Sharpe Sharpe's Peril

Sharpe Sharpe's Peril

Sharpe Sharpe's Peril

This film picks up where Sharpe's Challenge left off - Sharpe and Harper are en route to Madras. The team run across a baggage train of the East India Company that is traveling through a very rough and hostile territory. Bandits, lead by Chitu, are out to rob the train. When the robbers attack the train, Sharpe and Harper are on the scene to stop them. Despite all this action, Sharpe still finds time for romance. 6/10.

After the roaring swashbuckler that was Sharpe's Challenge - set in India post-Waterloo, but using characters and situations from Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe prequel trilogy set in India in the early 1800's - I was excited to get into Sharpe's Peril, assuming it would introduce familiar characters and situations. Alas, aside from a soldier called Hakeswill (Obadiah's son, no less!) and a French officer called Joubert who in Sharpe's Peril is not the same as he was in Sharpe's Triumph, there is little even remotely similar to the novels. Overall, the film, in which Sharpe has to escort Joubert's fiancé to a fort and ends up getting on the wrong side of a rogue cavalryman, Vladimir Dragomirov, involved in the opium trade, fell flat and failed to really strike a note with me. A weak plot, some cliched situations and a lack of relationship to the books really hurt this. Henry Simmerson has a cameo, though he is much less of an enemy than in any other instalment, which felt weird. The creative team at ITV should have stopped after Sharpe's Challenge, which ended with Sharpe and HArper riding off into the sunset. A shame they rode into Sharpe's Peril. Not even Sean Bean, who has always been brilliant as Richard Sharpe - his career defining role, for mine - could do much with this one. Disappointing.

An average followup to a great series from the 90s. Sean Bean isn't quite able to muster the dark passion we saw from him in the old series and his new comrades are the most 1 dimensional lazy choices in terms of casting and writing. His old crew had strong personalities which the writers developed well making each one unique. In this new one they just cast a black guy, a fat guy and a boy to show his team is diverse, lazy. The episode hits the right marks with a damsel in distress, a dastardly villain, a traitor in the ranks and incompetent upper-class officers blundering around with the entire outcome of the episode in the end resting solely on Sharpe and his sheer resourcefulness. Overall though I felt some of the energy and charm of the original though we're definitely absent, and Seam Bean was starting to look a bit too old by this point.

SHARPE'S PERIL follows on from SHARPE'S CHALLENGE. Sharpe and Harper are still trying to find their way out of India, although they keep getting sidetracked. They join up with some soldiers currently escorting a prisoner cross-country, and they soon find themselves caught up in conflict after running foul of an opium smuggler. Action, ranging from sword fights to gun battles and a siege, soon follows. SHARPE'S PERIL was broadcast in two separate episodes. The first sets up the action, and is quite talky and heavy on the explanation. The second half is pure action and thoroughly engaging. The two episodes combine to make this one of the best Sharpe adventures yet. Sean Bean has never been better, here playing a grizzled Colonel who's seen too much of warfare and just wants to be out of it all. Daragh O'Malley brings a deft comic touch as Harper, while the other, new cast members are superb. Amit Behl turns what could have been a caricature into an affecting portrayal of a wronged man who retains his dignity, while Velibor Topic is a hateful villain. Beatrice Rosen is a particularly appealing love interest, and gets to show greater depth than most. Kudos also to a returning Michael Cochrane, who looks to be having a ball. With spectacular Indian locations, some excellent stunt work, colourful costumes, a cast of actors and actresses prepared to give it their all, and plenty of emotion to go along with the action, SHARPE'S PERIL is the best that television has to offer. A splendid outing that doesn't suffer in any way from not being based on one of the Bernard Cornwell novels.

While not quite as romantic as the previous feature film, SHARPE'S CHALLENGE, this action-packed adventure is a wonderful farewell to the bad boy English rifleman and his colorful friends and enemies. Personally, I would have ended the series at the end of SHARPE'S CHALLENGE, when Sharpe has the opportunity to marry a loyal, courageous, and truly stunning general's daughter and become a general himself in the famed East India Company. But instead, Sharpe is just trying to get home, and he is roped into escorting a spoiled French beauty through the Indian countryside, and villains are after her, and one thing just leads to another till pretty soon Sharpe is like Moses leading dozens of castaways in search of safety and a new beginning. Where CHALLENGE had the feeling of an Arabian Nights adventure, with most of the action among Indian palaces and Royalty, PERIL is more rugged and down to earth, with a virtual "wagon train" journeying through hostile territory like an old fashioned American Western. There are battles every ten minutes and sword fights every five minutes. Sharpe's followers include a lot of Western types familiar from movies like STAGECOACH and MAJOR DUNDEE. The useless missionary, the plucky pregnant woman, the loyal Indian companion, the drunken or lazy troopers, all have their parts to play. What lifts the story above Western territory, however, is the way in which Sharpe himself is forced to look for closure to his personal dramas. Some of his most deadly enemies reappear (or their sons do) and there are some unexpected discoveries on all sides. The most poignant scenes in the story all revolve around Sharpe coming to terms with past regrets and resolving conflicts. All of it was wonderful, even if Sharpe's French blonde love interest in PERIL isn't quite as demure or winning as English blonde love interest in CHALLENGE. But both movies are Sharpe classics, both great farewells to a true hero!

Sharpe and Harper are still in India and have been asked by the governor to perform one last task before they leave. They are to escort a Frenchwoman to her fiancée, a Major serving at an outpost. Sharpe agrees, little knowing he is walking into a rebellion with the instigators quite close to home. Sharpe's Waterloo seemed the perfect way to end the series so I was disappointed and apprehensive when Sharpe's Challenge was released nine years later. To my surprise, however, Sharpe's Challenge turned out to be very good. It retained much of the qualities of the previous episodes. Sharpe's Peril follows roughly the same plot as Sharpe's Challenge - set in India, rebellion in progress, some elements close to home - but isn't as solid, plot-wise. Moreover, it does now feel that the producers are flogging a dead horse. It's not terrible and is reasonably watchable but is certainly not in the same league as the previous Sharpe episodes. Thankfully the producers finally called it curtains after this episode. The series' trajectory was certainly downwards after this one.

Sean Bean and Daragh O'Malley return as Richard Sharpe and Patrick Harper in another brilliant Sharpe movie! Although I do very much miss Hagman and Harris fighting alongside Sharpe and Harper, this adventure in India still has the essence of a good old Sharpe movie. We have a beautiful woman, the bad guy, an old 'friend' Simmerson and of course a good few twists and turns that keep us watching. Yes, some people may complain that Sharpe has too many lines in his face or Harper has a few too many gray hairs on his head, but I love it! It makes it feel like I'm following them throughout events in their whole lives, not just a chapter of it. Even though the years may be climbing on our beloved actors, I do hope they decide to make another few movies or at least one last movie to tie up loose ends such as finding Sharpe's daughter. Although it may not be the best of the Sharpe series, it's definitely another brilliant addition!