Padme's Library: Friday's Film Adaptation: Sharpe's Rifles by Bernard Cornwell

Friday, January 26, 2018

Friday's Film Adaptation: Sharpe's Rifles by Bernard Cornwell

Summary:
It's 1809, and Napoleon's army is sweeping across Spain. Lieutenant Richard Sharpe is newly in command of the demoralized, distrustful men of the 95th Rifles. He must lead them to safety--and the only way of escape is a treacherous trek through the enemy-infested mountains of Spain.

Lieutenant Richard Sharpe and a detachment of Riflemen are cut off from the rest of the army and surrounded. Their only hope of escape is to accept the help of the Spanish, but this assistance comes at a price: to join the assault on the holy city of Santiago de Compostela, held by a strong French force. There is little Sharpe would enjoy more.

Soldier, hero, rogue Sharpe is the man you always want on your side. Born in poverty, he joined the army to escape jail and climbed the ranks by sheer brutal courage. He knows no other family than the regiment of the 95th Rifles whose green jacket he proudly wears.

Click to Listen to Short Excerpt

Film
In the Peninsular War, a British sergeant is field promoted to a lieutenant in charge of a disrespectful rifle company.

Release Date: May 5, 1993 on ITV(UK Television)
Release Time: 100 minutes

Cast:
Sean Bean as Sergeant/Lieutenant Richard Sharpe
Daragh O'Malley as Rifleman/Sergeant Patrick Harper
Assumpta Serna as Comandante Teresa Moreno
Brian Cox as Major Michael Hogan
David Troughton as Sir Arthur Wellesley
Simón Andreu as Major Blas Vivar
Anthony Hyde as Count of Matamoros
Malcolm Jamieson as Colonel de L'Eclin
Michael Mears as Rifleman Francis Cooper
John Tams as Rifleman Daniel Hagman
Jason Salkey as Rifleman Harris
Lyndon Davies as Rifleman Ben Perkins
Paul Trussell as Rifleman Isaiah Tongue
Julian Fellowes as Major Dunnett
Richard Ireson as Sgt. Williams
Jack McKenzie as Mr. Parker
Tim Bentinck as Captain Murray
Kerry Shale as James Rothschild

Cornwell's series charts Richard Sharpe's progress in the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. He begins in Sharpe's Tiger as a Private in the 33rd Regiment of foot, who becomes a Sergeant by the end of the book, and an Ensign in the 74th Regiment who is transferred to the newly formed 95th Rifles as a Second-Lieutenant during Sharpe's Trafalgar. He is gradually promoted through the ranks, finally becoming a Lieutenant Colonel in Sharpe's Waterloo.

Author Bio:
Bernard Cornwell was born in London in 1944 - a 'warbaby' - whose father was a Canadian airman and mother in Britain's Women's Auxiliary Air Force. He was adopted by a family in Essex who belonged to a religious sect called the Peculiar People (and they were), but escaped to London University and, after a stint as a teacher, he joined BBC Television where he worked for the next 10 years. He began as a researcher on the Nationwide programme and ended as Head of Current Affairs Television for the BBC in Northern Ireland. It was while working in Belfast that he met Judy, a visiting American, and fell in love. Judy was unable to move to Britain for family reasons so Bernard went to the States where he was refused a Green Card. He decided to earn a living by writing, a job that did not need a permit from the US government - and for some years he had been wanting to write the adventures of a British soldier in the Napoleonic wars - and so the Sharpe series was born. Bernard and Judy married in 1980, are still married, still live in the States and he is still writing Sharpe.