Sharpe's Rifles - DVDfever.co.uk

S harpe’s Rifles is the first in a series offeature-length TV films about Lt. Richard Sharpe (Sean Bean) inthe midst of the desperate missions and battles of the Napoleonic warsin 19th century Spain. Sharpe is promoted to Lieutenant after saving thelife of Sir Arthur Wellesley and he is soon given a dangerous mission -to command a band of war-hardened riflemen behind enemy lines.

Their task is to escort Sharpe’s lover, the beautiful Spanish guerillaleader Teresa (Assumpta Serna) and a nobleman soldier who are carryinga mysterious box across the country and are being hunted by the Frenchcavalry. What does the box contain and why must Sharpe and his men risktheir lives in a battle to protect it.

The picture quality is mostly brilliant with a very clean picture. However,there does appear to be a soft-tone about it which I’ve never experiencedbefore, but I presume that the film has been shot that way to resemblethe look of the period. That said, there are three moments during the film,all in dark scenes and one lasting between 50 and 55 minutes, when thepicture reminds you of the days of Video CDs.

The film is presented at 1.66:1 (approx 15:9), not the fullscreen formatspecified on the back. I don’t know if it has been shot in 16:9 like alot of television dramas these days, but the picture on show doesn’t appearto have been zoomed-in or pan-and-scanned so it could well have been shotat this ratio. The disc has an average bitrate of 5.14Mb/s and is not enhancedfor 16:9 televisions – this is not possible since it’s not that wide.

The sound is stereo (presented in Dolby Digital 2.0) and serves itspurpose, but even in the battle scenes it doesn’t sound too involving soyour speakers won’t get the sort of workout they deserve.

Extras :Biographies :The disc contains two-page biogs for novelist Bernard Cornwell andcast members Sean Bean, Brian Cox and
Assumpta Serna.Chapters :The packaging and scene selection screen states there are ten chapters,but there are eleven because it doesn’t include the start of the film inthose, which can be accessed by clicking on “Play Feature” from the mainmenu. However, eleven is not enough for a film of 100 minutes in lengthand two of these (chapters 9 and 11) are approx. 17 minutes apiece.Languages/Subtitles :There’s just the one language on this disc – English – with no subtitles,except when a foreign person speaks and subtitles were intended for thatline of dialogue, but these cannot be controlled as per regular subtitles.Menu :The interactive menu is functional and static. Dragging the mouse pointerover an option highlights it, and selecting that option works fine.

On inserting the disc, a copyright logo is shown before the film begins.Then you can go back to the menu and select specific scenes or the biographies.

Overall, this is a fine release. It’s the first Sharpe story I’ve seenand while I didn’t find it particularly enthralling, fans of the series,as well as devotees of this Mr. Bean, are encouraged to take a look atit due to the mostly excellent picture quality.

It’s also interesting to see Carlton bringing a range of old films andTV drama to a new format so soon and in Dolby Digital, but it would bean idea to include subtitles and a decent number of chapters.

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Dom Robinson

Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.

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