SHARPE

SHARPE'S WATERLOO
(1997)
103 minutes
15+

Video Diaries of Rifleman Harris

80%

By RICHARD MOORE

There he is, happy on his farm in Normandy with the loving Lucille when that arch-cad Bonaparte escapes from exile and reclaims power in France.

What to do, our hero, Richard Sharpe, asks himself. Well, always being one for cutting up Frenchmen he does what any decent Englishman would do - albeit one living in his enemy's country - and joins up to fight them.

Offered a position on the young Prince of Orange's staff, he is joined by his old comrades Riflemen Harris and Hagman and is later joined by horse trader extraordinaire, former Sergeant Patrick Harper.

Through the clash at Quatre Bras and the tense lead up to the ultimate battle at Waterloo, Sharpe and his friends have to fight Frenchmen, the much-maligned Prince of Orange and his past.

His horrid trollope of a wife, Jane, journeys with her lover to Brussels unaware of Sharpe's presence and the sorting out of that tangled mess adds a much needed zest to the proceedings.

Sadly, the battle scenes are limited, the events in the battle loose with fact, but despite this those of us who have spent hours with the Chosen Men on their adventures will enjoy it.

Of all the late-series episodes made, this is one of the disappointments. Considering the popularity of the Sharpe series, its climax should have been a full-blown, no-holds barred depiction of one of history's most crucial battles - unfortunately, it fizzles more than sizzles.