Sharpe's Sword

All of the usual elements of a Sharpe adventure are here: intrigue, in the person of a French spy-catcher and possible traitors within the English ranks; romance, in the form of a mute girl who nurses a wounded Sharpe back to health after a bloody night action; and another terrific battle recreation as Sharpe's riflemen attempt to overrun a french fort outside the town of Villafranca.

The usual cast are superb, as ever, and Michael Cochrane nearly steals the movie as arrogant aristocrat Sir Henry Simmerson. Look for Emily Mortimer as the mute girl.

As usual, the best aspect of the film is its wonderfully authentic period detail and lovely Spanish scenery. Recommended.

i loved the books, but found the character of Sean Bean gives a great visual of the hard nosed sharp, not putting up with anything, angry and bitter, he does it great. the video series is of course a low budget show, but i think they did their best during this time to reveal some great historical events. my only disappointment is now that i live in Mexico i want to share this series with everybody i know, but i cant find the video series or DVD with Spanish subtitles. it viewed once here in Mexico on cable, either wit BBC or HALLMARK, i cant remember now, so i know it must exist somewhere, if anybody knows how i can get the series with subtitles so i can share it with a Spanish speaking nation, please let me know, its funny most of the series is in Spain, and where are the Spanish subtitles?

Truly a set of movies for all tastes: as the English fight the French, we see the corruption both in the English military, as well as in the bedroom. Sharpe is pretty sexy as is his Irish right hand man. There is some keen acting in here, despite the soldiers falling too long after the explosion that was supposed to kill them. But the principal actors do an excellent job, especially since this was 'just' made for TV. Prefer Bean as a hero than as the villain, which he plays beautifully well in a James Bond movie. He also looks like an ex-brother-in-law of mine, which makes for some interesting fantasies. My grandsons loved the battle scenes, and of course, the Spanish stripping the skin off the French soldiers made for some interesting discussions.

Sharpe captures a French officer who appears to be a captain but who is in fact Colonel Leroux, sent to the area to hunt down Spanish spymaster El Mirador. When the South Essex reach their destination the Frenchman escapes to a nearby French fort. The South Essex now plan to storm the fort.

An excellent episode, one of the better ones in the series. Plot is solid, well, more solid than usual - the military side is a bit more accurate than normal - less gung ho stuff - and there's less clumsiness about the plot developments. The whole thing just feels grittier than usual.

Some well-known actors in the supporting cast: Emily Mortimer, James Purefoy.

Sharpe's Sword has three main faults.

1. The dialogue. Not as good as in some of the others. Unrealistic at times, even leaning towards slapstick. The scene where Sharpe is being briefed by Munro is funny, but not in line with the more strained relationship we see in Sharpe's Battle. Equally, Pat's relationship with Sharpe seems inconsistent.

2. The woman. OK, I've got used to a lot of other women lusting after Sean Bean by now, but this one is oh-so-annoying. The only time she's good is when she rejects Sir Henry Simmerson's disgusting offer so well, but other than that I find her infuriating. She just mopes around, whimpering, feeling sorry for herself and trying to get Sharpe to fall in love with her, which thankfully he does not.

3. The bad guy. By this I mean the Frenchie, not Sir Henry. You see a lot of him pretending to be good, but not much of him actually being bad; he's not a figure I ended up hating all that much. There was good swordplay in the last fight scene, and the injuries of both him and Sharpe added excitement and desperation, but it wasn't as intense as, say, the priest's encounter with Simmerson.

The good things were the priest (naturally), and Sean Bean's all-redeeming presence. Watch it, by all means, but it isn't the best. 7 out of 10. Ko, Izzy.