The movies star Sean Bean, as Richard Sharp, a sergeant in the British Army, fighting under Wellington in Spain during the Napoleonic Wars. In the opening scenes Sharp rescues Wellington from French cavalry and is given a battlefield commission as a lieutenant by a grateful Wellington. Sharp is given command of a unit of elite riflemen called "Chosen Men". Though supposedly elite, Sharp finds them ill disciplined and has to gain their respect while whipping them into shape. The subsequent movies follow Sharp (and Wellington) as the British Army clears Spain of the French and prepares to invade France to rid Europe of Napoleon.
Bean is great in the role (one of the few he doesn't die in
), these movies are what gave him his big break and they were extremely popular in the UK. It's all a very dashing action-adventure, with Sharp being sent off on some impossible mission, either by Wellington or his master of spies. There's also romance as Sharp also seems to grab the attention of some damsel in distress (and some that aren't in distress) in most episodes. It's all a lot of fun, and the BBC did well with the money they had. It's mostly small unit actions, but there are some larger set piece battles where they make a few troops look like a lot (there's even a re-enactment of Waterloo and the advance of the Imperial Guard), but sometimes the budget limitations are obvious. Sometimes I have to chuckle though as they don't do a very good job of keeping track of the number of troops. Sometimes you'll see Sharp and his men on a mission, and there's a battle and you see men die, but after the battle there's just as many troops afterwards. Or even outside of a battle while on mission, the number of troops vary from scene to scene. Also Sharp is a bit of a superhero - he'll get wounded, have to fight in a clearly wounded condition, yet the next battle a day or so later it's as if he was never wounded. One episode he's wounded in both is left arm and left shoulder but keeps fighting! He's just as powerful or weak as the scene requires it appears However, beyond all the adventure, there is another very interesting undercurrent in the movie. As a commoner, an enlisted man "promoted from the ranks", Sharp is an officer but does not have the social standing of almost every other British officer he comes across (as they are also all titled aristocrats), many of whom have purchased their positions (yes, at one point, British aristocrats could pay money to obtain an officer's commission!!). No matter his exploits and heroism on the battlefield Sharp is their social inferior and he is reminded of it again and again. In addition, he faces resistance from the ranks (at least initially until he proves himself to his men) because he's seen as thinking himself better than the enlisted men because he became an officer. He's constantly torn between their two worlds, neither of which he totally fits in any longer. This is most seen in the episode where he comes back to England after Napoleon's first abdication where he is given command of militia cavalry unit whose main job is maintaining control over an area beset by labor unrest. He and his men (a bunch of local aristocrats who like to play soldier) are used to oppress the poor factory workers, same people that Sharp grew up with. And the show, to it's credit, gives no easy answers to any of these issues.
Anyway, I first looked for Blu Rays but the only ones compatible with the US sell for $600 on Amazon, twice the retail cost of $300. You can stream the show on Amazon Prime but they are only SD and I think only 4x3. However, I did find the HD wide screen version on Apple TV which you can buy for only about $3/episode, which is a great deal. I'll have to admit though that I found them on YouTube also first, but I plan to by the HD version from Apple because I really love this series. Unfortunately the two movies set in India are not available for sale but I did find it on the French version of YouTube, Daily Motion.
All in all, for some reason, I just love this series and Sean Bean's performance. It's a great set of movies - if you can find it.
