Sharpe's Rifles [DVD] [1993]

The early movies are, in my opinion, the best installments of the literary conversions. All of the characters are well portrayed by Sean Bean, Brian Cox et al. and Bean, especially, suits his role perfectly. Bean's gritty portrayal of a common Napoleanic era soldier raised from the ranks following his spur-of-the-moment rescue of Wellington from French cavalry, introduces us to a mostly historically accurate, and yet also highly entertaining drama of the time.

Much of the pomp and ceremony, and arrogance associated with the English upper class and familiar to other famous costume dramas of the same period, mix well with the hard realities of a Europe at war with fighting being done mostly by rebels and the lower classes.

Even the fictional storylines are well merged into historic events. With both the environments, and wonderful folk-music produced by John Tams (Hagman in Sharpe's team of chosen-men) it is hard to stop the mind being pulled back to this major upheaval in European conflict.

My only concern over the release of the these DVD's is the potential lack of 'Extra' material. Being 'only' television movies, not as many documentaries and interviews are available. There are only a few extras on this release, notably a pictures section, a few interviews with cast/crew and a documentary on the making of Sharpe. The fact that the documentary was actually made some years after the movies on this DVD, involving filming on the set of Sharpe's Mission, may be an indicator that the Extra's have had to be spread thinly over the seven releases.

Despite this, the DVD set is an excellent buy. We have come to expect higher prices for DVD's but the release of two films and a few extras at a far cheaper equivalent cost to the two separate VHS tapes that we have seen previously make this an excellent buy for past and new fan alike.