Sharpe's Enemy

Starring:Sean Bean, Daragh O'Malley, Hugh Fraser, Michael Byrne, Pete Postlethwaite, Assumpta Serna, Jeremy Child, Elizabeth Hurley, Helena Michell, Tony Haygarth, Michael Mears, John Tams, Jason Salkey, Lyndon Davies, Philip Whitchurch, FÃ©odor Atkine, FranÃ§ois GuÃ©tary, Nicholas Rowe, Vincent Grass, Diana Perez
Director: Tom Clegg
Studio: Bfs Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Excellent entertainment!
Sharpe and Hakeswill finally come to terms in "Sharpe's Enemy"
Give this one a miss!
A very heroic adventure
War And Romance With A Decidedly British Flair

Sharpe's Enemy
Starring: Sean Bean , Daragh O'Malley , Hugh Fraser , Michael Byrne , and Pete Postlethwaite
Director: Tom Clegg
Manufacturer: Bfs Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

Sharpe's Company
Sharpe's Honour
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Sharpe's Gold

ASIN: B00004U3UN
Release Date: 2000-07-25

Customer Reviews:

Excellent entertainment!.......2007-03-09

In spite of a lifelong fascination with history, I have never had much interest in the Napoleanic era, or the Napoleanic Wars--until I started watching this series. Now we own the entire set, and are acquiring the books on which it is based as rapidly as we can. That alone should indicate how high my opinion of these films is.

If you've read the books, you will find that the timeline has been altered for the movies--but I doubt you will be disappointed. In my opinion, this entire series is one of the best adaptations of book to movie that has ever been done. Both mediums remain emminently enjoyable, and I cannot say that "the books are better than the movies" or "the movie is better than the books." They are entirely complimentary

If you liked Horatio Hornblower and Master and Commander, you will almost certainly enjoy these. Highly recommended!

Sharpe and Hakeswill finally come to terms in "Sharpe's Enemy".......2007-02-16

The British TV adaptation of Bernard Cornwell's colossal Richard Sharpe series of novels spins its fourth installment with "Sharpe's Enemy." In many ways, "Sharpe's Enemy" is the strongest of the four films so far - and not just because the filmmakers have excised the anachronistic electric guitar that plagued the first couple of movies.

In the novels, Richard Sharpe (Sean Bean) begins his military career in India under the tyrannical thumb of Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill (Pete Postlethwait). Hakeswill has an insane hatred of Sharpe and frames him, resulting in Sharpe being flogged. Despite Sharpe's undying hatred and frequent attempts to kill him, Hakeswill manages to survive - which sustains Hakeswill's belief that he is immortal. Insane and a murdering rapist, but immortal.

The movies don't tell the story of the Indian campaign, but instead commence with the Peninsular War. But when Hakeswill arries on the scene in "Sharpe's Company," it's clear that Sharpe and Hakeswill have issues from the old days. Hakeswill tries to exact revenge on Sharpe, but is found out and ultimately flees the British army.

As "Sharpe's Enemy" begins, we see Hakeswill leading a gang of French and British deserters in the mountains of Spain, murdering, pillaging, and raping their way through the land. They strike gold when they kidnap Lady Fatheringill (Elizabeth Hurley, with her ample "charms" on constant display), wife of a stuck-up British colonel. Not only does Hakeswill ransom her, he insists that Sharpe bring the ransom into Hakeswill's lair.

What ensues is a vicious dog-fight between the British and the deserters, with Hakeswill and Sharpe leading their respective groups. There are some truly savage fights, for neither of these guys believes that fighting "dirty" is an insult. Complicating matters is the fact that a French regiment lurks just waiting to pounce on some prime military real estate.

Possibly the strongest of the four films so far (although "Sharpe's Company" was also pretty darn good), "Sharpe's Enemy" again clearly has a bigger budget than the first two episodes. Look for plenty of humor and some new colorful characters introduced to the mix. Bean and Postlethwait are again excellent, as are the supporting actors. Hurley is pretty darn good in her role as well, for she is not exactly what she seems. Check it out, but by all means watch the other episodes first.

Give this one a miss!.......2006-08-20

I like Sean Bean and I liked the other Sharpe's adventures I've seen, but this one was utterly cringe-worthy. Clunky dialogue, dodgy plot, and to top it all off it has spoiled my opinion of Sharpe as having any honour at all! This episode is laddish without being fun and I regret my purchase.

A very heroic adventure.......2006-08-05

The _Sharpe_ stories take place in a time and location that many American won't know well, during England's epic battles against Napolean (mostly those in Spain), but it's very easy to recognize many of the classic elements of stories we often love. The hero, Richard Sharpe, is a tough, honest, self-made man who gains the respect of honorable, even endearing soldiers and the love of many a lady. In this particular episode, Sharpe yet again outfights and outsmarts both the French and the evil, arrogent English of his own army - particularly a sargent from hell - out to destroy our hero. It is also one of the more romantic, and tragic, episodes. While it is important to see these movies in order to follow all the plot lines, this one can stand as an example of the _Sharpe_ stories at their best.

War And Romance With A Decidedly British Flair.......2005-12-09

Installment #4 in a series of 14 entertaining and historically accurate episodes made for British television based on the wartime exploits of Major Richard Sharpe (Sean Bean) during the Napoleonic Wars. This is a great series, especially if you're into military history. Afterall how many films can you name that are based on the Napoleonic Wars? Me neither.

This is my favorite episode which is probably due to the fact that this particular installment features the very lovely Elizabeth Hurley as Lady Farthingdale, one of two women who have been kidnapped and held for ransom by a group of British deserters. The leader of this rebel band is Obadiah Hakeswell (Pete Postlethwaite), sworn enemy of Major Sharpe.

Great fun and adventure whether you're a history buff or not. See them all!

Average customer rating:

A compelling, surprisingly impressive drama
Death to squealers!

Devil's Party
Starring: Victor McLaglen , William Gargan , Paul Kelly , Beatrice Roberts , and Frank Jenks
Director: Ray McCarey
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000286S5Q
Release Date: 2004-07-27

Customer Reviews:

A compelling, surprisingly impressive drama.......2006-01-11

1938's The Devil's Party is really one heck of a good movie packing a solid story and quite an emotional punch. I've never been all that wild about Hell's Kitchen movies, but this one is different. We start out in that infamous section of old New York, but the real story involves an unfortunate series of events that tests the bonds of friendship and accentuates the fuzzy line that sometimes exists between the good and bad in men.

The Death Avenue Cowboys, four boys and a girl (accepted quite reluctantly, of course), grew up during some hard times in Hell's Kitchen and remained friends even as they grew up and went their separate ways. That special bond of friendship was really cemented by the gang's leader, Marty Malone, when he refused to squeal on his friends and took the rap for a warehouse fire he accidentally started (it was supposed to be nothing more than a smoky diversion). Marty did his time in the reformatory, and he's now a successful night club owner - although the gambling part of his establishment casts something of a shadow over his life. The little girl who pestered her way into the club is now a singer, the O'Mara brothers are policemen, and the other Death Avenue Cowboy is now a priest. The gang gets together every year to reminisce, and this year it's Marty's turn to host. The party's a success, but misfortune strikes soon thereafter.

A couple of Marty's boys came down a little hard on a fellow who refused to pay his gambling debt. Joe O'Hara thinks the "accident" was actually a murder, and he's determined to snoop around - which, naturally, is the last thing Marty (Victor McLaglen) wants. You can imagine how things snowball from here. (You don't really want one of your best friends linking you to a murder, even when you're only indirectly responsible for it.) Eventually, all five former friends are sucked deeply into an increasingly dangerous situation, their loyal bonds of friendship more than strained in the process. The whole series of unfortunate events that takes place puts Marty in a particularly impossible situation, as he is both innocent and guilty at the same time. Still, he remains the most sympathetic character throughout the film; his hands are a little dirty, but he's basically a good and charitable man who just can't seem to avoid trouble.

The Devil's Party tells a most compelling, thought-provoking story. It's presented in a rather straightforward matter, and in some ways it is predictable, yet the moral issues that form the heart of the drama really carry this film to great heights. Some of the movie summaries I've read make it sound as if somebody starts killing off these old friends one at a time in grisly fashion, but that is not the case at all. This isn't horror or a hard-boiled crime thriller; it's barely even a mystery. It is instead a poignant emotional drama with far more depth than you might expect. I was really impressed with The Devil's Party, despite its far too sensational title.

Death to squealers!.......2004-09-26

For some reason that tough corner of New York City, Hell's Kitchen, had a good run in the 1930s. THE DEVIL'S PARTY is one of many slum kids movies of that decade, one of the better ones of a genre that would camp out into Dead End Kids silliness within a decade.
The story comes from Borden Chase's novel "Hell's Kitchen Has a Pantry." The movie opens with a gang of five slum kids, four boys and a girl, casing and preparing to steal from a fruit company. They throw a diversionary smudge pot into the warehouse and accidentally start a fire. The leader, Marty Malone, is caught and, following the rules of the street, takes the rap and refuses to squeal on his cohorts. Malone is sent to reform school while the other kids apparently take the scare to heart and reform themselves.
Flash forward to adulthood and the kids have grown up into a nightclub singer, a priest, a nightclub owner who has a couple of toes in the "racket," and a brace of cops.
Not surprisingly Malone is the one who grew up a touch shady, although the group remain great good friends and reune annually. Things turn sour and into a movie when Malone has a couple of goons put the squeeze on a gambling playboy who's bouncing big checks on him and laughing about it. Squeeze turns into murder (against Malone's orders, I hasten to add) and a few too many clues are left to make it seem an accident. Two emergency squad policemen called to the scene just happen to be the O'Mara brothers, two-fifths of the old fruit nabbing slum kids' gang.
Gentle brute Victor McLaglen, who had two years earlier won a leading actor Academy Award in John Ford's 1936 THE ENFORCER, stars as the grown up Marty Malone. The rest of the cast is made up of talented and vaguely familiar bit actors. For instance, singer Beatrice Roberts is probably best known for her role as Azura, Queen of Mars, in the Flash Gordon serials. William Gargan, one of the two O'Mara brothers, was nominated for an Oscar in 1941 for his supporting role in THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED. McLaglen had enough range to carry any b-movie they cared to throw at him, but the other actors in this are top of the line b-stars who didn't embarrass themselves when they appeared in more prestigious films.
After the delinquent gambler's murder things heat up considerably, old ties of friendship are frayed and stressed, and Malone eventually finds himself in the position of having to take another one to protect the gang. What happens is fairly predictable, but this film is fast paced and avoids so many cliches it's hard not to like it.
The print transfer on this discount dvd is fairly good, all things considered. The image is usually clear and sharp and the sound is acceptable. There are a few stretches where the film is badly scratched and stained, but fewer than some from this distributor.
A bit of trivia. Victor McLaglen didn't come into his own as an actor until he was over fifty. Prior to his acting career he was a boxer (check his more-than-once broken nose for verification) and my old copy of The Film Encyclopedia says that he once fought heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, who he lost to in six rounds.

Average customer rating:

Sharpe's Enemy [Region 2]
Starring: Sean Bean , Daragh O'Malley , Hugh Fraser , Michael Byrne , and Pete Postlethwaite
Director: Tom Clegg
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000065UGG

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