Horatio Hornblower [VHS]
Based on the rousing sea adventures in C.S. Forester's novelMr. Midshipman Hornblower, the four-film television seriesHoratio Hornblowerexplores the education of a plucky young officer rising through the ranks of His Majesty's Navy. Ioan Gruffudd is all integrity and honor as the ambitious midshipman who is taken under the stern yet nurturing guidance of Captain Pellew (Robert Lindsay) during the war against France in the French Revolution. Through these four adventures he faces a vindictive senior midshipman ("The Even Chance"); meets his hero, a reckless captain whose unorthodox methods are brave but foolhardy ("The Examination for Lieutenant"); is captured by the Spanish in a desperate maneuver to sneak through enemy lines ("The Duchess and the Devil"); and leads his men to French soil in an ill-planned attempt by French loyalists to start a popular front against the revolution ("The Frogs and the Lobsters"). The excellent re-creations of 18th-century vessels and ship-to-ship battles are astounding and reminiscent of such classic Hollywood seafaring adventures asCaptain BloodandThe Sea Hawk, not to mentionCaptain Horatio Hornblower, with Gregory Peck as the only previous screen incarnation of Forester's hero. This mixture of swashbuckling adventure and British naval tradition is leavened with well-placed humor and a cast of colorful characters, but at the heart of the tales is Gruffudd's quick-thinking, courageous Hornblower, a starry-eyed officer with the luck of the gods and the steely determination of an old-fashioned hero.--Sean Axmaker