User reviews

The Hornblower books were an excellent read. Though it has been nearly 30 years since I have read them, they are fondly remembered. This long film which has been separated into four episodes for television is very representative of Horatio Hornblower and what he stood for. The filming is outstanding, the costuming great, the models extremely realistic, in fact the first three episodes are truly outstanding television in themselves. The lead player, the young Welsh actor, Ioan Gruffud (spelling) is good looking, athletic enough for the extracurricular activities and very realistic. There are a number of secondary players in some of the episodes if not all. Robert Lindsay, who reminds me of the American actor famed for the Usual Suspects and L.A. Confidential, Kevin Spacey, is also outstanding. An English actress whose name is something like Cherry Lunghi and the wonderful English actor who play the Russian expatriot, Yaki, in the memorable Masterpiece Theatre series, Fortunes of War, are also very welcome. This is a series well worth seeing.

This is a comment not only on the superb production as a whole, which is very authentic from a historical perspective, and gives the viewer a true sense of what life was like in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, but also to praise an excellent performance by Robert Lindsay, who plays Captain Sir Edward Pellew. As a student of military history, I was very pleased with this production as a whole, and Griffudds' Hornblower is well done. But Lindsay, as the redoubtable Sir Edward is priceless. Just the right blend of old navy correctness, upper-class haughtiness, and berely concealed pride in his young protegee. Hornblower, with whom he is careful not to appear overly fond, is most determined to do his job and please his captain, whom he worships. Pellew recognizes the seeds of greatness in the young man and sheperds him along with scant vocal praise but strong career-enhancing opportunities. Lindsay is very likaable and proper, and I want to see more o of his work. I hope to see more of the Hornblower series in the future, as Ioan Griffudd continues to grow and prosper.

If America only knew how good this was,it would be the highest rated Made-For-TV movie series of all time(hard to believe there are more people out there that would rather watch "The Columbo Mysteries" than Horatio Hornblower- that just goes to show the power of major network name-brand advertising.

The Hornblower movie series has been television at its finest. I have seen all 6 of the A&E Horatio Hornblower movies,"The Duchess and the Devil" is my favorite of the 6 films. However I tune in to A&E everytime they air a new Hornblower movie. So far all 6 movies have been based on the Horatio Hornblower adventure novels written by C.S. Forester(the same author who wrote African Queen). Each Movie chronicles the on-going adventures of Horatio Hornblower who is a Brittish Lt. in the Brittish Navy during the late 1790's-to early 1800's during the Napoleonic era in Europe. I sincerly believe that each one of these 6 Films has been good enough to have shown at the movie theaters,if the producers had wanted to. Unlike other Made-For-TV films,The Hornblower films do not have that Made-For-TV feeling to them,like most television movies have.

A common misconception that people who havent seen these movies have is that all 6 of these films go to gether as a mini-series- that is not true. The Hornblower movies are not a mini-series,all 6 of these films are individual movies about the same charactor- with all the same actors playing the same roles in each film(EXAMPLE:think of the James Bond films-They are not sequels, but they are all about the adventures of James Bond- that same principle applies to the Hornblower movies) I give the entire Horatio Hornblower movie series 5 out of 5 stars. Its Perfect entertainment- but you cant please everyone, so for those of you dont like epic battleship battles,historic style drama,high stakes adventure, and danger on the high seas,if you dont like stuff like that-there is always Columbo re-run for you to watch.

Hornblower(Gruffudd, showing a strong sense of honor) is escorting a Duchess(Lunghi, a woman who speaks her mind), when his luck seems to start running out - he and his men are captured and imprisoned. He maintains his composure, and plans an escape. But will his men keep trusting him to take care of the situation? Things are made no better by midshipman Hunter(Fulford, a man of short temper) second-guessing the acting lieutenant's decisions, and a surprise or two are revealed while our friends are captives.

This goes into the application of force and a direct approach, vs. the use of wit and outsmarting the enemy, to solve conflicts. As in the film immediately prior to this, there is no "villain", it is merely a question of a difference of perspective, and, as usual, everyone is a fleshed out human being. Performances, production values, filming(very little reveals that it's made for TV), stunt work, realism(with small details that say so much without being obvious), all highly impressive.

This takes risks by confining its cast, and thus the audience, to a single location, a jail, for the vast majority of the running time. While there are tense situations, and not everything looks bad, this does recreate the tedious nature of such an existence, and a palpable sense of hopelessness, of never being able to get out. Themes gone into include strength of character, duty, nobility, etc.

There is disturbing, brutal and bloody violent content in this. I recommend this to any fan of drama. 8/10

Ioan gruffud is hornblower, fighting for the british royal navy. His mission is to bring important papers and the duchess back to england. But he runs into trouble on the way home and must overcome many hurdles. Although most of the film is spent at the spanish prison! Some swashing and buckling. It's pretty good... has some slow moments. Honor above all. The film is all very okay... works for all ages. Minimal cussing and violence. Directed by andrew grieve. Based on the story by c.s. Forester. Originally produced by A&E, currently showing on the roku channel.

wow, wow, wow, so deep and ensnaring, can't look away! This particular episode is one of my favorites, amazing, and M'Man Kennedy AKA Jamie Bamber is so good in this one! loved it! If i could vote higher than 1- outa 10, i would, hit the mark for good plot line, characters, climax, summary, music, everything was good and then some! I loved it, in case you hadn't already guessed!! If there was thing i would say about it, though is that there wasn't enough screen time for the 'duchess' but aside from that, it was good, and the music was especially good in this episode, the exiting music and it tied the whole movie, i like the fact that, unlike movies such as Master and Commander, it didn't think it was unnecessary to put in background music, it gives the whole episode a bit of light, well done, very well done.

Unlike the prior two movies this one really breaths as a piece of cinema. I don't know if the director was given more time or money but the naval atmosphere is a lot strong here. The final sequence is one of the better action scenes I have seen done in the TV format. And of course this films continues the sharp writing and great acting of the prior two.

This movie, as well as the other three in the series, is "a refreshing drink of water in a drought stricken land." The hero of the story is the truest of men. A man who knows right from wrong and is willing to do anything to stand by the right. This particular movie has one up on the first two in that it has a touch of romance in it where the others are lacking. They all are characterized by plenty of mystery, adventure and very strong character development.

My only complaint is that the movies all tend to leave out important points which left me sometimes wondering what was going on. This is hardly noticeable though when you lay this short-coming up against its list of strengths.

A must see!

I loved the first Hornblower, liked the second then arrived at this one... Beats me why it has such a high rating as it lacked so much, the acting at times questionable and the story flawed on so many levels. Large parts of this drama seem to hang with not a lot happening, I don't know, maybe that's the direction at fault, it just does not flow right. I actually laughed out loud at some of the acting mostly due to the bad accents, I mean an aristocratic Duchess with a northern accent. I know there's a twist to her character but no need to make her a Northern lass. The Hornblower character at times is wooden and at other times he's an arrogant control freak, I just can't warm to him anymore. This could have been so much more with the right attention to detail. There are good points but these are mostly at sea on board ship. It just gets wrecked when they reach land. Not awful but not great either.

I thoroughly enjoyed "Duchess", and in fact all of the Horatio Hornblower movies. They were well written, well filmed, and well acted, particularly in the cases of Ioan Gruffud and Jamie Barber (Horatio & Archie Kennedy) who also, I happen to think, are both very attractive. I like the fact that M'Man Kennedy was brought back into the story. Cherie L. was also very good as the "Duchess."

The film starts off excitingly enough as Hornblower launches a successful surprise attack and captures the French supply ship La Reve.

Captain Pellew orders Hornblower to sail La Reve with important papers that must not fall into enemy hands, accompanying them is the the widowed Duchess of Wharfedale (Cherie Lunghi) who has a common manner of talking.

La Reve comes across the Spanish fleet and the crew despite their attempt to fool them are captured and imprisoned. The Duchess hides the dispatches and she also gets friendly with the Spanish commander of the garrison which gives Hornblower some privileges.

Hornblower meets up with Midshipman Archie Kennedy who was set adrift in the first film of the series and thought to have perished. He is ill and Hornblower wants him to recover his health before attempting to escape. This upsets the hotheaded Midshipman Hunter who is forced to something impulsive while Kennedy has come across the Duchess once before.

A fast moving opening segment which then slows down a lot unfortunately once the crew have been imprisoned. Hunter is portrayed rather two dimensional for my liking but the Duchess is fun and Hornblower is shown to be a sturdy, reliable and honourable sort of guy.

This was the first HORNBLOWER with Ioan Gruffudd I watched all the way through. As a massive fan of the Sharpe novels who's been disappointed by the cheapness of their subsequent TV adaptations, I had some idea of what to expect.

This starts off strongly, with a good action-focused narrative propelling it along. Then there's a twist, and for an hour absolutely nothing happens. Things pick up again for an admittedly exciting climax, but by that time my interest had already waned.

The pluses: decent acting (Ronald Pickup's dodgy Spanish accent aside). Gruffudd is a solid if unspectacular hero, and has a certain vulnerability about him which makes him a hit with female viewers. Robert Lindsay is strong, as are the supporting players like Christopher Fulford and Jamie Bamber. Cherie Lunghi overplays it a little for my liking, but at least she adds life to the film.

With a better script, this could have been an excellent piece of television drama; as it is, it's merely okay.

The Horatio Hornblower series of TV movies is not the usual A & E culture vulture stuff. It's actually fun! Based on the novel about a dashing and ambitious young sailor in the Royal Navy in the 18th century, it's not exactly subtle, but it's great action-adventure genre stuff. Handsome Iaon Gruffud (Kate Winslet's rescuer in Titanic) stars as the too-gallant-to-be-true hero, continually getting into sticky situations. The script is witty, the characters real, and the period is shown convincingly. I guess it's kind of corny, but it's so much fun to watch you really won't care. I'm not really a costume drama person, but this one changed my mind. Catch it on A & E.

Having a great start with the first movie, falling into a dump for a second movie, I was very curious about the outcome for this third movie in the made for tv-series! For the third time we have again brilliant production values, as we have come to expect, after the previous ones! Story-wise it is a much better story than the second and a little better than the first! What makes this movie exceptional is the presence of Cherie Lunghi! Cherie Lunghi is one of Britain's most underrated actresses! She gives a terrific performance. It is a delight to see her in this movie! BTW this movie has a continuation of the homo-erotic tension between Hornblower and Kennedy as hinted in the first movie!

Unfortunately for me, I did not get to see the first two "Hornblower" episodes but I did get to see this one. It was certainly wonderful. Ioan Gruffudd was absolutely phenomenal; not only talented but exceedingly handsome to boot! I can't wait till next week when I can enjoy this wonderful miniseries yet again!