
garner it a higher rating. The picture
is a disappointment and atypical of what we have come to expect form BFS
DVDs. The Dolby Digital 2.0 is simple
Stereo with no real surrounds. The music
is fair, then downright odd when trying to include electronics, that bring to
mind Highlander, the 1980 Flash Gordon theatrical film, and the
band Queen. This does not fit well with
a limited series on the Napoleonic Wars.
None of the discs have any extras here either.
All four
installments are directed by Tom Clegg, who definitely has a knack for keeping
things moving. Bean has good material
here and does a great job giving his title character an edge that characters do
not usually have on TV these days. So
far, the show has demonstrated an upward arch enough to make any viewer want to
continue watching. We will get to the
rest of the series when we return.
- Nicholas Sheffo
