Sharpe's Rifles (Blu-ray) (1993)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Trivia-Sharpe Facts Gallery
Rating
Year Of Production	1993
Running Time	100:56
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Tom Clegg
Studio Distributor	ViaVision	Starring	Sean Bean Brian Cox Daragh O'Malley Assumpta Serna David Troughton Simón Andreu Michael Mears John Tams Jason Salkey
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Dominic Muldowney John Tams

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (256Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080i
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Portugal 1809. Richard Sharpe (Sean Bean), born from a whore in a brothel and raised in an orphanage, is a sergeant in the English army commanded by Sir Arthur Wellesley (David Troughton) that is fighting the French when he saves the life of Wellesley and receives a field commission to lieutenant. Wellesley’s intelligence officer Major Hogan (Brian Cox) knows that Sharpe will not be accepted by proper officers and gentlemen, so Sharpe is given command of a squad of ill-disciplined riflemen and sent on a secret mission behind French lines. On this mission Sharpe meets a group of Spanish guerrillas commanded by Teresa (Assumpta Serna) who are travelling with Count Vivar (Simon Andreu) and a wooden box that is being sought by French cavalry. Then there is a Methodist missionary, his wife and daughter, and Major Hogan, who seems just to pop up. Sharpe must decide whom he can trust, fight off the French cavalry, romance Teresa with whom he has fallen in love and try to win the confidence of his own riflemen before they shoot him. Nothing is going to be simple.

     Sharpe’s Rifles, directed by Tom Clegg, is the first of the series of films shown on ITV that feature the characters created by Bernard Cornwell. As the first in the series Sharpe’s Rifles has to introduce the characters, not only Sean Bean, who is excellent as Sharpe, but the riflemen who will form the core of his squad, once they decide not to kill him: Harper (Daragh O’Malley), Cooper (Michael Mears), Hagman (John Tams), Harris (Jason Salkey), Tongue (Paul Trussell) and Perkins (Lyndon Davies). In the books, of course, Sharpe first fought in Sir Arthur’s army in India, where he saved Sir Arthur’s life not in Portugal but at the Battle of Assaye in 1803 but Sharpe’s Rifles carries this off neatly enough before getting Sharpe to his rebellious squad and starting on his secret mission. In themes that will continue throughout the series there is conspiracy and secrecy, shifting loyalties, pompous gentlemen officers, French opponents, a love interest, comradeship and well-staged battles.

     Sharpe’s Rifles aired on ITV on 5 May 1993 and is an excellent adventure to kick off the series and to introduce us to the deadly fighting man that is Richard Sharpe. The budget is not as big as it was later when the series proved popular so the numbers of fighters in the skirmishes with the French are a bit on the low side but, filmed on location in Portugal and the Ukraine, the film never looks cheap and the budget is up there on the screen, right from the very first sequence where, in the English camp, the whole range of uniforms, red infantry and green riflemen, blue artillery and various colourful cavalry, saunter through the frame.

Video

     Sharpe’s Rifles is presented in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio, in 1080i using the MPEG-4 AVC code.

     Sharpe’s Rifles was released on DVD here about a decade ago and was reviewed on this site here. DanielB was unimpressed with the quality of the video calling it ordinary and no better than VHS. The series was shot originally on 16 mm film and a note on the cover of this collection notes that “in mastering Sharpe to HD the original film negatives have been used to ensure the ultimate HD viewing experience. On rare occasions within the series, the original negatives were either not available or in too poor a condition to use--in these instances standard definition content has been up scaled to complete the narrative. This up scaling effects less than 5% of the content.”

     The result is a much improved presentation although it is by no means pristine. Exteriors in daylight fare the best; the battle in the courtyard at Torrecastro at the climax is clean with good detail, wide shots are generally pretty good with only marginal haziness. Close-ups are good, showing all the lines on Bean’s face. Grain is present but mostly nicely controlled, and marks were absent. Colours are natural and a vast improvement over the DVD; check out the red coats of the English infantry. The scenes at night, especially in dark rooms are the worst. Detail is lacking, there is noise, minor crush and a dark brown palate which looks unnatural. Skin tones can also vary, as does contrast in some sequences.

     English subtitles for the hearing impaired are available. Subtitles also translate the sections of Spanish dialogue.

Video Ratings Summary

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Audio

     Audio choices are English Dolby Digital 5.1 at 640 Kbps and Dolby Digital 2.0 at 256 Kbps, so no lossless audio.

     Dialogue is always clear. The surrounds were not very enveloping but did produce music and minor effects. Horses’ hooves sounded somewhat dull, but the gunfire had a decent resonance. I did not really notice much from the subwoofer. The music by Dominic Muldowney and John Tams used some period tunes and period instruments and was effective.

     There are no lip synchronisation issues.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
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Surround Channel Use
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Sharpe Facts

     Two silent text screens with facts about the English army of 1809, including the elite Rifles Regiments.

Gallery (1:33)

     Black and white film photos with music and text that are essentially a summary of the episode.

     There are Blu-ray releases of Sharpe’s Rifles in various regions, in some single discs, some sharing a Blu-ray with Sharpe’s Eagle, some in collections, including in Sharpe: The Classic Collection which is similar to our release. Some other collections and individual films do have 1080p video and lossless 2.0 audio listed however.

     Our release, Sharpe: The Classic Collection, includes 14 movie length adventures on seven Blu-rays. Sharpe’s Rifles shares a Blu-ray with Sharpe’s Eagle.

     Sharpe’s Rifles is an excellent adventure to kick off the series, to introduce us to Richard Sharpe and his squad of riflemen during the Peninsula war fought against the French of Napoleon. There is action, conspiracy and secrecy, a love interest and the start of the comradeship between Sharpe and his squad of riflemen, especially Daniel Harper.

     The video, although 1080i, is a vast improvement over that of the DVD, the audio is still lossy Dolby Digital. Nevertheless, fans of the Sharpe series should be happy with this improved presentation.

     Sharpe: The Classic Collection was supplied for review by ViaVision Entertainment. Check out their Facebook page for the latest releases, giveaways, deals and more.

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