"Do you remember? Chalk hearts melting on a playground wall," as Fish from Marillion sings in the hit "Kayleigth"? Do you remember? At the time when they showed the movie "Sharpe" on TV? No, Fish doesn't sing that. But a quarter-century ago, the film adaptation of Bernard Cornwell's unsurpassed best-selling novels was a real television event. "Sharpe," played by Sean Bean, shows events during the Napoleonic Wars. Bean is Richard Sharpe, a young and hardened soldier, passionate lover, ladies' man and man of few words who always knows what's going on. On the battlefield he is a hero, for his friends the best and most reliable friend and for his numerous enemies a relentless opponent. His story is incredible: The young Sharpe, then a simple soldier, is recruited as a spy by Major Michael Hogan, played by Brian Cox, and after that he works his way up from the ranks of the soldiers to become an officer. He is supported by his sergeant Sergeant Patrick Harper (Daragh O'Malley) and a group of his loyal snipers in their green uniforms.
Brave men in green uniforms
The book for the films were written by British author Bernard Cornwell, who also dreamed up "The Last Kingdom." Over the course of 14 feature-length episodes, later followed by two sequels, Sharpe fights Napoleonic forces in Spain, but more so enemies like the disgusting Obadiah Hakeswill, possessed by God and the ghost of his mother. And he breaks rows of ladies' hearts of course, when no fight is beeing needed at the moment. In every position he steadfastly performs heroic deeds that establish his rise in the ranks of the British army, which is dominated by the nobility.
Under high-born officers
At the time, an unusual career for a low-born Northerner, so that Sharpe for this alone draws the displeasure of many high-born officers. What's clever about the series is that, even back then, great emphasis was placed on a memorable soundtrack, formed primarily by the classic "Over the Hills and Far Away," sung by John Tams. He plays one of Sharpe's faithful companions in the series, the sharpshooter and former poacher Daniel Hagman, one of the men in green uniforms, not of the mostly red ones of the regular soldiers.
Epic films before Netflix
Sharpe is a fictional drama, but the Napoleonic Wars period really looked like this. In 1993, a television series was commissioned in which each of the episodes attempted to adapt one of the Sharpe books into a feature length running time. Of the twenty-four Sharpe books written, as many as sixteen were adapted for television - a mammoth undertaking by the standards of the time without Netflix and Amazon Prime. Sean Bean owed the role of Richard Sharpe a career launch made to measure, even though he didn't actually fit Cornwell's specifications for his hero at all. Those who have read the books see in their mind's eye an unusually tall man with black hair, a native of London, unmistakable by a large scar on his face.
Bean is a blonde Sharpe
But Bean managed to impersonate Sharpe believably, even though he is much shorter, has no scar, but has blond hair and no scar, and is from Yorkshire. Bernard Cornwell is said to have been so enthusiastic that he dedicated one of his later books, when the series already existed, to Beans movie-Sharpe. "Sharpe's Battle" provided the rationale for why the film-Sharpe speaks with a Yorkshire accent instead of one from London: Sharpe had had to flee London Yorkshire as a teenager, where he adopted the dialect.
Like the battles in Westeros
Watched again today on Amazon Prime much here is reminiscent of the grand designs of Game of Thrones. True, there are far fewer characters and the plot always focuses on the places where Sharpe is having his adventures. But the emotional and martial entanglements, the battles and cunningly waged skirmishes, the partisans, double agents and evil intrigues seem like an early version of the battles in Westeros. In addition, there are many genuine-looking glimpses of a dark time when England and France fought for supremacy on the European continent, by any means necessary, but - at least when officers clashed directly - also with the last vestiges of great chivalry.
A pure hell for soldiers
For the common soldiers, on the other hand, who appear in the series only as disposable masses, all this must have been pure hell. They were only used to die, mercilessly driven forward in rank and file into enemy fire, equipped with ancient rifles and brutally kept under a cruel thumb by their own officers. It takes 15 hours to watch all the films in one piece. Time that is worthwhile becauser because you get to know a honest gentleman and brave fighter whom you would like to have as a friend yourself.
