Sharpe's Waterloo (1997) (TV)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Tom Clegg

Writers:

Bernard Cornwell (novel)
Charles Wood (writer)

Release Date:

26 August 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | History | War

Plot:

Based on the novel by Bernard Cornwell, "Sharpe's Waterloo" brings maverick British officer Lt. Col...

Plot Keywords:

Apostrophe In Title | Military | Punctuation In Title | Sequel | Napoleonic Wars

Cast

Sean Bean	...	Richard Sharpe
Daragh O'Malley	...	Patrick Harper
Abigail Cruttenden	...	Jane Sharpe
Alexis Denisof	...	Rossendale
Cécile Paoli	...	Lucille
Hugh Fraser	...	Wellington
Paul Bettany	...	Prince William of Orange
Oliver Tobias	...	Rebeque
Neil Dickson	...	Uxbridge
Nicholas Irons	...	Harry Price
Martin Cochrane	...	Macduff
Jason Salkey	...	Harris
John Tams	...	Hagman
Martin Glyn Murray	...	Doggett
Owen Brenman	...	Witherspoon

Country:

UK

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:TV-14 | Singapore:NC-16 | Finland:K-13

Filming Locations:

England, UK

Company:

Celtic Films

Trivia:

When the French cavalry charge the British squares, this is based on true fact. The French cavalry made devastatingly unsuccessful attacks on the British squares, though the number of times that they charged is still a heated debate.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When marking the map indicating the route of Napoleon's soldiers, Sharpe uses a modern-looking, "golf"-sized pencil.

Quotes:

Doggett: [on the Prince of Orange] He did it again. How many more men will he kill? That's my commission gone to the blazes I dare say, but it had to be said.
Richard Sharpe: [choking with grief] Daniel Hagman... Harris... He won't kill anymore!
Patrick Harper: [to Doggett] Oh now you have caused trouble!
[rides after Sharpe]

Movie Connections:

Follows Sharpe's Revenge (1997) (TV)

Soundtrack:

La Marseillaise

Rousing end to the Sharpe series

Richard Sharpe fights the Battle of Waterloo. This is a dense, action-packed, fast-paced conclusion to the Sharpe series and a very worthy capstone. I'm tremendously sorry to see it end and would love to see more.

The producers stretched their TV budget to the limit in order to mount convincing battle scenes for the finale, with considerable success (although this series will never rival a Hollywood studio production). We are given enough information about Waterloo to appreciate the dramatic events and feel very much in the middle of the fighting. Sharpe is in fine form as are Harper, Harris, Hagman, Wellington, Lucille, Jane and Lord Rossendale, who are all present along with a slew of guest stars and faces from earlier in the series. Rossendale in particular gets a share of the spotlight and his character is developed in unexpected ways. The central plot device is that Sharpe has returned to the army and been assigned to the staff of Prince William of the Netherlands, but becomes disenchanted with the prince's incompetence and roams the battlefield saving the day hither and yon. It works.

I won't comment on the central issue of what becomes of Sharpe at the end except to say that there is a very moving and intelligent resolution of his military career.

The only negatives are: First, with so much action, so many characters and so many stories being concluded, the whole thing sometimes seems a bit dizzy. Second, the British accents are often very tough for American ears to decipher, and important dialogue and plot points can be missed. (This is a problem with the Sharpe series as a whole but here, with so much shouting and guns blazing in the background, the problem is magnified.)

There is one shot of Jane Sharpe in a negligee that is nothing less than awe-inspiring.

Highly recommended, as is the whole series. The Sharpe series will remind you at various times of War and Peace, For Whom the Bell Tolls, the Horatio Hornblower stories, Vanity Fair, The Dirty Dozen, The Red Badge of Courage and All Quiet on the Western Front.

P.S. - I can't help being puzzled at the over-the-top reactions to my comment about the British accents. I have no complaint about the accents (any more than I'd have a complaint about a character speaking French in a Truffaut film), so there's no need for outrage. I was simply warning U.S. viewers about the issue so they won't be surprised when they have to rewind to catch missed words. (And "British accents" is a perfectly proper collective shorthand expression for English, Scottish, Welsh, etc. accents. My source: Simon & Schuster College Dictionary (3d ed.).