Blu-Ray Reviews: ‘Sharpe’s Challenge,’ ‘Sharpe’s Peril’ Are Our Delight

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CHICAGO – Sean Bean is an actor who naturally exudes menace. His dark squinting eyes always seem to be up to something, and surely assisted him in getting cast as the bad guy in a variety of blockbusters. While American moviegoers know him primarily for roles such as Jack Ryan’s adversary in “Patriot Games,” British audiences view Bean as their equivalent to a heroic Jack Ryan-type everyman, thanks to his portrayal of swashbuckling soldier Richard Sharpe.

Based on Bernard Cornwell’s series of historical fiction novels, the “Sharpe” film saga was originally broadcast in the mid-90s, consisting of no less than fourteen installments. Sharpe starts out as a British sergeant who receives a promotion after saving the life of the future Duke of Wellington. The books, and their subsequent television adaptations, chronicle Sharpe’s adventures in the Napoleonic Wars, climaxing at the Battle of Waterloo. Two more “Sharpe” films were shot a decade later, and have now been released on Blu-Ray. They are sure to delight devoted fans and the uninitiated alike.

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.5/5.0

“Sharpe’s Challenge” and “Sharpe’s Peril” were shot on location in India, amalgamating some of Cornwell’s novels and allowing their events to take place after the battle that ended the previous film, “Sharpe’s Waterloo.” Both “Challenge” and “Peril” are stuffed with an overabundance of supporting characters (some of which could’ve easily been axed), but the lines between good and evil are clearly delineated with a healthy dose of moral ambiguity. It’s refreshing to see an action hero who questions why he’s going to war. There’s a touching moment when Sharpe admits that most of the men he killed were just “poor soldiers who happened to be wearing different uniforms.” He believes that war is merely a business of “kings and governments” battling over treasure, while the soldiers “do the dying for them.” These aren’t the type of lines American audiences are used to hearing in an otherwise rousing wartime entertainment.

Sharpe’s Peril was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on April 6th, 2010.
Photo credit: Warner Home Video

Most of the villains Sharpe encounters are fellow countrymen whose ruthless self-interest causes them to turn traitor. Perhaps the most memorable is Major William Dodd (Toby Stephens, son of Maggie Smith), the English officer so fed up with Britain’s elitist favoritism that he decides to become commander-in-chief to an antagonistic Maharaja. Sharpe’s local ally, Capt. Mohan Singh (Alyy Khan), refers to the British presence in India as a “necessary evil,” since their country kept the Maharaja’s father supplied with arms. There are several moments in “Challenge” that evoke elements of the current war; the British troops in India certainly look as out of place as the American soldiers in Iraq. Neither of the films’ political undertones are ever overt or didactic, but they bring the routine escapades an added level of intrigue.

Sharpe’s Challenge was released on Blu-Ray on April 6th, 2010. Photo credit: Warner Home Video

Despite his rogue exterior, Sharpe is the type of guy who would stick his neck out for any honorable soul in need of his assistance. He may be growing in years and weariness, but he’s still as fiery and charismatic as ever. Bean can dominate a scene without overplaying a single note; his screen presence will be revelatory to anyone familiar only with his sinister scenery-chomping. Other stand-outs in the cast include Daragh O’Malley as Sharpe’s trusted sidekick Harper, who gets many of the best lines, and the scene-stealing Michael Cochrane as Sharpe’s longtime nemesis, Sir Henry Simmerson (one of many great villain names). On the basis of these two pictures, the “Sharpe” formula is obvious and rather predictable. But as an action-packed film series with brains and attitude to boot, I’ll take “Sharpe” over “Bond” any day.

“Sharpe’s Challenge” and “Sharpe’s Peril” are presented in 1080p High Definition (with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio), but the discs differ in several ways. Though both films were originally two-part TV movies that ran over two hours, the “Challenge” disc only includes the edited version (clocking in at 105 minutes), whereas the “Peril” disc offers the option of watching the original broadcast cut.

Yet “Challenge” is supplied with more special features, including two audio commentaries and a 47-minute making-of documentary. It includes snippets of past “Sharpe” films, terrific interviews with the cast and crew (including Cornwell), and a great deal of behind-the-scenes footage and trivia. The Indian extras had to become soldiers after just ten days of training, while a palace locale had to be rebuilt from scratch after the real location became double-booked. There’s plenty of interesting tidbits, yet the featurette does tend to drag, especially when it repeatedly follows a local extra determined to meet Bean. The commentaries prove to be just as meandering; director Tom Clegg’s track is not all that talkative, while Bean and O’Malley mostly just joke around (Bean quips, “In India, all they seem interested in is cricket and the cinema”). There’s also 15 minutes of deleted scenes and outtakes (expanding on Sharpe’s conflicted psyche), a photo gallery, and an 11-minute featurette about creating the film’s HD master.

“Peril” is the better disc overall, with its improved picture quality (the film was shot in a more cinematic 35 mm) and tighter making-of documentary (which is half as long, but more focused). It captures the family atmosphere onset, as the long-time collaborators complete the supposed final installment. The disc also includes a photo gallery, and thankfully, no commentaries.

By MATT FAGERHOLM Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com matt@hollywoodchicago.com