Sharpe's Mission (2006)

A bit much, but good

Compared to the first nearly original script Sharpe's Gold, I should be thankful for all the things Sharpe's Mission does well. This composite story for Eoghan Harris has all the good things from the Sharpe series, but it's almost too much of a good thing.


Major Richard Sharpe (Sean Bean) and Sergeant Harper (Daragh O'Malley) must go on a mission to destroy a French ammunition store house. Major Ross (James Laurenson) brings in his disfigured explosives specialist friend Pyecroft (Nigel Betts) for the mission, but reconnaissance specialist Major Brand (Mark Strong) and his men, however, are reckless and wild-putting Sharpe's mission and Wellington's (Hugh Fraser) camp at risk. Meanwhile, a reporter from England named Shellington (Warren Saire) attempts to charm Sharpe's wife Jane (Abigail Cruttenden) while he's away, and Rifleman Harris (Jason Salkey) must protect her.

It's a lot yes. Everything is good, I must say, but there's enough material in this first truly original script for two films; gypsies and murder, corruption and trials, poets and infidelity. Maybe writer Eoghan Harris and director Tom Clegg feared things would appear too thin, but there's something for everyone instead. Trouble is the balance isn't quite right. Things that should be developed more aren't, and yet scenes linger where they shouldn't. Is this film about Sharpe and Jane? Or the crooked Major Brand? Perhaps gypsies and the disfigured Pyecroft? I just don't know. Do I like Sharpe's Mission? Of course.

The guest cast is spot on for Mission. Strong as Major Brand is kind of attractive in an evil creepy way, and Saire's Shellington is obviously a used car salesman interested in more than just poetry. Betts gives a fine performance as the masked, deformed Pyecroft, and his relationship with Major Ross gives depth to the parallel relationships between Ross, Wellington, and Sharpe. It's not easy for an actor to work in a mask, and likewise this unnamed and uncredited gypsy girl gives a peculiar performance. She's not mute, but we never hear her speak onscreen.

Harris and Harper have their moments in Sharpe's Mission, as well as Ramona. It's as if the production is trying to give due to all the support in the Sharpe series. They all do lovely, but it's just so much. Many relationships are discussed in Sharpe's Mission- everyone from Wellington to Ramona's "ups and downs". It may seem strange to say again, but future real life husband and wife Sean Bean and Abigail Cruttenden look like limp fish together onscreen. This of course fits for this Sharpe marriage. It was ill conceived to begin with, and the opposite social positions of Jane and Richard are beginning to interfere with the couple's bliss. For all the bedroom scenes where they hotten up Jane, she still becomes ugly and stupid the moment a society man is around. The notion that Rifleman Harris is more trusted and more loyal to Sharpe does not bode well for this marriage.

The gypsy look could have been better or less stereotypical, but production values are on form here. This might have been one of the big budget episodes, with plenty of extras, explosions, and sets. Instead of the low budget and bleak war scenarios that Sharpe has presented, Mission treats us to plenty of everything here. Multiple viewings for this one, indeed.


December 16, 2008

Man on a Mission

The struggle between France and Britain is entering its final stages. The Duke of Wellington has taken one step over the Pyrenees. Napoleon needs to know where he will take the second.

British officer Richard Sharpe (Sean Bean) joins Colonel Brand (Mark Strong) travelling behind enemy lines to blow up a French gun powder magazine. Sharpe becomes suspicious of Colonel Brand's loyalty and with the French moving closer, he knows he must risk his own life to confront the enemy.

Meanwhile, alone in the camp and frustrated by her husband's absence, Jane(Abigail Cruttenden) seeks solace in the company of another man. April 23, 2007

Sharpe takes on a traitor in "Sharpe's Mission"

The BBC TV adaptations of Bernard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe novels are faithful to the original source material - with "Sharpe's Gold" being the shockingly bad exception. While the BBC episodes may cobble events from different books into the shows, that's to be forgiven because Cornwell wrote the books out of chronological order.

"Sharpe's Mission" represents a bit of a departure from past practice in that the story is not based on any of Cornwell's books, but is an original creation of the BBC writers. That is not a problem, however, as the writers are steeped in Sharpe lore and the story rings true to those who know and love these characters. A British officer is in league with the French, but has done such a good job of hiding his duplicity that even Sharpe has been taken in by the subterfuge. Now, the traitor tries to lay a trap for Wellington's chief of intelligence, Major General Ross, and it is up to Sharpe to stop it.

The only problem with "Sharpe's Mission" is that it strays too far from this basic storyline. In addition to the British traitor, the movie also has subplots involving Sharpe's wife Jane, who is being seduced by a peacock - an incompetent poet. Sergeant Harper's wife is attacked by a scummy British sergeant, and Harper beaten up in the process. A band of gypsies is murdered by the traitors, and saved by British explosives expert Pyecroft, who harbors a grudge against Ross for wounding Pyecroft with an ill-timed fuse, and . . . you get the idea.

The BBC Sharpe productions are charming in their low-budget glory. Generally, when you've got only a little bit of cash to spend, you focus on getting everything in your story just right, and making sure all the elements of your story work to perfection. "Sharpe's Mission," unfortunately, has too much story and seems to jump about from A to D to B to Q, and then back to C.

Fans of the Sharpe series will still enjoy "Sharpe's Mission," and the cast is up to their usual standards. But it must be said that this is one of the weaker episodes in the series, and if it weren't for the dreadful "Sharpe's Gold," would probably mark the low point. That's pretty high praise, however. April 16, 2007

A mission that actually ends with all the loose ends tied up

"Sharpe's Mission" starts with a flashback early in Wellington's Peninsula campaign where then Captain Sharpe (Sean Bean) and another officer named Brand (Mark Strong) encounter a French patrol. The French are holding a wounded British lieutenant and torturing him. Sharpe is going to rush the position but Brand goes instead. However, once Brand reaches the French they slip away and he shoots the lieutenant, bringing the body back to the other British troops. Because of his "heroism," as reported by Sharpe, Brand is promoted. The ruse has put a French spy into position in Wellington's army.

When we come to the present Major Sharpe is ordered to go behind French lines with a detachment commanded by Colonel Brand to destroy an ammunitions dump. On the other side the French want Brand to set a trap to capture Major General Ross (James Laurenson) and have another "ruse de guerre" to help with that plan. Meanwhile, Sharpe and Patrick Harper (Daragh O'Malley) are having similar problems with their brides. Jane Sharpe (Abigail Cruttenden), weary of being a military wife, is enjoying the attentions of a poet who has gone to make drawings of the war. Ramona Harper (Diana Perez) is made at her husband, who is paying too much attention to the gypsy girls visiting the camp, and is the target of the unwanted affections of Shellington (Warren Saire), a sergeant who is Brand's right-hand man.

The gypsies also introduce us to one of the more interesting supporting characters in the series. Major Pyecroft (Nigel Betts) is an explosions expert who weathers a leather hood because of a fuse that was cut too short. When Brand and Shellington, wearing their own masks, slaughter a young gypsy girl's parents, he helps her bury them and makes himself her protector. Pyecroft and Ross are old friends, but the "accident" has come between them, and the Major is not happy with being assigned to this particular mission. Brand, hearing that the gypsy girl escaped, is out to silence the one witness who can tie him to the murders. Then there is the mission to capture the French fort and destroy the ammunition before the French troops show up in force, which involves a couple of nice moments when Sharpe convinces the foot to surrender and gives Brand's men a way to end their military careers honorably.

This eleventh film in the Sharpe series has an original screenplay by Charles Wood based on the Bernard Cornwell Sharpe novels (one of two in the series). The fact that this is an original story and not an adaptation undoubtedly explains why for once in the series the villains enjoy an appropriate comeuppance at the hands of Sharpe and his Chosen Men. Sharpe actually deals with Brand, Harper gets to pay back Shellington, and it is Coporal Harris (Jason Salkey) who fixes the wagon of the poet wooing Jane. The fight between Harper and Shellington is one of the better choreographed fights in the series (with a neat setting) and I especially like the way Sharpe and Harris dispatch their targets. This might not be the way Cornwell would have done it, but for once it is great to just indulge in pointed victories. October 1, 2004

Quite good, but......

I found the sound quite irritating. The music was set a couple of notches above the dialog so that I had to keep adjusting it. The picture quality was good but every now and then the picture would jerk slightly during sequences involving fast movement. I enjoyed the story and thought the settings, etc. were close to being authentic but did feel that the mayhem was sanitized. I don't REALLY want to see severed limbs flying about or disembowelled horses when a group is hit by a cannon ball(as in reality)- but there should be SOME blood! Corpses on the ground should bear some marks of being slashed by a cavalryman - they should be lying in a pool of their own blood. As in the other episodes, I did not feel it accurately portrayed the horrors of warfare in those days - that the books did very well. June 8, 2002

More reviews at Amazon.com ...