Classics Considered

Recently I found myself in a hotel room with nothing to do and a modestly sized TV playing lots of oldies. I was tickled to see that the Richard Sharpe series was on (all evening, at that). Being a Horatio Hornblower fan—which exists more or less in the same cinematic universe, i.e. the Napoleonic Wars featuring Heroic Brits against the Odds—I’ve always had it in the back of my mind to try Sharpe, though a bit uncertain if I would like it. Truly it takes a day of bed-rotting these days to get me to focus on movies, but I settled in with some snacks and undivided attention.

My back-of-napkin summary of Sharpe’s Eagle is that it’s about sharpshooter Richard Sharpe on a mission in Spain to assist the Regulars (red coats) who are supporting Spanish peasants against the French. That sounds quite uninformed so here is the Wikipedia blurb:

In 1809, Sir Arthur Wellesley, commander of the British forces in the Iberian Peninsula, prepares to invade French-controlled Spain. He orders Lieutenant Richard Sharpe and his band of “chosen men” to accompany the arrogant, incompetent, newly arrived Sir Henry Simmerson and his South Essex Regiment on a mission to destroy a bridge vital to French troop movements.

On the whole, it was fun to revisit this time period in a series which is a rough contemporary of the Hornblower TV series (Sharpe aired both years before and after Hornblower). There is a sense of visual continuity between them, and both aired on ITV. I was, however, horrified to hear electric guitar layered over the otherwise classical soundtrack. I get that Sharpe is “one of the lads” but—really!

Sean Bean was certainly a draw for watching the show, though I am not quite sure he carried it entirely. One thing I love about Hornblower is its recurring cast of characters with some real character-actors among them. I also enjoy how Hornblower explores the nuances of class relationships instead of simply “upper vs lower.” I wonder if Sharpe does this other episodes, as I didn’t sense much nuance in this one.

Parts of the episode certainly hearkened back to Hornblower: “The Wrong War” (the minute I saw the wooden bridge, I knew it wasn’t long for this world). Sharpe’s Eagle does take things in rather a dark direction in terms of the female characters and some disturbing scenes involving sadistic officers (thankfully all off camera). Historical accuracy, or pure sensationalism to give Sharpe the opportunity to be a romantic hero? Maybe a bit of both? I pondered whether some of the differences between the two series could at all be attributed to when they were written, for the early Hornblower books were written in the 30s/40s and the early Sharpe novels were written in the 80s.

Fun fact I learned just minutes ago—the original actor for Sharpe was going to be Paul McGann who plays my favorite Hornblower character, Lt William Bush. 😮 I don’t know how McGann feels about it, but I am very glad he was around to play Bush. And Eugene in Our Mutual Friend. Iconic roles only he could play, IMO.

Sharpe has Patrick Harper as his right-hand man, and he has his girlfriend Teresa. The episode Sharpe’s Eagle takes great efforts to show the tension between upper and lower classes and how Sharpe stands up for those who are less or misfortunate, as well as how he stays close to his “chosen men.” I guess I just felt a bit of an absence of connection between all these dots. In the Hornblower series, we get to know several of the “hands” by name and they develop a close working relationship that is sustained through many episodes and adversities. In Sharpe’s Eagle, we only get to really know one of the sharpshooters (Patrick) and the others all seem a bit nameless and having no individual personalities. Teresa is a good shooter and devoted to Sharpe, and I think I missed everything else about her character. These are just my first impressions, this could all be developed more in other episodes.

My last comment is the episode felt quite long and I was getting a bit tired by the end of it. That surprised me as usually I will really get into these kinds of movies and they just fly by. It is, however, 1 hour 40 minutes long, and perhaps could have been edited into a tighter 90 minutes.

For any Sharpe fans (and I know a couple of you are!), any recommendations as to episodes to watch? I don’t know that I will get to the books but I would be interested in trying more of the show.