Sharpe's Gold

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.

This is probably the weakest instalment of the TV series of Sharpe, thats not to say that it's a bad show Sharpe's Gold is a solid 2 hours of TV entertainment it's just that it's not up there with the rest of the series.

The plot just doesn't work Aztec worshippers hiding in the mountains of Spain just seems to far fetched. While the characters are as strong as ever they all seem to be wandering about not doing much. It's still got that fun sense of adventure that all Sharpe shows have but take away the historical grounding in fact and real life and something is lost, the Aztecs just don't have the reality of the usual Sharpe foes.

A good piece of TV but not up to Sharpes best, if you've never seen Sharpe before see Sharpes Eagle or Sharpes Company first and save this one for when the rest of the episodes run out. 6/10

I haven't watched any the Sharpe series in about ten years, but I picked two up from the library at random because I remembered them being so good. Unfortunately we watched this one first. Wow, that was pretty bad. The cheesy-ness factor was off the charts, and both the plot and some of the character reactions were way off base. My husband and I both called movie fouls on this one at several points. I seriously thought maybe I had remembered wrong and they were all this bad. Thankfully the other episode I borrowed was Sharpe's Eagle and my movie-addicted hubby convinced me to watch it. And so there was a happy ending and my faith in the overall goodness of BBC miniseries was restored.

But this one can be skipped with no loss.

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!

Wellington is preparing for his push into France from Spain. A Spanish partisan leader offers to exchange 52 British deserters he has captured for 50 rifles, a deal Wellington agrees to. Sharpe is given command of the party that will make the exchange. With him is a contingent of provosts, lead by an officer that Sharpe detests. A cousin of Wellington, with her daughter, is looking for her husband who went missing in the vicinity, searching for Aztec treasure.

A bit of departure for the series. While we still have Wellington fighting the French and Sharpe being a part of it this instalment sees Sharpe dealing with a Spanish partisan and his band who all dress like Conquistadors of the 15th century! To compound this seeming step back in time, there's Aztec influences and treasure in the mix too.

A few things don't change: Sharpe has made another enemy within his own army, this time a Provost Lieutenant, Wellington's spymaster has a job for Sharpe and the lads, there's a beautiful woman involved (I'm not complaining, by the way!) and she falls for Sharpe, and vice versa.

Despite the feeling that we'd got an Indiana Jones adventure jammed into a Sharpe film, the plot largely works and isn't too unconventional to ruin the film. It's a decent adventure and quite entertaining.

One negative I forgot to mention: Hagman's breaking into song at every turn is starting to get very irritating!