Search - Sharpe's Enemy on DVD

Bad Movie? No Way!!!

David R. Seid | Fairfax, VA USA | 05/13/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Let me just get to the point... Sharpe's Enemy is my favorite Sharpe movie in the series (and I have seen all of them).Quite frankly, I have no idea why the reviewer a couple reviews below could rate this series 1 star and say it has not a single good actor in it... Sean Bean is superb in the role of Richard Sharpe (and this holds true for all episodes). Pete Postlethwaite is my favorite villan as the monsterous Obediah Hakeswill and Daragh O'Malley is as steady as ever as Sharpe's dependable sergent. In short, Sharpe's Enemy has one of the best ensemble casts ever assembled!More importantly, the story, based on the superb Bernard Cornwell novel, is gripping and action packed. Quite frankly, TV does not get better than this... I have watched this TV movie tens of times and I still am thrilled every time.I highly recommend Sharpe's Enemy and the rest of the Sharpe's series. Also recommended if you like these kinds of movies is the Horatio Hornblower series. Very similar kinds of storylines (with equally good group acting), but at sea..."

Major Sharpe Rules

Ken Bailey | Ypsilanti, MI United States | 08/11/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I hate to use a title like this, but Richard Sharpe rules. Yet again he has to prove that he is just as capable an officer as the bought officers. Again he rises to the challenge. This is probably the best of the 4 DVD's that are released so far. There certainly was more action in this one (not that other's are lacking in the action department). The DVD is really good. The picture quality is good for being from a TV show and the sound is really good too. Again, I'll say that it would have been better had it been done in Dolby 5.1, but oh well. I'll take a good story and acting over effects any day."

Excellent history, excellent story

Randy Gibson | Austin, TX USA | 11/01/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bernard Cornwell's stories of Richard Sharpe do a fantastic job of bringing Napoleonic warfare to the screen. As a special unattached officer serving Wellington, this is one of Sharpe's most exciting adventures. He has to effect the rescue of two hostages, the wives of both an English and French officer, defeat a desperate band of deserters led by his nemesis, Hakeswill, then fight off a French reconaissance force. He does it in the usual style -- a little bluff, a little swashbuckling, and some brilliant tactics. One of the most enjoyable scenes is the one in which a French general explains to the wife of one of his officers how Napoleonic combined arms tactics work using peas on a plate -- then Sharpe promptly undoes his tactics. This is one of the most compelling and exciting films of the entire series."

Sharpe makes it to major and Hakeswill meets his fate

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 08/27/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Everyone who has seen the previous installment in the Sharpe series, "Sharpe's Company," knows that the title character of "Sharpe's Enemy" has to be Obadiah Hakeswill (Pete Postlethwaite). How Hakeswill managed to be alive at the end of that one was rather disconcerting to fans of the series because this man was just begging to be killed by Sharpe (Sean Bean) or Sgt. Harper (Daragh O'Malley), or anybody else in the British Army, its Spanish allies, or the French. The good news is that Hakeswill meets his fate in this 1994 movie, but he has more damage to do before the end and he will not even come close to suffering as much as he deserves to given all his dirty deeds.

The setting is still 1813 Portugal with the Duke of Wellington (Hugh Fraser) resting his army before again moving against Napoleon in Spain. But in the no man's land of northern Portugal an army of deserters from both sides is roving and raging. The leader of this ragged army is a former cook for the French (Tony Haygarth), but Hakeswill is his right-hand thug. One of their ways of making money is to hold women hostage for ransom and towards this end they have captured Lady Farthingdale (Elizabeth Hurley) and Sarah Dubreton (Helena Mithcell). The former is married to Sir Augustus Farthingdale (Jeremy Child), another one of those pompous British officers and the latter to a French Colonel (François Guétary), who is a man of honor. Our hero has to deal with both of them in this episode.

Having made it to captain in the last movie Sharpe is now trying to become a major and Farthingdale, who disapproves of raising an officer from the enlisted ranks, is forced to rely on Sharpe and his Chosen Men to rescue his wife. That is because Hakeswill, planning his revenge while going for the gold, has demanded that Sharpe bring the ransom. This is the beginning of the cat and mouse came that Hakeswill intends on playing with Sharpe.

My only problem with "Sharpe's Enemy" is that the last person I expect to do something stupid, Sharpe's wife, Teresa (Assumpta Serna), does something very stupid. That and the fact that Hakeswill gets off easy as far as I am concerned. I can appreciate Sharpe not wanting to crawl down into the gutter to deal with his enemy, but still, the payback should have been a much more fulfilling.

Otherwise we have the key elements that we are coming to appreciate in this series, which is how Sharpe has to deal with the contempt of his immediate superior while trying to pull off an impossible mission. The bond between Sharpe and his men is fully developed at this point and their disdain for the twits who try to get them to change their ways is palatable. One of the nice twists this time around is the detatchment of rocket troops, who have trouble hitting the broad side of a barn let alone anything else and whose officer (Nicholas Rowe) is clearly trying to earn Sharpe's respect. The rocketry is pretty much a joke at this point, but there are a few people who see the potential of the weapons and the story's climax comes up with a nice use of the tactic. Bernard Cornwell's novels might not be as stepped in the military science of the army as Patrick O'Brian's novels were with regards to the British navy, but these movies certainly have an aura of authenticity.

In the end "Sharpe's Enemy" comes down, as it should, to Sharpe and Hakeswill. Postlethwaite is not as over the top as he was in the previous chapter, and not just because he has lost his hat. After all, he no longer has to pretend to be a proper English solider any more and can now go for his target more directly. Maybe there is no way that Hakeswill could have received his just desserts, but I should would have liked to have seen Sharpe try.



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