Hornblower: The Duchess and the Devil

This is a comment not only on the superb production as a whole, which is very authentic from a historical perspective, and gives the viewer a true sense of what life was like in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, but also to praise an excellent performance by Robert Lindsay, who plays Captain Sir Edward Pellew. As a student of military history, I was very pleased with this production as a whole, and Griffudds' Hornblower is well done. But Lindsay, as the redoubtable Sir Edward is priceless. Just the right blend of old navy correctness, upper-class haughtiness, and berely concealed pride in his young protegee. Hornblower, with whom he is careful not to appear overly fond, is most determined to do his job and please his captain, whom he worships. Pellew recognizes the seeds of greatness in the young man and sheperds him along with scant vocal praise but strong career-enhancing opportunities. Lindsay is very likaable and proper, and I want to see more o of his work. I hope to see more of the Hornblower series in the future, as Ioan Griffudd continues to grow and prosper.

Having a great start with the first movie, falling into a dump for a second movie, I was very curious about the outcome for this third movie in the made for tv-series! For the third time we have again brilliant production values, as we have come to expect, after the previous ones! Story-wise it is a much better story than the second and a little better than the first! What makes this movie exceptional is the presence of Cherie Lunghi! Cherie Lunghi is one of Britain's most underrated actresses! She gives a terrific performance. It is a delight to see her in this movie! BTW this movie has a continuation of the homo-erotic tension between Hornblower and Kennedy as hinted in the first movie!

The Horatio Hornblower series of TV movies is not the usual A & E culture vulture stuff. It's actually fun! Based on the novel about a dashing and ambitious young sailor in the Royal Navy in the 18th century, it's not exactly subtle, but it's great action-adventure genre stuff. Handsome Iaon Gruffud (Kate Winslet's rescuer in Titanic) stars as the too-gallant-to-be-true hero, continually getting into sticky situations. The script is witty, the characters real, and the period is shown convincingly. I guess it's kind of corny, but it's so much fun to watch you really won't care. I'm not really a costume drama person, but this one changed my mind. Catch it on A & E.

Hornblower(Gruffudd, showing a strong sense of honor) is escorting a Duchess(Lunghi, a woman who speaks her mind), when his luck seems to start running out - he and his men are captured and imprisoned. He maintains his composure, and plans an escape. But will his men keep trusting him to take care of the situation? Things are made no better by midshipman Hunter(Fulford, a man of short temper) second-guessing the acting lieutenant's decisions, and a surprise or two are revealed while our friends are captives.

This goes into the application of force and a direct approach, vs. the use of wit and outsmarting the enemy, to solve conflicts. As in the film immediately prior to this, there is no "villain", it is merely a question of a difference of perspective, and, as usual, everyone is a fleshed out human being. Performances, production values, filming(very little reveals that it's made for TV), stunt work, realism(with small details that say so much without being obvious), all highly impressive.

This takes risks by confining its cast, and thus the audience, to a single location, a jail, for the vast majority of the running time. While there are tense situations, and not everything looks bad, this does recreate the tedious nature of such an existence, and a palpable sense of hopelessness, of never being able to get out. Themes gone into include strength of character, duty, nobility, etc.

There is disturbing, brutal and bloody violent content in this. I recommend this to any fan of drama. 8/10

The Hornblower books were an excellent read. Though it has been nearly 30 years since I have read them, they are fondly remembered. This long film which has been separated into four episodes for television is very representative of Horatio Hornblower and what he stood for. The filming is outstanding, the costuming great, the models extremely realistic, in fact the first three episodes are truly outstanding television in themselves. The lead player, the young Welsh actor, Ioan Gruffud (spelling) is good looking, athletic enough for the extracurricular activities and very realistic. There are a number of secondary players in some of the episodes if not all. Robert Lindsay, who reminds me of the American actor famed for the Usual Suspects and L.A. Confidential, Kevin Spacey, is also outstanding. An English actress whose name is something like Cherry Lunghi and the wonderful English actor who play the Russian expatriot, Yaki, in the memorable Masterpiece Theatre series, Fortunes of War, are also very welcome. This is a series well worth seeing.