VHS : Horatio Hornblower: The Duel
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - better than Jack Sparrow
Cadre of unknown actors performing better than most stars set in realistic scenes of believable action. The photography is fantastic and the storyline follows true to the time period in history. There are no swordfighting skeletons or monsters from the deep with tentacles for a face. They actually use something besides computer graphics and sex for entertainment, its called "Acting". Hollywood take note, A&E hit a home run with this one.
Rating:  - Facing evil
The Duel is excellent, with wonderful acting from a crew of very rough mascline characters in conflicts and struggles. The world of the British Navy in 1793 is a rough place to be. The food is nasty, the conditions filthy, the class oppression intolerable, and the chances of successful retirement almost to small to calculate. The overpowering force that maintains the filthy mess in order is a well enforced hierarchy that all social classes buy into and support, either through their domination or ... Read More
Rating:  - Not Your Forester's Hornblower
While this production is excellent, I cannot give it full marks as an adaptation of the books. One of the primary themes of the books is the contrast between the inner man (plagued by self-doubt, fear, seasickness) and the exterior (cold and commanding). They form an extended essay on Forester's view of the nature of command, cowardice and bravery, and the human will fighting with emotions. Much of what raises the Hornblower books above other swashbucklers of the genre goes on inside Hornblower's ... Read More
Rating: - Nice adaptation and background, pity about the casting
This series just goes to show how very, very hard it is to turn good books into screenplays. As a lifelong Hornblower fan I, like other reviewers, looked forward to seeing my favourite books played out before my eyes. But I am afraid that, for me at least, the negatives outweigh the positives. Just as a superb dish can be ruined by too much salt, "Hornblower" is spoiled by half-baked casting and the "Boys' Own" spirit that seems to permeate it.
First the good things. Excellent attention ... Read More
Rating: - Strength and honour
The first instalment of this wonderful and swashbuckling Horatio Hornblower t.v. series introduces a very young Horatio -he is only 17, although already too old to be a really good navy official, he is told by his comrades. For him, entering the Navy is a real rite of passage, a non-too-easy, life-changing experience that is useful for the hero to clarify his objectives and priorities in life: at the end of the movie he knows that he really wants to be a navy officer, and he also knows that he prefers ... Read More
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