Hornblower - Pflichten

Bracegirdle(Coy, driven) and his ship have disappeared, mysteriously. Horatio(Gruffudd, with a strong sense of justice and honor) is sent out to find him, and learn of the circumstances. Along the way, he rescues a few foreigners, including a married couple - only, they may not be the best people to have aboard.

By the end of this, the final entry, everything is resolved, all loose ends tied up, in a satisfactory and not rushed manner. Hornblower's marriage is contrasted well to that of the aforementioned couple, and classic, age-old issues are explored - when the seaman is out, he misses land, and vice versa, and how can a husband put both his wife and his country before himself? "Duty" is indeed gone into, beyond those examples(in hierarchical relationships). Filming(barely showing that this was made for TV), editing, tension(you will be glued to the screen), action, story, pacing, acting, dialog, humor, all top-notch.

There is some disturbing, bloody, brutal and violent content in this. I recommend this to any fan of drama and swashbucklers. 8/10

A great series, based on the books by CS Forester.

The adventures of Horatio Hornblower, an officer in the Royal Navy at the start of the 19th century. The movies follow his rise up the ranks.

Very realistic in its actions, commands, uniforms, ships etc. Some great action and human drama.

Special effects are good, except for the explosions. Those seem very cheap and unrealistic.

The other area that seems unrealistic is Hornblower's home life. The relationship with Maria seems very clumsy and unnatural.

Great performance by Ioan Gruffudd in the lead role. This is surpassed by Robert Lindsay as Admiral Pellew. He provides the perfect mix of authority, gravitas, compassion and father-like doting.

Good support from Paul McGann as Lt Bush, Paul Copley as Matthews and Sean Gilder as Styles.

The biggest pity is that this movie is the last one they made, when there are several books left.

The final (to date) episode of the TV Hornblower saga is not one of it's strongest. I'm a great fan of the books, but despite some great performances, the scale of the effects budget along with some dreadful writing, sloppy editing and a few doubtful casting choices make this a good, but never a great series. All throughout, one can't help but compare Ioan Gruffudd's, Hornblower performance to Sean Bean's Sharpe, and sadly he never quite measures up, when this is coupled with some trite dialogue, you just wish some scenes had been edited out. I'm not even sure that, had the series been made a few years later with the benefit of CGI, it would have compensated for these moments. All that said, I hope we do see some further episodes, if only to explore the potential of one of the greatest set of adventure stories ever written.

This episode follows on from the previous one, Loyalty. It carries on as Hornblower attempts to find out what the french are up too and keep his crew intact at the same time. The entire Hornblower series of tv movies is on a par with Sharpe starring Sean Bean and set in the same era and with a cast of well know actors I highly recommend anyone to buy the DVD's it's something you can watch again and again, we want more!

I watched this series years ago when i rented them from the video store. I remembered reading an interview with Gene Roddenberry wherein he explained how Horatio Hornblower was his basis for the character of James T. Kirk. That had me. The great story, well told immediately capitivated me. With HH, I could clearly see the parallel with JTK--The noble, trickster, swashbuckler. I would watch it all over again. This and Pride & Prejudice (Firth/Ehle) began my love affair and discover of BBC and anything, anyone from the UK. Great storytelling!