Welcome to the trap, Sharpe! A year has passed since the siege of Badajoz. Richard Sharp still received the title of captain deserved by him, and moreover, the English king begins to follow with interest the fate of a man who was able to cure himself from a simple soldier to officers. But the king, but the narcissistic nobles do not want to see a bastard in their ranks, and therefore try to trample the good name of Richard Sharp in the dirt in every possible way. But this has already become the norm for our hero, but what is new for him is to be a parliamentarian. Sharp’s old enemy, Sergeant Abadya Hexville, is still alive and eager for revenge, and he and a group of deserters kidnap the wives of English and French colonels for ransom. Naturally, the person who must transfer the money will be Richard Sharp, who is perfectly aware that he is going to the beast.
The fourth film about the adventures of the brave shooter Sharp very much resembles the very first film of this film series. And the reason for this is simple and clear - in the film there are several plot branches that develop independently of each other, but they all intersect in the finale of the picture. There is an army of deserters who are tired of war, beatings, humiliation and boastful superiors, and therefore decided that robbing and killing local residents is a wonderful pastime. Here is a French colonel who went to save his wife and for whom such concepts as duty, honor and nobility are not an empty phrase. Here is the aforementioned Abadya Hexville, who, although he stopped communicating with his dead mother, became even crazier than before, although it would seem – much more so? And of course, there is Captain Richard Sharp, who will be torn between his duty to his wife Teresa and the fatal beauty Isabella, and thus before the viewer there will be a new facet of the character of Sean Bean. Well, yes, womanizer, but the war and the main character can be killed at any time, so let's not be too strict with him. So, yes, there is a lot to see in this film and people who can worry about their fate.
Speaking of people. The main characters, as usual, played very well, which is actually the hallmark of the film series, but in addition to them there were two people in the film who appeared for a fairly short period of time, but were able to cause a storm of emotions and not always positive. The first is Sergeant "Dear William" Froderickson, who got his nickname not for his beautiful eyes, but because with his disfigured face only children are frightened. But despite his special appearance, Sergeant Froderickson is a cunning, resourceful and quite intelligent person, although he tries not to demonstrate this, in order not to cause discontent of the “noble” officers, only Sharp is not noble, and therefore will understand the pretense of the sergeant at the moment. The second character is the French spy Major Ducot, and as befits any spy, this character causes irritation, contempt, and sometimes fear in others. And no, this character will not have a double bottom and he actually causes a feeling of sharp antipathy towards his person. And even if both characters appear in the film literally for fifteen minutes, but they are able to be remembered for a much longer period of time, which says a lot.
As for the action-component, then again is not an end in itself, but only a pleasant addition to the picture, although we must give the creators the due due sword fight between the French officer and Richard Sharpe looked very good. The choreographer is invited for this purpose. But let’s not forget that the film was shot for television, and therefore some technical shortcomings you can safely close your eyes and just enjoy an interesting story with live heroes.
Summing up, I want to say that “Sharp’s Enemy” did not hit the mud with his face and continues to hold the high bar that set the very first film of the franchise and this is beautiful. Therefore, I can safely recommend this film to all fans of Sean Bean in general, and to fans of Richard Sharp in particular, a decent pastime is guaranteed.
7 out of 10