Sharpe’s Challenge (2006)

 

            “Sharpe’s Challenge” was a revival of the series, nine years after “Sharpe’s Waterloo”.  Tom Clegg returned to direct and Sean Bean and Daragh O’Malley reprised their roles.  The movie used 4,000 extras and 700 costumes.  It was filmed in India.  The screenplay was loosely based on the first three novels – Tiger, Triumph, and Fortress.  This movie is 40 minutes longer than the other episodes.   

 

            The movie opens in India in 1803 to make a connection to the first three novels where Sharpe makes a name for himself and to use the dastardly Major Dodd from those books.  Dodd (Toby Stevens) is a disgruntled British officer who turned coat to assist the rebellious Indians.  He becomes the young Sharpe’s nemesis and nearly kills him when he sacks a British fort with his native army.  Jump fourteen years to 1817 and Wellington (Hugh Fraser) has a mission for the now-farmer Sharpe.  He wants Sharpe to return to India to find an agent who happens to be Harper!  Dodd is helping a rebellious rajah, but he has bigger goals than just being a mercenary.  The movie delights long-time viewers by bringing back the cowardly, incompetent Gen. Simmerson (Michael Cochrane).  And since Hakeswill is inconveniently dead, a Sgt. Bickerstaff (Peter-Hugo Daly) takes over as the amoral villain out to get Sharpe.  The love interest is a general’s daughter named Celia (Lucy Brown) who gets captured by Dodd.  She is being held in the Rajah’s fortress and will need to be rescued.  Sounds like a job for Sharpe and Harper. 

 

            The movie benefits from a higher budget than the previous films.  The India locations add authenticity and the sets are impressive.  The sets were constructed by 90 workers who spent two months and did not use any power tools.  The action is also larger scale than the old series.  This film has many more extras available.  The big attack on the breach is one of the best action scenes in the series.  Done at night, the fireworks from the cannons and the rockets are exciting.  The acting is fine and it’s a kick to see not only Bean and O’Malley, but Fraser and Cochrane.  Stevens and Daly do villainy well and their characters are among the most loathsome in the series.  Not surprising for a series that was noted for its foes.  But the draw is the heroes and Sharpe and Harper still have that chemistry.  It was a wise decision to set the movie after the events of the books because Bean and O’Malley are a bit long in the tooth for playing young versions of their characters.  Plus, Harper was not with Sharpe in India in the books, but who wants to see a Sharpe movie without the buddy element.

 

            Considering it combines elements of three of the novels, the plot is not ridiculous.  It does not stand as an adaptation of those books, but readers will recognize incidents and characters, like the jettis.  It certainly does not replace reading the novels.

 

GRADE  =  B-