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DVD: Horatio Hornblower - The New Adventures
A&E Home Video
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
If you have never heard of C.F. Forrester's literary sea captain, Horatio Hornblower, this is not the starting point for you. Personally, I think you need to read the original words of Forrester, but that doesn't mean A&E's series of Hornblower films aren't terrific. They are. The acting is superb (with Ioan Gruffud absolutely becoming Horatio Hornblower), the story lines, while not always completely faithful to Forrester, are well crafted and the execution on all technical levels is spectacular. The look they've achieved is so perfect, both on land and at sea, they easily transport you to a time of billowing sails, British and Irish sailors fighting side by side, and Napolean on the loose in Europe.
The two movies in this set, Loyalty and Duty, are the seventh and eighth in the Hornblower series, and therefore you'll be dropping in on already established characters if you don't see the previous films first. You can pick up a box set of the first six films for around 60 bucks if you look in the right places. If you are already familiar with the characters, this is highly recommended. Over the course of these two films, war ends, Hornblower suffers the life of an officer in port on half pay, Napolean gets tricky, the Admiral sends Hornblower on a tricky mission, war begins again, and Mr. Hornblower takes a wife. Mix in one of the most dastardly spy stories and all the adventure and intrigue the high seas can offer and you have two very entertaining films.
Picture quality isn't terrible, but I did notice it looks fine on a 27 inch TV but just a tiny bit dodgy on a 60 inch screen. The sound, however, comes across fine, and that's important when two ships are side by side firing cannons at one another. There are just a few bonus features, one being cast bios. The truly interesting bonus is the commentary track which features the voices of director Andrew Grieve, producer Andrew Benson, and costume designer John Mallo. Why not Ioan Gruffud, you ask? This series is such a technical achievement, from the direction right down to the costumes, it's fascinating hearing about it from the people who made it happen. I like their honesty. They'll tell you when they had to blue screen the ocean with the ship in the harbor because they couldn't find a location with such a view, they'll tell you when they're straying from Forrester's original story and why, and they'll even tell you when they were just guessing as to what women of the period would wear to a wedding. For anyone who is interested in how something like this is brought to the screen in such vivid detail, the commentary track is truly a bonus. Very nice package, recommended with the qualifier that you need the other films or at least a pretty good knowledge of the characters or the historic period.
© 2004 - DJ Johnson