User Reviews

SPOILERS Every production which consists of many chapters has a black spot. Whether it's television series with a week season, or a drama with a weak episode, all have them. In episodes five and six, this magnificent series has it's black-spot.

As third lieutenant aboard the HMS Renown, Horatio Hornblower (Ioan Gruffudd) is working under the legendary Captain Sawyer (David Warner). After a few major errors in judgement by Sawyer however, Hornblower and the other lieutenants begin to suspect the captain might not be entirely well. To remove him however means mutiny, and the punishment for this crime is death.

After the irritating adventures in a French village in the previous episode, it is at least refreshing to get back out to sea in this stretched out two part encounter.

Based almost entirely on either the HMS Renown or in the Lieutenants' trials, this story is a remarkably simple one which feels over long. Perhaps too much of a squeeze to have been contained into one two hour period, three hours feels excessive. In effect, we are left with a no win situation.

As the slowly deteriorating captain Sawyer, David Warner is suitably aggressive and insane. Sadly this pushes him from seeming like a serious actor into an over the top one. Normally an outstanding actor, Warner frustrates in these episodes.

Whilst Warner might not convince, series regulars Ioan Gruffudd, Jamie Bamber, Paul Copley and Sean Gilder all perform unsurprisingly well. All these actors have taken their characters to heart and made them their own, and it is a shame that one of them won't feature in any more episodes.

The problem with both "Mutiny" and "Retribution" however is not acting, but purely that the script feels drawn out and grates on the nerves. Written by T.R.Bowen and Ben Rostul these episodes are far the finest of the series and could do with a rewrite.

Even the almighty Hornblower series has a few bad episodes. Often the finest thing on British television, the series is let down in particular by both "Mutiny" and "Retribution". Featuring an excessive performance by David Warner and an awkward story, these episodes should have been so much better.

I have been following these since A&E first started making them. I have always found them to be reasonably historically and nautically accurate. However, I must say that I found the pacing a bit slow on this one. Perhaps because it is Part one of two? Ioan Gruffudd is great as always. Robert Lindsay is always wonderful. And the chemistry these two actors have achieved in this series is truly wonderful. Very much like that between a father and son. David Warner is brilliant as the slightly crazed Capt. James Sawyer.

See it if you like a good sea drama!

Lieutenant Hornblower is a fun, fast-paced adventure novel -- not that you could tell that from watching this turgid, dreary TV adaptation that crawls along at a snail's pace.

In addition to being boring, this adaptation misses the whole point of C.S. Forester's original story. In the book, Hornblower seizes the opportunity to fill a void in leadership when his captain is incapacitated, and the ship's first officer proves to be an incompetent replacement. By devising a series of brilliant tactical maneuvers, Hornblower salvages his ship's mission, saves the day, and proves that he deserves the command of his own vessel.

This stupid version of the story totally ignores all that. For one thing, Hornblower is depicted here as nothing more than a brave, pleasant young man, with little resemblance to the neurotic genius from the books. (He's Sherlock Holmes at sea, not a swashbuckler!) Also, the emphasis is shifted from Hornblower proving himself, to a lot of clumsy melodrama about the mentally ill captain and the mutinous act of removing him from command. Cue 700 scenes of David Warner overacting as the wacky Captain Sawyer, endlessly terrorizing his crew and, by extension, the bored viewer who is tired of watching his shenanigans.

There are other things I could complain about - the direction is flat, the dialogue is unrealistic (Royal Navy officers wouldn't be so openly critical of their captain), everything looks too clean, the music is annoying, Mr. Bush has too small a role, etc. It beats me how fans of the novels generally regard this series as a good adaptation; I think it lacks the psychological depth of the books and just plain stinks. My advice is, leave this corny relic of the early 2000s un-viewed and read the book instead.

But this just came across as meh horn blower is on a ship with a captain who is mad as a box of frogs and he has punishments for every body from getting the midshipman lashed a dozen times to get horn blower to do a 36 hour watch to see a man fall to his death and to tell horn blower to get that man of my quarter deck he just came across as callous and it's a wonder they didn't mutiny early on as this captain seemed to be a hazard oh and to award his ship he gets the men to drink rum double rations it's a wonder how the ship even worked due to the crew being sloshed all the time my uncle was in the navy and he got a tot of rum not a ladel full but maybe it was different back then.