So Sharpe’s Sword was on BBCAmerica tonight. I turned it on about half an hour in, and then turned it off after watching half an hour. They ruined it. Oh. My. God. My favorite book in the whole damn series and the damn mini series ruins it. Through no fault of the actors, it is whom ever wrote the fucking screenplay that did it. If I were Bernard Cornwell I would be pissed.
Oh My God. I am so pissed off.
In the book Sharpe and Harper are chasing a French Colonel spy who broke his parole and killed a young soldier to escape. As they are fighting in this courtyard the French spy, Leroux, moves to stab Harper with his sword, but the tip of his sword gets caught on Harper’s crucifix and instead knocks him down a flight of stairs and knocks him unconscious. Sharpe, thinking Harper dead, goes on a rampage of attack that is ended when Leroux shoots him in the abdomen with a pistol. Previous to this, digging graves or something (I forget) Sharpe had removed his rifleman’s jacket, and is wearing stolen-off-a-body French calvary pants. No one recognizes him so he is carried unceremoniously down to the death wards and left to die an unknown soldier. Everyone then assumes Sharpe is dead through some other mix-up.
Down in the wards Sharpe awakes delirious calling out for Patrick (Harper). The monk or whatever in charge thinks Sharpe’s name is Patrick, adding to the confusion.
Harper comes to later and refuses to believe that Sharpe is dead, even going so far as to dig at the graves, which he is arrested for. Major Hogan comes across him being dragged off by the provosts and convinced by Harper’s insistent belief that Sharpe is alive, frees Harper and the two go to look for him. They eventually do find him down in the death wards, perilously close to death from loss of blood and infection. Over a period of time Harper and his wife Ramona (and then later Helen Leroux, the spy’s sister) nurse Sharpe back to some semblance of health. Sharpe’s prized Calvary sword had been broken in the fight with Leroux, so Harper makes him a new sword willing Sharpe to get better as the sword comes together. Hence the title, Sharpe’s Sword.
But noooooo…………
In the movie Sharpe is wounded in battle, and is dragged off the field, everyone knowing who he is and what happened to him. The priest insists some mute girl who is apparently a run-away nun, and a total invention of the screenwriter, nurse Sharpe back to health.
I know the romance aspect is a big draw for housewives, but Jesus Christ! The whole point of the book was the love of his men towards Sharpe who pulled them together, stood up for them, and made them a fighting unit to be reckoned with. What the fuck is this silly nonsense about a mute nun?
I am so disappointed.
