MY 600th POST!

           You would think that by the time I got to 500 posts there would be no significant war movies left to review.  You'd be wrong.  I am now at 600 and still have a long "to be watched" list.  Fortunately, I still love doing this blog and intend to keep going.  Hell, I haven't even started my 100 Best War Movies posts yet.  For my 600th post I have chosen two movies that reflect my love of war fiction and my belief that some of the best war movies are made for TV.

DUELING MOVIES:  Hornblower:  The Duel (1998) vs.  Sharpe’s Rifles (1993)

VS.

       I am very selective in my historical fiction reading.  I like to read series, but most are too historically inaccurate and don’t have enough action.  My two favorites are the Hornblower and Sharpe series.  Both are set in the Napoleonic Wars.  The first is in the very crowded Napoleonic naval warfare subgenre and the second is in the much rarer ground warfare subgenre.  Both are written by acclaimed authors – C.S. Forester and Bernard Cornwell.  Both are centered around a character who rises through the ranks.  Those of us who enjoy this type of historical war novels are blessed to have these two series and doubly blessed to have two outstanding TV series based on them.

                “Hornblower:  The Duel” (entitled “The Even Chance” in Great Britain) is the first in a series of movies produced by ITV and A&E.  This movie introduces Midshipman Horatio Hornblower (Ion Groffudd) as he joins the crew of the HMS Justinian in 1793.  “Welcome to Purgatory”, he is told as soon as he boards.  It will be closer to Hell for the seventeen year old rich kid.  The ship is commanded by an old and worn-out captain and the midshipmen are dominated by a psychopath named Simpson (Dorian Healy).  He makes it his objective to make Hornblower’s life as miserable as possible.  It gets so bad that Hornblower challenges Simpson to a duel.  However, another midshipman named Clayton (Duncan Bell) takes Hornblower’s place, so the rivalry continues.  Hornblower gets transferred to the HMS Indefatigable, which is commanded by the no nonsense Captain Edward Pellew (Robert Lindsay).  He forbids Hornblower to fight any more duels.  Hornblower is given command of a gun crew.  It is motley.  He will have to earn the tars’ respect.  And get on the good side of the captain.  Luckily, he is a quick study and a born leader.  The movie is episodic after the build-up.  Hornblower has a time dealing with a French prize ship.  Hornblower leads a boarding party that cuts out a French warship.  Hornblower rescues the Indy from attack by three corvettes.  The movie culminates with the return match with the dastardly Simpson.  Hornblower gets killed and the series ends with just one episode.  Just kidding.

                “Sharpe’s Rifles” was produced by ITV in 1993. I first saw it on PBS here in America.  In a move that changed the history of the world, Sean Bean replaced Paul McGann in the lead role after McGann was injured playing soccer.  It is impossible to imagine anyone else playing Richard Sharpe.  In fact, Cornwell changed the character in the subsequent books to reflect Bean’s portrayal.  The series starts in Portugal in the early stages of Wellington’s Peninsula War.  Sgt. Sharpe saves Gen. Arthur Wellesley’s life from some French cavalry and is “rewarded” with a field commission.  One theme of the film is how Sharpe’s lower class background makes him ill-fitted for the officer corps.  He will not be welcomed by the snooty upper class officers.  To spark his short temper even more, Sharpe’s promotion is greeted with skepticism by the enlisted men because they are conditioned to believe only their betters are capable of commanding scum like them.  Sharpe is given a special mission to find a banker carrying the army’s payroll and get him back safely.  He is given command of a small unit of riflemen called the “Chosen Men”.  It is a typically heterogeneous war movie group.  He’s going to earn their respect and he starts by winning a bare knuckle, eye-gouging duel with a big Irishman named Harper (Darrow O’Malley).  Sharpe may now be an officer, but he fights like a “proper bastard”.  Although bitter enemies, they won't stay that way.  This is the start of one of the greatest warrior duos in war movie history.  On the way to the banker, Sharpe hooks up with a Spanish guerrilla band led by a noble named Bas Vivar (Simon Andreu) and a female partisan named Teresa (Assumpta Serna).  They are transporting a sacred relic to a town to inspire the Spanish people to rebel against French rule.  Sharpe and Teresa do not get along at first.  That will change.

                “Hornblower:  The Duel” was a big budget production and it showed.  The Indefatigable is actually the Grand Turk (a replica of the HMS Blandford) which is a 22-gun corvette with twelve pound guns.  It is supposed to represent a 44-gun frigate with twenty-four pounders.  The film is lensed so the action appears to be on a larger ship.  The exteriors and interiors allow the movie to be nicely instructive on shipboard life.  The below deck set is authentic.  You can learn a lot about what is was like to serve on a British warship in the age of fighting sail.  The plot manages to hit on midshipmen training, burial at sea, firing sequence, boarding, women below decks in port, and of course, dueling.  But this is not a documentary.  The story is entertaining and the characters are intriguing.  The story revolves around two themes.  One is Hornblower’s growth as a leader.  The other is his conflict with Simpson.  The first follows a traditional arc, the second is what sets the movie apart.  Simpson is one of the greatest war movie villains.  The final duel closes the movie with a cherry on top.  The casting director deserved a bonus.  The actors are all perfect in their roles.  Hornblower dominates, but it is truly an ensemble movie. The movie launched Gruffudd to stardom and just like Bean as Sharpe, it is impossible to imagine anyone else playing the role.  Healy is not a cartoon villain and he makes his character’s death very fulfilling. Lindsay’s Pellew ranks among the great cinematic ship captains. And he gives life to one of the greatest Royal Navy heroes.  There is nothing TV about the production.  The dialogue is excellent.  The music fits nicely.  The sound effects make you feel you are on the ship.

                “Sharpe’s Rifles” lays the groundwork for the rest of the series.  Sharpe’s personality is firmly established by Bean and the series’ dynamic of Sharpe’s struggles with the officer system begins.  The characters are fleshed out nicely by a good cast.  This includes the fascinating Teresa.  She is a vengeance minded heroine who mentors Sharpe.  The romance is not Victorian and truly reflects the characters’ inner feelings.  Teresa will be a recurring character and their love is a real strength of the series.  As for as the bromance of Sharpe and Harper, the series opener nails that down.  The plot flows smoothly and the tying in of the two missions is well handled.  There is a villain (Harper) in need of redemption and a villain (Bas Vivar’s collaborator brother) in need of a sword stabbing.  Both of these arcs are satisfactorily rendered.  Considering its low budget, “Sharpe’s Rifles” does a great job with what it has.  The main thing it has is Sean Bean, but credit must also go to the screenplay which faithfully reproduces Cornwell’s novel.  The dialogue is noteworthy with plenty of soldier slang.  Don’t expect to hear any salty language or see any graphic violence.  This is not an HBO production.  Similar to “The Duel”, one can learn some interesting facts about the British army in this movie.  In general, we are enlightened about the classism in the army.  The movie passes on the historical simplification that all officers were effete snobs and all the infantry were the scum of the Earth.  Specifically we learn about the wonders of the Baker rifle. 

    

                Besides the historical period, there are some similarities between the two movies.  Both have a main character who has to grow into his job.  Hornblower uses his brain, Sharpe starts using his brawn and gradually learns to relate to the men.  They both have a nemesis, but the resolutions of the conflicts are very different, yet fitting.  Both main characters have tough task masters who are actual historical figures.  Both have to earn the respect of the men who they are put in charge of.  In both movies, you can learn a lot about the British military.  There are good battle scenes in each, although the budget of “Hornblower” allows for more realism and less of a made-for-TV feel.  The violence is not graphic in either.

                Considering the similarities, it is hard to judge the two.  “The Duel” has better action.  The character development is better in “Sharpe’s Rifles”.  You get to know Sharpe’s men better than Hornblower’s gun crew.  “Rifles” is stronger when it comes to covering history.  The situation on the Peninsula is clearer than the situation in the English Channel.  It has a subplot involving Bas Vivar and his brother that touches on the conflict between traditional values and the new Napoleonic emphasis on reason.  On the other hand, “The Duel” is more instructive on sailor life than “Rifles” is about soldier life.  In fact, the only movie that tops “The Duel” in presenting life aboard a Napoleonic warship is “Master and Commander”.  “Rifles” does a better job recreating the novel.  It follows the plot quite closely whereas “The Duel” deftly improves on several chapters from Mister Midshipman Hornblower.

                I have a hard time choosing between the two movies.  I am fonder of “Sharpe’s Rifles” as I am a huge fan of the novels and of Sean Bean.  However, from an impartial viewpoint, “The Duel” is probably the better war movie.  I would think most war movie lovers with no dog in the hunt would find it better.  There is no real reason to choose.  Both are extremely entertaining.  With that said, let me point out that when one discusses the best war movies, one should not be limited to theatrical releases.  Some of the best war movies were made for TV and yet most lists do not include them.  My list of the 100 Best War Movies will include any war movie, no matter the format.  These two movies will both be on that list.

GRADES  :  The Duel  =  A

                      Rifles       =  A-

Day 8 - Bravo Two Zero (1999)

  On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me – eight commandoes a scud-hunting

                “Bravo Two Zero” is the true story of an ill-fated SAS (British special forces) mission during the Persian Gulf War.  It was a BBC production and was based on the book by one of the members of the squad who wrote under the pseudonym Andy McNab.  The movie fits clearly into the lost patrol subgenre and the “who will survive?” scenario.

                The film begins with a cursory introduction to the men as they go off to war.  Andy (Sean Bean) speaks for all of them when he says:  “Every soldier hopes for a major war in his lifetime.”  They are elite soldiers, but have that good ole boys vibe.  This means they party hard, prank each other, and love their mates more than their mates.  Their mission is to be dropped behind Iraqi lines to disrupt the MSR (main supply route) and hunt Scuds.  Piece of cake, right?  Wrong.  First, radio problems create foreboding.  Second, they are discovered by a patriotic shepherd boy and the trek is on.  They are chased by an Iraqi unit that includes armored personnel carriers.  The ensuing firefight proves that eight British commandoes can handle ten times their number in Iraqis (with no losses to the good guys).    Hell, they even counterattack to force the enemy to run!   A decision is made to head for the Syrian border.

                During a sand storm, three of the unit get separated from the other five.  McNab’s five hijack a taxi in a ridiculous move that just happens to be based on the truth, so there.  The funniest moment in the film occurs in the cab as Dinger (Steve Nicolson) interprets an Iraqi song playing on the radio:  “My husband has breath like a goat / His penis is small and covered with black heads / Nowadays I sleep with the goats / They have much bigger penises and are twice as intelligent.”  This is typical of the humor found in the film.  I personally found the movie to be effectively humorous and true to the crude humor of soldiers.  When the taxi reaches a checkpoint, we get another fire-fight with no losses.  That is about to change, unfortunately. The five’s next obstacle is an enemy camp adjacent to a bridge.  Complications ensue resulting in us following only Andy.  He is sniffing the border when he is captured.  The last third of the film deals with his interrogation/torture by the Nazis, I mean Iraqis.  The questioning is brutal because he is suspected of being a demon, I mean Israeli.  Will he crack?

                I watched this movie thinking I was getting the straight dope (or as close as a war movie can dish it) about a famous military incident.  An incident that the British public is apparently well-appraised of.  Well, it turns out this is just one version of what happened because the McNab book was just the first telling of the story.  Two other members of the squad wrote conflicting accounts and then a reporter weighed in with the “true story”.  Now I’m confused.  It does seem likely that McNab “enhanced” his story almost as though he was writing a screenplay for a war movie “based on a true story”.

                As entertainment, the movie is pretty good for a made for TV production.  The acting is good by the ensemble with Sean Bean being his usual dependable self.  The other guys are appealing and the camaraderie is sincere.  They behave and talk like soldiers.  In fact, the soldier talk is so slang intensive that you have to be familiar with British military slang to understand a lot of it.  To make matters worse for your average American viewer, the accents are quite thick.  The action is good with realistic small unit tactics.  They use covering fire and advance in sections, for instance.  The movie is accurate in how many of the eight survived, but quite possibly exaggerated the expendable nature of the enemy soldiers.  This is fine for the action lovers.  There are plenty of Iraqi deaths to not feel guilty about.  Speaking of which, the movie actually has a sympathetic Iraqi character in the form of a general who chases the unit and then shows his respect with some green hard candies (a running gag – in a war movie!)

                Christmas present?  It’s jolly good, chap.  I enjoyed it, but then I’m not neutral because it has Sean Bean in it.  I have a bromance for him.  Thus I can understand why his men would follow McNab into an Iraqi desert.

Grade =  B

LIVE: Age of Heroes

DEAR FOLLOWERS, I AM NOW ON TWITTER - @warmoviebuff
I will tweet not only when I post, but whenever I watch a new war movie I will tweet a mini-review.  Also, please follow my compadre: @AboutWarMovies
This is my third "Live" review.  A live review is a stream of consciousness review of a movie.  I jot down thoughts as I am watching and then clean them up for my readers.  Being a big Sean Bean fan I was attracted to a recent movie of his entitled "Age of Heroes".  SPOILER ALERT:  I cover the whole movie, stop wherever you want and then jump to the last paragraph.  Here goes:

Credits - I don't recognize anyone but Bean  /  France May, 1940;  hand held, looks like "Lost Battalion" style;  5 Brits on the run, none is SB;  the wounded one gets killed - convenient for more rapid movement;  the obligatory "we're all gonna die" dude  /  they run into some other Brits led by a stuffy twit of an officer - he orders them to stay and join their last stand because he has been ordered to hold;  Raines insists its suicidal and plans to move on to Dunkirk (he's not a coward, he's just sensible) - head butts the twit;  wasn't the twit right?  orders is orders - you can't have the enlisted deciding what makes sense  /  Naval Institute at White Hall -  there's SB (he's looking kinda old, I guess so am I);  he's a Maj. Jones of the Royal Marines - he's ruffled feathers, naturally;  an intel type named Fleming (I later found out it's Ian) tells him of Operation Grendal and introduces him to an American (first Where Eagles Dare (WED from here) ripoff) named Steinar;  something about German radar taking out British bombers ( you know - this mission will win the war);  all they have to do is infiltrate Norway and steal radar technology (wait - didn't the British have a clear advantage in radar technolgy?);  subgenre - suicide mission!;  some uncomfortable looks from Fleming when he asks about Jones' pregnant wife (or is the dude just constipated?)  /  Grace does not want Jones to go (baby on the way is war movie speak for you ain't coming back)  /  Jones goes to a military prison (with the requisite sadistic guards) to pick up one of his select team (Sid);  Raines is there because of his head butting the officer, he wants to be a commando too so he grabs a gun and takes Jones hostage which of course wins Jones' admiration (?) and a spot on the team (if he promises to behave)  /  training segment -  the sergeant (Mac) is a tough SOB who will make men of them;  6 guys besides Mac and Jones - who will survive?  not many, I bet;  time for a montage - hiking, rapeling, boxing, etc.;  "Pain is just weakness leaving the body" (I think I'll use that in the weight room);  Raines screws up by being a crack shot, but a dick about it - Jones almost washes him out but then he wouldn't get redemption, would he?  /  Fleming comes to brief and brings a radar geek with him - it's actually a anti-jamming device they are going after and he will know it when he sees it;  Fleming to Jones - don't let geek get captured, Fleming to Raines - kill geek if it comes to it;  mission outlined - I wonder if everything will go according to plan  /  paradrop without parachute training (these guys are hard core);  glitch #1 -  German night fighter Swiss cheeses plane and an expendable is killed (suddenly, nice touch) one down  /  glitch #2 - they land far off course;  glitch #3 - they lost most of their equipment;  snow on the ground (WED) and broken neck (WED);  geek is already captured - end of movie?  nope, he's rescued;  they are being tracked (easily what with the lack of white gear) by a handsome, charming, but malevolent Nazi  the movie has subtitles - a bit too classy for this movie;  they meet their contact - it's a girl! (WED)  she's cute, but can she be trusted?;  she takes them to a farm to get explosives - the farmer is less than thrilled considering their tracks in the snow lead right to his family (sorry, dude - be a patriot)  /  after they leave the Germans arrive, they wouldn't kill that lovely family would they - the music says yes;  wow, that's some serious killing - I hate that German and can't wait for his bloody death  /  the radar site -  checking things out via binocular;  explosions via dynamite for distracting (WED);  lots of dead Germans (WED), our guys seem charmed;  geek gets the intel;  oh there goes someone and another is captured (who? can't tell) - down to 7 now;  no naval pick-up, have to go to Sweden (Christ, what next?!)  /  return to the farm - hey, where is everyone?;  Nazis arrive and they have Sid and torture him to get them to come out meanwhile they stand in the open clearly shootable;  Jones opens fire but neglects to target Nazi guy (drat!);  fire fight - no grenades because the Germans want to take them alive;  Jones shoots Sid (6 left) to put him out of his misery (anguished look)  /  escaping -  Steinar is killed; Raines prepares to slash throat when geek and girl (disobeying orders, of course) come rescue him because he is not redeemed yet;  Jones and Mac stay as rear guard and argue who will sacrifice themself, neither convinces the other (looks bad for Jones' newborn)  /  jump to Raines, geek, and girl on top of a mountain - "that's Sweden";  swelling music - the end;  30% survival rate - pretty standard;  hey, what about the bloody death of the Nazi?  boo!  Well, at least we did not have to see Bean die.

Entertaining B-movie.  Pretty well acted (especially Bean, of course!)  Poor character development, we don't learn much about the men and thus do not care.  The cinematography is actually above average.  Action is satisfactory and inconsistently graphic.  Unsatisfactory ending (did they run out of film?)  Typical dialogue.  No comic relief - take's itself too seriously.  Unobtrusive sound track.  Watch it if you are a man and don't have anything better to do.

grade =  C

the trailer

the whole movie