Library DVD Review: Sharpe's Gold, etc.

If you like Hornblower, you'll like Sharpe. Same thing but not on boats. The Great British Empire fighting the damned Frenchies. Major Richard Sharpe (Boromir) fights with Lord Wellington, but he's not a redcoat, he's a greenjacket, so he leads a squad of riflemen who seem to roam around skirmishing and rescuing, which is much cooler than just marching in lines with bayonets, which they also do, as well as sword fighting and blowing things up.

I like the adventure stuff, and the violence is almost silly, rather than gruesome. A bit of fake blood is all. I really like the different accents and the things they say, they have some very quaint ways of being rude, and they say "bastard" a lot. There is plenty of humorous impertinence.

The female characters are cliched. Feisty yet vulnerable "lasses", with a token scene of partial undress (in nighty with bare shoulders). Each one falls in love with Sharpe. Sharpe, of course, has a dead wife. The old dead wife thing. Gibbs, Monk, and Patrick Jane are all proud members of the dead wife club, which gives good men who fight evil the ultimate tragic past, makes them loyal and unavailable yet conflicted and available, deeply and interestingly damaged, and probably also provides a revenge storyline.

What sticks in my head is the music. An English folk singer called John Tam plays a part in the greenjackets, and sings cool vintage soldier songs, like O'er the hills and far away and Johnny has gone for a soldier. It adds a nice layer to the culture they are recreating.