Sharpe's Eagle (1993)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1993
Running Time	100:55
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Tom Clegg
Studio Distributor	Time Life Video & TV Shock Entertainment	Starring	Sean Bean Brian Cox Daragh O'Malley Assumpta Serna Michael Cochrane David Troughton Martin Jacobs Katia Caballero Michael Mears John Tams
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	Box	Music	Dominic Muldowney John Tams

    The Sharpe series of novels and telemovies based around the adventures of a soldier during and after the Napoleonic wars was something I was blissfully unaware of until the latest film, Sharpe's Challenge, appeared recently on the ABC. There have been 15 movies made in the series, all starring Sean Bean in the leading role of Richard Sharpe. The first fourteen were made in the period 1993 - 1997 and then there was a large gap until the latest one was made this year. They have all been directed by Tom Clegg and quite a few of the cast members (besides Bean) have made multiple appearances. The most notable of these is Daragh O'Malley who plays Sharpe's offsider Patrick Harper and has appeared in all the films.

    Sharpe is a young Sergeant in the first film of the series (included here) who saves the life of General Sir Arthur Wellesley, thus earning himself a field commission as an officer. His mother was a whore and he was born in a brothel, so his upbringing certainly sets him apart from other officers of the time who were mostly from rich, privileged upbringings. He is smart, tough, uncompromising, resourceful, brave and very annoying to his superiors, especially if he has no respect for them. The series then follows his adventures through the various battles of the Napoleonic Wars in Spain & France and then on to other adventures such as in India in the latest film. This 2 disc set includes the first two films made (both in 1993), Sharpe's Rifles and Sharpe's Eagle formatted into 2 episodes each as they would have been shown on television originally. It would seem that Time Life plan to issue the whole series (excluding the latest one which has been issued locally by Roadshow).

    The second film improves on the first both in terms of story and acting. It is set later in the same year during the lead up to the Battle of Talavera. A new officer, Col Simmerson (Michael Cochrane) is added to Wellesley's army. He quickly proves himself to be a bit of a moron with no courage and is relentlessly cruel to his men. Included in his command are two younger officers who follow his lead. These include Lt Berry (Daniel Craig), who takes an immediate dislike to Sharpe. Wellesley & Hogan decide to send Simmerson on a mission which they hope he will make a mess of so they can get rid of him. They send Sharpe & his men along to ensure the job actually gets done. Their mission is to destroy a bridge but all does not go well. The title refers to an Imperial Eagle of the French Army which Sharpe intends to capture. Simmerson reappears in three other stories in the series including the latest one.

    These first two movies in the series suffer somewhat from an obviously low budget which means that many battle scenes feel like there just aren't enough people and the production values are generally a little below more modern television productions. The acting is very good, especially from Sean Bean who gives an excellent characterisation of Sharpe. Both films were shot on location in Portugal and the Crimea, which adds authenticity. These films will provide enjoyable viewing for historical adventure/drama buffs such as fans of the Hornblower series.

    Well worth a look.

Video

    The video quality is resoundingly ordinary, no better than VHS. It is watchable but that is the best you can say.

    The feature is presented in a 1.59:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which I would guess is the original aspect ratio or something close to it.

    The picture was quite soft and was quite badly affected by a general smokiness which seems to be a combination of grain and some clouds of what looks like white powder across the picture. There is light grain throughout, which is heavier in some scenes and occasionally borders on macro-blocking. There is also quite a bit of low level noise.

    The colour was dull and lifeless. The colours seemed quite dark which may be related to the source material. There was also some colour bleeding.

    Artefacts included a few lines and marks plus some minor tape tracking errors.

    There are no subtitles, however there are burned in captions for when Spanish is spoken.

    The discs are single layered.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is fair but certainly nothing special.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was a bit difficult to make out at times and with the lack of subtitles this made things a little difficult. Audio sync was fine.

    The score of these films by Dominic Muldowney & John Tams is pretty good featuring folk style instrumentation and some vocal songs. Occasionally it strays into being slightly overbearing. The theme is quite memorable. From a sound quality perspective there is some distortion in the music from time to time.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer are not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    None.

Menu

    The menu included music & motion.

     These titles are available separately in Region 1, seemingly with the same ordinary video quality (based on reviews). The Region 2 release includes the same two films and also incorporates a making of featurette and a photo gallery. Region 2 is the go.

    The video quality is resoundingly ordinary.

    The audio quality is fair.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall