better than Jack Sparrow Cadre of unknown actors performing better than most stars set in realistic scenes of believable action. The photography is fantastic and the storyline follows true to the time period in history. There are no swordfighting skeletons or monsters from the deep with tentacles for a face. They actually use something besides computer graphics and sex for entertainment, its called "Acting". Hollywood take note, A&E hit a home run with this one.
Facing evil The Duel is excellent, with wonderful acting from a crew of very rough mascline characters in conflicts and struggles. The world of the British Navy in 1793 is a rough place to be. The food is nasty, the conditions filthy, the class oppression intolerable, and the chances of successful retirement almost to small to calculate. The overpowering force that maintains the filthy mess in order is a well enforced hierarchy that all social classes buy into and support, either through their domination or by their submission. Into this world of conflict comes a young 17 year old, Horatio Hornblower, played by the beautiful Ioan Gruffudd. In The Duel, the first of 8 episodes in a excellent series of films, we are introduced to a situation that many of us face at least once in our lives, the inescapable presence of a truly evil human being. Hornblower joins the crew as one midshipman among several. Everything seems to be going well until midshipman Simpson returns to the crew. Simpson is cunning, sadistic, cruel, calculating, manipulative, and homicidal. He is much older and more experienced than young Hornblower. We see how the other midshipmen adapt to this terror in their midst. Some try to be his buddy, some go crazy, and some bend until they can bend no more. At first Hornblower tries his best to just avoid this terror, but Simpson keeps showing up to torment the young 17 year old. Hornblower must use his own wits to outwit this monster. This is very good entertainment, beautifully filmed and wonderfully acted.
Not Your Forester's Hornblower While this production is excellent, I cannot give it full marks as an adaptation of the books. One of the primary themes of the books is the contrast between the inner man (plagued by self-doubt, fear, seasickness) and the exterior (cold and commanding). They form an extended essay on Forester's view of the nature of command, cowardice and bravery, and the human will fighting with emotions. Much of what raises the Hornblower books above other swashbucklers of the genre goes on inside Hornblower's head. Obviously this is very hard to portray on the screen, and this series more or less declines to try. Great production values, great historical adventure, but not the Hornblower I know and love.
Nice adaptation and background, pity about the casting This series just goes to show how very, very hard it is to turn good books into screenplays. As a lifelong Hornblower fan I, like other reviewers, looked forward to seeing my favourite books played out before my eyes. But I am afraid that, for me at least, the negatives outweigh the positives. Just as a superb dish can be ruined by too much salt, "Hornblower" is spoiled by half-baked casting and the "Boys' Own" spirit that seems to permeate it.
First the good things. Excellent attention to detail in such things as period dress, customs and (of course) the ships and boats themselves. It is one thing to read about an officer being rowed out to his ship on a stormy day, quite another actually to see the waves, the ship heaving and the boat being tossed about like a cork. The screenplay follows the book quite faithfully, which is good as Forester's writing lends itself to the screen.
The killer, for me, is Ioan Gruffud himself. He looks a very pleasant young man - far too obviously nice, by the way, for the role - but, damn it, Hornblower should not be nearly so handsome! Even for an actor, Gruffud must be aware of his good looks, while Hornblower's only thoughts on the subject are self-lacerating.
Linked to this casting error, the whole action runs too smoothly downhill to the triumph of the hero. The Hornblower books are not like that at all. In most cases the outcome remains in doubt up to the very end (or, once or twice, the next book - a neat trick of Forester's that no doubt boosted sales).
The general neatness and freshness of everything is annoying, too. These were hard-driven ships and men, as today none too well funded, in the middle of England's most desperate struggle for survival until 1940.
Although it is an eye-opener to see how easily a gritty, down-to-earth story of a young man pulling himself up by his bootstrings can be converted into something Enid Blyton could have written, I just cannot stomach the result. Pity, but hardly a surprise.
Strength and honour The first instalment of this wonderful and swashbuckling Horatio Hornblower t.v. series introduces a very young Horatio -he is only 17, although already too old to be a really good navy official, he is told by his comrades. For him, entering the Navy is a real rite of passage, a non-too-easy, life-changing experience that is useful for the hero to clarify his objectives and priorities in life: at the end of the movie he knows that he really wants to be a navy officer, and he also knows that he prefers death rather than submitting himself to the indignities and dishonour that the victims of the bully of the ship, Sympson, must undergo. He understands that dignity and honour can only be gained at a price, and he learns that he is prepared to pay this price, which in his case will involve to fight a life-or-death duel against his now enemy, Sympson. Wonderful acting, superb setting and photography in this really good naval adventure set in the Napoleonic wars. Not to be missed if you liked Sharpe and, in general, adventures set in this period: the last heroic period in European warfare. Watch it and, as Hornblower would have it, "Confound Robespierre!"
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tailipoe
Trevor
