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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Obadiah Hakeswill starts making trouble for Richard Sharpe, 23 Aug 2004
Whatever my record was for urging one character to kill another in a movie, I surely broke it while watching "Sharpe's Company." This is the third film in the series based on the novels of Bernard Cromwell and is set in Spain in 1812 as the Duke of Wellington begins his invasion of Spain from Portugal while Napoleon is preoccupied with developments in northern Europe. The key to a successful campaign is the capture of two great fortresses, Ciudad Rodrigo in the north and Badajoz in the south. Meanwhile, Richard Sharpe (Sean Bean) has his own concerns.First, Sharpe is demoted to lieutenant, when the captancy of his unit is purchased a nobleman. That means are hero longs to do something that will get his rank back so that he cannot lose it again, and being the first into the breach when a fort is stormed would be the way of doing it. Second, he learns the his lover, the Spanish rebel Teresa (Assumpta Serna), has given birth to their daughter (which suggests a really big gap of well over a year between the second and third movies). She goes back behind enemy lines to continue her part of the war and ends up in the fort that the British will be attacking in the climax of the movie. But Sharpe is not the most compelling character in this story. That would be Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill (Pete Postlethwaite), who once had Sharpe flogged for something he did not do. Hakeswill is the villain of this piece and it is not long after he shows up that you start urging Sharpe, Sergeant Harper (Daragh O'Malley) or any one of the riflemen to kill this guy. Because he survived a battle Hakeswill believes he is invincible and this guy is a sadistic loon; I lean towards him being more sadistic than insane, but there is strong evidence either way. This guy talks to his mother in his hat and never takes the direct route to hurt someone, which he manages to do quite often. We have a new actor playing Wellington at this point (Hugh Fraser) and a new spy master, Major Nairn (Michael Byrne), to complicate Sharpe's life. But the character that I liked was the new colonel of the regiment, who has a touch of the upper class twit to him, especially when it comes to speaking the King's English, but who knows enough about men and soldiering not to completely botch things. This is a man who will apologize to a common soldier when warranted without batting an eye. Now if he would just have Obadiah Hakeswill shot on sight I would be a much happier person. The attack on Badajoz is a well-staged battle sequences, especially given the limitations of the production in terms of men and material. Sharpe's reason for leading his men in the attack is probably not one that we have heard before, but strikes me as a better reason to face death than we usually hear in such stories. But there is no doubt that what you are going to remember at the end of "Sharpe's Company" is Postlethwaite's performance and since the fourth movie is called "Sharpe's Enemy" there is little doubt as to who is the title character and the only concern is how much damage he will do to Sharpe's friends and family before he meets his just dessert.
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