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It's 1805. Adm. Lord Horatio Nelson (Peter Finch) has returned to England from fighting the Napoleonic Wars. He intends to rest for several months, not with his wife but with his mistress Lady Hamilton (Glenda Jackson). Meanwhile, his nephew George Matcham visits and gets entangled in the affair. Nelson is beloved but the Lady is not. Pressure mounts as the French and Spanish combined fleet heads towards England leading to the legendary Battle of Trafalgar.

Glenda Jackson seems to be overacting and the wild, drunken character doesn't feel like Lady Hamilton. Although she may be the only one trying to elevate the drama. Everybody else is rather bland. Only a few characters rise above a whimper. As for the climatic battle, they do what they can with the interior work and they don't explain the battle plan for the exterior work. It's old and the intensity is not at the highest. It shows when the people die in that old showy way. It's a costume drama.

Quite a smartly made British period film. Set in Georgian Britian the film centres around Nelson's relationship with the scandalous Miss Hamilton who is portrayed as a witty yet crass woman, insecure and often drunk and hardly acceptable in society. The film portrays Nelson has beyond doubt a great man but one with a complex personal life. This is not really a war movie and it's pacing may frustrate a modern viewer now. The battle sequence though is fairly well portrayed and I'm glad we have at least one film that depicts this key moment in British history.

The film has a 16:9 aspect ratio, colours are fairly natural and the set decoration and filming locations all looked pretty good to me.

The movie is an adaptation of a play on Nelson and Lady Hamilton, written by Terence Rattigan, surely on par with other Rattigan plays such as The Deep Blue Sea, The WInslow Boy and Separate Tables.

It has been said that Glenda Jackson.was overacting. Emma Hamilton was crude and vulgar, that characteristic was captured greatly. Historically, she was a tramp and died in poverty after the death of Nelson. The character who played Harding said it best,

England needed a hero not a saint. He had said that Nelson was a great man by both was he did and what he was.

The battle did not show the details, however, Nelsons plans never were that complicated. His approach or "touch" was always to go right at them and break the line of battle and turn the fight into a melee. This tactic was no longer viable with the creation of the dreadnought, and long range guns. Had Nelson lived in 1917, his tactics would have spelled disaster for the British Navy: hence, the tactics were and are irrelevant to the story. The detail of preparation and conduct of a battle in the Victory in the age of sail is quite interesting.

This is an interesting and powerful story of an imperfect man being great. The current list of leaders and politicians are "perfect" men or women, but mediocre and incompetent. I would much rather have a Nelson, than a Biden, or a Lloyd Austin or Mark Milley.

England, 1805. After two years at sea, Vice Admiral Lord Nelson, the naval hero, is back. With his star in its zenith he could demand and get any post but for now he just wants to be with the woman he loves. Controversially, that woman is not Lady Nelson but his mistress, Lady Hamilton.

A film that largely explores the famous Lord Nelson's private life. In particular his private life in the months leading up to the Battle of Trafalgar. It's a complex business, which adds a bit of spice to proceedings. However, much of the way it is portrayed amounts to less interesting melodrama, feeling a bit soap-opera-y at times

In addition, the point of all this escapes me. The focus appears to be more on Lady Hamilton than Nelson and she's painted as a rather unpleasant person. I was hoping there'd be a turning point, where some positive qualities come through but she is unpleasant and unsympathetic to the end.

The personal drama stuff isn't terrible, it's even quite engaging at times, but it isn't enough to make an entire movie about.

What makes the film eminently watchable, however, is the battle scene. This isn't any battle, it's the Battle of Trafalgar, Nelson's finest hour. A very gritty, lavish portrayal of the battle - very well made. This lifts the quality of the film considerably.