Sharpe's Rifles (1993)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Absolutely the worst movie.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

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.

It's a crying shame this mini series didn't catch on in the US. It still stands as the best made-for-TV-movie series ever made.Following the adventures of Richard Sharpe, a rough-and-tumble, tough-as-nails lieutenant in the Peninsular Wars, the series at first strikes you as, well, shoddy. There definitely is a made-for-TV vibe of cheapness, and the wailing electric guitars may turn off some viewers.But then......it hooks you. You become introduced to a wonderful cast of ragtag characters. Hagman, Harper, Harris, Thomas, Perkins, and of course, Sharpe. Over the course of the series they're fleshed out and given their own personalities. By the time of the last addition to the series, they're almost like old friends. You cheer their victories and weep for their defeats. As they slowly die off, you feel real grief. At the end of Sharpe's Waterloo, in a heart-breaking scene you see both Hagman and Harris die. I nearly cried when I wasn't pumping my fist at the screen and shouting obscenities at the villainous, treacherous scum that was the Prince of Orange. When Sharpe killed him later on......so satisfying... Few characters in all media can claim the same. The action scenes are intense once you get past the made-for-TV feeling I mentioned earlier, and are truly exciting. The music may strike you as cheesy, but once you hear Hagman singing the truly awe-inspiring " Over the Hills and Far Away", all your doubts will melt away. That song is easily one of the best I've ever heard.Perhaps the series' strongest point is it's lead: Sean Bean as Richard Sharpe. He absolutely dominates the role, snarling and growling with animalistic charisma. Never once do you doubt that Sean Bean is in fact Richard Sharpe. I mean, Bean must be the best middle-aged English actor there is. Bar none.At the very end of the series, aside from Sharpe's Challenge because I haven't seen that, when Sharpe is marching off into the sunset accompanied to " Over the Hills and Far Away," my heart swelled. It was such a beautiful moment.....I couldn't help but hurrah at the end. A truly touching moment to one of the best series ever made.

When I first saw the "Sharpe's Rifles" series here in the United States on Public Broadcasting I was very much enamored with it. A few years later the series became available on VHS, but I didn't want to spend all that money on a format that I knew was going to be phased out in a few years.Ho boy, how I wish I had.I just recently purchased the Region 1 NTSC five-episode DVD set for North America, and I have to say that I've rarely come across a poorer video transfer than has been done by BFS Entertainment.BFS Entertainment somehow managed to wrangle an exclusive license for the United States and Canada for the video distribution rights to this series, and, as usual, we the customers are paying for a lack of quality control on behalf of the producer's and owners of the property.BFS Entertainment's other claim to fame was their DVD release of another British mini series drama entitled "Flambards." And, given the extremely poor video transfer I saw of that series my heart sank when I saw BFS's logo and public domain music scroll across my TV screen.In short the few five episodes that have been released for North America have a grainy image due to poor video compression, bleed color (if you can believe that from optical media), and have equally poor sound quality to match the video.If you must purchase this magnificent series on video then try to find an old VHS from PBS/Mobile Masterpiece Theatre, or invest in a region 2 DVD player and buy the series from an online store in England.Don't waste your money on the BFS release.*EDIT* I bought a set of Region 2 DVDs from the UK, and they are superior in every way to the US Region 1 release.

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 Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe Chronicles- that just goes to show the power of major network name-brand advertising.The Richard Sharpe movie series has been television at its finest. I have seen all of the BBC Sharpe series movies,"Sharpe's Waterloo" is my favorite of the films. However I tune in to PBS everytime they air the Sharpe movies. So far all the movies have been based on the Sharpe Chronicles - adventure novels written by Bernard Cornwell(the same author who wrote "Rebel"). Each Movie chronicles the on-going adventures of Richard Sharpe who is a Brittish Lt. in the Brittish military during the late 1790's-to early 1800's during the Napoleonic era in Europe. I sincerly believe that each one of these 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. However each of the Sharpe Movies picks up exactly where the last one left off. The only negative thing I can say about this movie series is the use of an electric guitar as the background music- I have to take points off for that, because the sometimes screeching guitar noises can become annoying at times. A common misconception that people who havent seen these movies have is that all of these films go to gether as a mini-series- that is not true. The Sharpe movies are not a mini-series,all of these films are individual movies about the same charactor, However they are sequels to each other each picking up where the last film left off.- with all the same actors playing the same roles in each film(EXAMPLE:think of the James Bond films-that same principle applies to the Sharpe movies,but unlike Bond, the Sharpe films are sequels) If you have seen the Sharpe movies and you liked them and you wish to see more similar themed programing, I will suggest A&E's Horatio Hornblower movies(6 movies in all- same basic priciple as the Sharpe movie except Hornblower is in the Brittish Navy to whereas Sharpe is a ground soldier)I give the entire Sharpe movie series 4 out of 5 stars. Its near Perfect entertainment- but you cant please everyone, so for those of you dont like epic Napoleonic era battles,classic historic style drama,high stakes adventure, and danger on the European battlefields,if you dont like stuff like that-there is always a Columbo re-run for you to watch.