Sharpes Company DVD with Sean Bean, Pete Postlethwaite, Daragh O'Malley (Unrated) +Movie Reviews

Another winning adventure in the Sharpe's series

fionnmaccumhal | San Diego, CA USA | 03/25/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sharpe and his men are fighting not only the French in this tale but an evil and devious sergeant as well who has some history with Sharpe. The battle and action scenes are top notch again and the characters are grand and heroic. The settings and costumes make it all very colorful and real. The actors again do a great job with Sean Bean, Asumpta Serna and Daragh O'Malley giving us wonderful heroic performances. Special mention has to go to Pete Postlethwaite who delivers a scenery chewing performance as the evil Sergeant Hakeswill. Marvelous!I enjoyed this one and have no complaints at all about the quality of the DVD picture or sound."

Obadiah Hakeswill starts making trouble for Richard Sharpe

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 08/22/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Whatever my record was for urging one character to kill another in a movie, I surely broke it while watching "Sharpe's Company." This is the third film in the series based on the novels of Bernard Cornwell and is set in Spain in 1812 as the Duke of Wellington begins his invasion of Spain from Portugal while Napoleon is preoccupied with developments in northern Europe. The key to a successful campaign is the capture of two great fortresses, Ciudad Rodrigo in the north and Badajoz in the south. Meanwhile, Richard Sharpe (Sean Bean) has his own concerns.

First, Sharpe is demoted to lieutenant, when the captancy of his unit is purchased a nobleman. That means are hero longs to do something that will get his rank back so that he cannot lose it again, and being the first into the breach when a fort is stormed would be the way of doing it. Second, he learns the his lover, the Spanish rebel Teresa (Assumpta Serna), has given birth to their daughter (which suggests a really big gap of well over a year between the second and third movies). She goes back behind enemy lines to continue her part of the war and ends up in the fort that the British will be attacking in the climax of the movie.

But Sharpe is not the most compelling character in this story. That would be Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill (Pete Postlethwaite), who once had Sharpe flogged for something he did not do. Hakeswill is the villain of this piece and it is not long after he shows up that you start urging Sharpe, Sergeant Harper (Daragh O'Malley) or any one of the riflemen to kill this guy. Because he survived a battle Hakeswill believes he is invincible and this guy is a sadistic loon; I lean towards him being more sadistic than insane, but there is strong evidence either way. This guy talks to his mother in his hat and never takes the direct route to hurt someone, which he manages to do quite often.

We have a new actor playing Wellington at this point (Hugh Fraser) and a new spy master, Major Nairn (Michael Byrne), to complicate Sharpe's life. But the character that I liked was the new colonel of the regiment, who has a touch of the upper class twit to him, especially when it comes to speaking the King's English, but who knows enough about men and soldiering not to completely botch things. This is a man who will apologize to a common soldier when warranted without batting an eye. Now if he would just have Obadiah Hakeswill shot on sight I would be a much happier person.

The attack on Badajoz is a well-staged battle sequences, especially given the limitations of the production in terms of men and material. Sharpe's reason for leading his men in the attack is probably not one that we have heard before, but strikes me as a better reason to face death than we usually hear in such stories. But there is no doubt that what you are going to remember at the end of "Sharpe's Company" is Postlethwaite's performance and since the fourth movie is called "Sharpe's Enemy" there is little doubt as to who is the title character and the only concern is how much damage he will do to Sharpe's friends and family before he meets his just dessert."

Great series

Richard A Schauer | Kent,, WA USA | 08/14/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I found the first three Shape's adventures to be wonderfully entertaining. My wife and I enjoyed them together. We were both wondering why this is considered the third episode when it should be the fourth - and there is no third. Somehow between Sharp's Eagle and Sharpe's Company our hero is married and has a child. There are glimpses of a wedding - and a duel - at the beginning of the episode but that is all there is: glimpses. But the individual episodes - though better viewed as a series - do stand alone and you can fill in what seems to be missing.This episode brings Pete Postlethwaite as Sergeant Hakeswill into the series. He is flat out evil and certainly mad. Pete Postlethwaite is a first rate actor so it's interesting to see him in such an over-the-top role. I'm sure he loved it.The English troops are storming a fortress. After blasting a breach in the wall they are cut down like stalks of wheat until Sharpe and his men take charge. Sharpe is anxious to get inside as his wife and the daughter he has never seen are inside and he knows the English soldiers will rape and pillage once victorious. Sure enough, the guys you were just rooting for now deserve to be swinging from a tree limb. And Sergeant Hawkswill shows up with designs on Sharp's wife. I have noticed the scripts are not by the same writer so I am quite sure I will run into a clunker or two in the remaining shows in the series, but the first three were all great and as a whole I am equally sure this is going to be a fine series."

Great adventures spoiled by poor transfer

Richard A Schauer | 10/11/2000

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Whoa! What's going on? Have all these reviews been written by the publishers marketing department?These are great tv adventures. If you liked the Hornblower series you would like these but................unlike the Hornblower series these are poorly transferred, little better than below average VHS. A great shame."

Sharpe TV series takes step forward with "Sharpe's Company"

Scott Schiefelbein | Portland, Oregon United States | 02/16/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The British TV adaptation of Bernard Cornwell's beloved Richard Sharpe series started with two exceedingly low-budget, solidly entertaining episodes: "Sharpe's Rifles" and "Sharpe's Eagle." A few dozen actors looked like they were running around the same ten acres of real estate while desperately trying to convey the impression that they were part of the mighty clash between Wellington and Napoleon. Thanks to some great acting and gifted storytelling, the first two episodes worked.

With "Sharpe's Company," the series gets "bigger." The focal point of this episode is the storming of a French-held fortress by British troops, and while the scenes are nowhere close to something Peter Jackson or Steven Spielberg might assemble, it's clear that the producers have given their team more to work with. That's all to the good, as the sight of the British soldiers storming the French fortress is heart-pounding and melancholy at the same time.

Richard Sharpe, for the uninitiated, is gutter trash who has been raised through the ranks to officer status thanks to his bravery and ambition. As Wellington admiringly says, "You're a rogue, Sharpe, but you're my rogue." Still, for most in the the class-conscious British army does not much care for rankers as officers - by definition, Sharpe is not a "gentleman," so he cannot be an excellent officer. Accordingly, Sharpe's brief promotion to captain is superseded when a wealthy family buys the position for their second son, and Sharpe is busted back to Lieutenant. Not content to demote Sharpe, the British army gives Sharpe the unenviable duty of being quartermaster - easily the last place an ambitious man of action such as Sharpe wants to be.

Compounding Sharpe's problems is the fact that he just learned that he has a daughter by the Spanish freedom fighter Teresa. The lovely Teresa is still working as an intelligence officer for Major Hogan, and she is spying in the very French fortress that Sharpe must storm. With his wife and daughter in the very place he is trying to raze to the ground, Sharpe is one grumpy cuss.

And to make matters as bad as possible, Sergeant Obidiah Hakeswill (Pete Postlethwait) returns. Hakeswill was Sharpe's sergeant when Sharpe was a private in the India campaign, and Hakeswill took great delight in tormenting Sharpe, even having Sharpe whipped for one of Hakeswill's crimes. An insane, murdering rapist, Hakeswill nevertheless knows how to play to superior officers to get what he wants done, which makes him a lethal opponent for Sharpe and his 95th Rifles even though Sharpe outranks him.

Postlethwait's arrival is fortunate, for this wonderful actor has a field day with the twitchy Hakeswill. Postlethwait's presence makes the absence of Brian Cox as Major Hogan much less noticeable, even if it remains regretable.

Ultimately, Sharpe finds himself battling Hakeswill and the French as he takes charge of the force invading the French fortress. Unlike "Sharpe's Rifles" and "Sharpe's Eagle," which focused quite a bit on the glorious side of battle, "Sharpe's Company" spends a lot of time focusing on the human cost of war as many good young British soldiers are lost in the horrific fighting.

An entertaining adaptation of Bernard Cornwell's novel, "Sharpe's Company" shows that the fans of the Richard Sharpe series have given their devotion to a crack bunch of filmmakers. Enjoy."

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