Being born in the mud is not a sin. It's a sin to stay there. Brave Lieutenant Richard Sharp continues the war with the French troops, but now our hero does not believe that dying in war is the limit of dreams. Ultimately, since Sharp has managed to become a lieutenant, why not continue to serve the English crown in the hope of a promotion and an opportunity to anger the fuzzy aristocrats? Lord Wellington, and with him and his faithful assistant Major Hogan, also believe that it is not proper for a good lieutenant to sit in the rear, and therefore Richard Sharp is sent on another suicide mission - the destruction of the bridge near Telavere. Oh no, the problem isn't even that the area is controlled by French troops. The main problem is that Lieutenant Sharp comes under the command of General Henry Simmons, a narcissistic and not very smart man who does not put Sean Bean’s hero at a penny. You can put up with that, Sharpe's not the kind of guy who broke off? Yeah, you're right. But how can one accept that the rest of the English officers are sleeping and seeing Richard Sharpe dead? Well, it looks like Lieutenant Sharp will have to sleep in the middle of his eye if he wants to wake up the next day.
Well, here we have the second part of the story about Richard Sharp, a brave officer of the English crown, who does not get into his pocket for a word, he is intelligent, charming and, unlike the nobles, sympathizes with ordinary soldiers, because he was once in their place. Naturally, such an attitude causes irritation and sometimes open hostility from other officers who have not worked a day in their lives and received high military ranks due to their title. For these narcissistic peacocks, human life, and in this case, the life of a soldier, is worthless. The commoners are dying, the peisans are still growing. Thus, the plot of this picture is not the war with Napoleon. Not a military campaign and the destruction of the bridge, but the fact that always and everywhere one must remain a man, regardless of military rank and origin. This differs all the films about the adventures of the brave shooter Sharp and this is so lacking in our world.
As for the actors, this time the director of the picture decided not to allocate Sharp separately, but to give equal screen time to all the key characters, and there are more than a dozen of them. And you know, usually such an adventure will not end well, because an hour and a half film is not a book of five hundred pages and it is very difficult to make each of the characters turn out to be an interesting and memorable person, but the creators of this film managed to do it. Here are the gloomy English officers, arrogant, stupid, narcissistic and consider ordinary soldiers dirt under their feet. Here is the never discouraged Brian Cox, who behaves like a short-sighted officer, but then nothing more than a mask, but in fact Major Hogan is a cunning, calculating and intelligent man who better not cross the road. Here and the hero of Dar O'Malley, who became a close friend of Captain Sharp, and sergeant's epaulettes allowed Harper to put pressure on the soldiers not only with brute force, but also with authority. And of course, there is Sean Bean himself, who slowly but surely changes under the influence of circumstances, and even though he still hates the officer, but now Richard Sharp does not hesitate to show his feelings and emotions to ordinary soldiers, because he respects them and is ready to give his life for them. What do you think, if Richard Sharpe has a chance to become a “secular lion” and gag the nobles not with fists, but with idle conversation? I think he has chances, but there - time will tell.
Summing up, I want to say that we have a good and high-quality film in which there is both an interesting story and memorable characters, and the scenery is impressive. One “but” – action is still quite weak, but there are not so many fighting scenes in the picture, and therefore the latter is perceived rather as a pleasant addition to the film, rather than its goal in itself, so you can safely close your eyes to this. And based on all the above, I recommend this film to all those who are not indifferent to historical dramas, as well as to the work of such a beautiful actor as Sean Bean. On this, I bow down.
7 out of 10