Sharpe's Gold

I have seen Sharpe's Gold and all the others titles in the series and they are great and I mean everybody should see them. the series contain a lot of history facts from the Napoleon wars, a lot of action and fun, also the plot is good, just like the acting, but remember too see all the films in numeral order too get the hole story, in fact I only have one problem, I can't find no. 15 "Sharpe The Legend", but I hope it appears soon because a story like this needs a proper ending. In all of the films there are a lot of combat, horses, soldiers in funny uniforms with great old weapons, silly English officers and little love stories, some good singing in Irish.

Seeing as how a large part of the plot of the book of Sharpe's Gold - in reality the second one in the series - was taken and used in Sharpe's Rifles, the first film, this was always going to be the most Adapted adaptation.

About the only thing kept in the adaptation was the presence of the Provosts - other than that, this is an entirely original Sharpe adventure.

It's a good one, for all that - it's fun, though it's hard to take seriously. The serious parts are rather too far-fetched to take seriously, but Sharpe's 'apology' more than makes up for that.

I have to disagree with onysia's comments. I enjoyed this one as much as I did all the rest of the Sharpe's episodes. I do agree with his/her comment about the "Yanks & Combs" Star Trek one though...it was truly awful...lol. So far, I have yet to see one of the Sharpe's adventures that I didn't enjoy thoroughly. The only thing I found unbelievable about Sharpe's Gold is that the renegades didn't strip the girl for the sacrifice scene...I would've...she was hot! lol. I am so glad that we discovered the Sharpe's series on BBC America...it really makes our Saturday evenings more fun. Until we saw Lord of the Rings, we didn't know who Sean Bean was, now we are confirmed fans of his...what a fine actor!

Certainly one of the most bizarre and weaker of the entries into the series. In the face of it the episode has all the right ingredients, a daring mission, a beautiful young lady, an arrogant officer type for Sharpe to clash with, a nasty villain, the lovely backdrops and that swashbuckling sense of adventure and escapism. All of these elements aren't very well handled though, lots of stuff makes little sense. A group of deserters for instance encounter another armed group and decide the best thing to do is lower their guns which of course leads to their capture. Sharpe doesn't really get any interesting moments where he must make tough choices or use his gile to uncover the treachery at work. Some elements are really badly handled, the villains and their motives are completely off the wall, Sharpe at times is not all that likeable in this one I'm afraid and it lacks a lot of the humour and bravado from the chosen men we all love.

Sharpe's Gold is generally considered the least effective in the excellent series of films. I would have to agree. As for the difference between the book ( which is excellent) and the film..... Paul McGann was the original actor playing Richard Sharpe, filming had started on the first three films when Paul broke his leg playing football! I have read a huge insurance payment resulted. As the producers had to show changes had to be made to justify claim, the story was changed considerably. Sean Bean was cast as Sharpe and made the role his own, I would love to have seen what Paul McGann would have done with it though. I can't remember the source for this information, but it could be Bernard Cornwell's excellent website. He being the writer of the books. I may not have remembered it all correctly, but that is the gist of it. I have the box set of DVDs and play them often, along with my Hornblowers!