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Excellent, a Must See

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Given an "irresistable" supermarket price, I bought the 1993-97 episodes in a two-box set of 8 DVDs - primarily because I had enjoyed TV's "Hornblower" greatly and knew that Bernard Cornwell himself had come up with the idea for the Sharpe novels having himself been devoted to CS Forester's smashing books. Sad to say I have not read the Cornwell novels (though am now interested to do so), but was from the outset aware that, while ITV's "Hornblower" did have some "land battle" episodes for the sailors to participate in alongside the Army, it was obviously primarily concerned with Royal Navy life, and shipboard life - which is obviously possible to capture with a relatively small cast, most especially if you have a suitable ship in real life, as the makers of course did! In contrast, the battles of the Peninsular War - even the more minor engagements - involved thousands of men - to say nothing of the camp followers - so TV's "Sharpe" was always going to face problems with this issue, as it indeed does. It's definitely a case - a la Henry V - of "Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts. Into a thousand parts divide one man. And make imaginary puissance." But each episode lasts 90 minutes or so, and as they pass, the cast size limitations seem to matter less and less, all the more so as the stories are rather (surprisingly) diverse, and do their best to set up a range of situations of interest. On-location shooting (even with authentic bird sounds!) counts for a very great deal here, but there is romance, intrigue, a touch of mystery, and a whole panoply of "cases" involving characters among both officers and men. The core cast of characters come to mean a lot to the viewer, somewhat at the cost of reality, given their high survival rates in the face of men dropping like flies all around them, but obviously this is a necessity in programme-making. In these circumstances, it is rather surprising how few lines the "Chosen Men" characters other than Sergeant Harper (Daragh O'Malley) actually get, though John Tams gets to sing his songs in his very characteristic way, and pretty moving they are too. At the start of the first episode, before Sharpe whips them into shape (almost literally), Harper and the others are extremely unlikeable and mutinous, so we are asked to believe that a good officer who leads from the front can really turn "the scum of the earth" into "fine fellows". Indeed that was of course the Duke of Wellington's real-life claim and boast. Anyway, to those who have come through a fair few episodes of "Sharpe" it becomes increasingly notable that there are moments of restrained or unrestrained anger, passion, dissatisfaction, pain or sadness portrayed around the key characters that strike the faithful viewer with particular - at times almost overwhelming - force. That is good TV. There are also particular scenes, usually lasting just moments, when one suddenly has a powerful impression that one is looking at actual history, or at least painted portraits of those battle scenes, or else scenes post- or pre-fighting. Again this a considerable and quite precious reward for the seasoned viewer, and one that comes quite unexpectedly given a certain clumsiness at moments in the episodes. The enemy (mainly French) characters are also handled extremely well in my view, all the more so given that most are native speakers of French. Feodor Atkine as Major Ducos is great, though he is by no means alone among "the Frogs" (as they are dubbed in the series) in giving a classy and convincing performance. Each episode also rewards with its own set of character actors, many of whom would go on to greater fame - Julian Fellowes, Alice Krige, Michael Cochrane, Pete Postlethwaite, Emily Mortimer, even Daniel Craig, and many more give value for money. Against this background, questions might be asked about Sean Bean's acting in the title role, but then he is playing a working class man of very low origins thrust up by stages into ever higher echelons of the officer corps, and - to my mind at least - his occasional awkwardness really fits the bill. As the character himself notes at the end of the episode "Sharpe's Siege", he is no longer fully at home among either officers, NCOs or men, but has "made his bed and must lie in it". It's all very well worth watching, for those with the patience to follow the series through in full - and that's actually quite a few hours, I'm personally content to say.

Having not actually read any of the Cornwall books on which this series is based, I can look upon this and the other movies in the Sharpe series as solely a viewer instead of one constantly comparing them to the books (which I now seem to consistently do with the Harry Potter series)so I consider this to puts me at an advantage whilst writing a review.Sean Bean makes the role of Napoleonic hero Richard Sharpe his own right from the very start, as he plays the working class, son-of-a-whore Sergeant plucked from the ranks and given officer status for saving the life of the future Duke of Wellington.Wellington repays Sharpe by giving him command of a tough and unruly bunch of riflemen, who are forced to escort a small guerrilla army of Spanish Freedom fighters through French held territory to the tiny town of Torrecastro to help start and support an uprising.To add to Sharpe's duties he is also under orders to find and protect James Rothchild, a banker trying to journey through enemy territory with a much needed bankers draft in order for Wellington to pay the British Army.Although it this a great 100 minutes of classic swashbuckling entertainment, this story only seems to serve as a means to an end with this episodes sole purpose being to introduce us to the characters, and show the building relationships that will see Sharpe through fifteen sequels to date.We see Sharpe develop several strong relationships throughout the series, and in this episode we see the basis of most of them. We all know Sharpe soon becomes one of Wellington's favoured officers but here they meet for the first time. He also meets Teresa, who will become his wife, and Patrick Harper whom after a shaky start soon becomes Sharpe's best friend and right hand man. It is here he also meets Hagman, Harris, Perkins and Cooper other ongoing characters throughout the series.A great start to the series and one that set the bar pretty high for the future.

Being a huge fan of Sean Bean, I was surprised to discover, just a few weeks ago, that he had done this 14-movie series which I had never heard of. Now I've seen the premiere installment, and while it was okay, I must say I'm a bit disappointed, esp. after hearing everyone else praise this so much.The story was simple and not very clearly told. Only a couple of characters were interestingly portrayed, and Sean Bean's part, though the main one, wasn't that big, nor that much in focus. There was much about this that could have been done better - much better. Bean should have carried the show to a much greater degree, i.e. the producers should have made much greater use of him. What we got here was largely pedestrian, but I'm going to give the series a chance and watch the next few installments. Hopefully things will improve, and the story will become more interesting.6 out of 10.

Though it's nothing like what Bernard Cornwell wrote, in terms of Sharpe's backstory, "Sharpe's Rifles" is an excellent explanation of how a common soldier becomes an officer and learns to deal with his men. It also explains how Sharpe got the Chosen Men and gradually made friends with Harper, who was set on fragging him early on. Teresa's on board too, and the beginning of the romance that would end several episodes later with her murder is tender and nicely played.The story itself is rather weak: raising the 1000-year-old true flag of Spain to rouse the populace against the Bonaparte regime. That ostensible plot is completely overwhelmed by Sharpe and his new command, but it doesn't matter. It's not the real point of this show; what's important is the forming of the Chosen Men with Sharpe in charge.It's not the strongest "Sharpe" around, but it's very interesting if you like knowing the history of the characters you're watching. I enjoyed it.