Sword Of Honour (2001/British TV Mini-Series)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Episodes: B-
Evelyn
Waugh is best known for Brideshead
Revisited (reviewed elsewhere on this site), but is also responsible for
another well-written drama, Sword Of
Honour. Back in 1967, Edward
Woodward originally played Guy Crouchback in an earlier British TV Mini-Series
adaptation. He later turned up in the
original Wicker Man and is best
known for playing Robert McCall in the 1980s Spy series The Equalizer. Nearly 35
years later, unknown Daniel Craig took on the role in a 2001 remake of the book
and the new DVD set from Acorn Media arrives as Martin Campbell’s Casino Royale hits theaters worldwide.
Running
over three hours, we join Guy early as he is part of a painful divorce and in
this vulnerable position sees The Nazis early on going into towns to round up
undesirables, especially Jews. He is
stunned by this and finds some surprising apathy as he starts asking around about
what is going on. The answers are
angering and unacceptable enough that at age 35, he joins the very elite Royal
Corps of Halberdiers. However, the Army
has issues of his own and then that very ex-wife returns to be more of a pain.
Once
again, as he proved with Layer Cake,
Infamous and his supporting role in
Steven Spielberg’s underrated Munich
(reviewed elsewhere on this site), Craig is an actor with serious talent and a
screen force to be reckoned with. I
purposely waited to finish and write this one up just before his debut Bond hit
theaters to analyze the actor over the star, though not surprisingly, advanced
word of mouth on him has been very good in the new film. Having seen him enough, Craig’s greatest
strength as an actor is just going to it without pretense. He has some statue and though on the surface
he seems like stone, there is real depth to him and any character he
plays. It is rare to see such
masculinity from any actor with such depth without sacrificing said
masculinity, but Craig does this better than former Bond Timothy Dalton, who is
more of a classical theater type. As
Guy, he seems totally weathered as the character from the start, making the
rest of this adaptation (penned nicely by William Boyd) have a palpable sense
it would not have had with another actor.
Director Bill Anderson handles the material and
actors well, including solid but less known (outside of England, at least)
actors like Richard Coyle, Megan Dodds and Leslie Phillips. Once again, we get a detailed story of Waugh that
manages to have depth and scope. Though
I though the series did not go far enough about WWII, the character development
did, making this new version of Sword Of
Honour one of the better Mini-Series we have seen from any country of late.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1/16 X 9 image is OK for what looks like an
early digital production, but lacks detail and color is not great, though the
later seems to be a choice of style. The
transfer is really good otherwise and watchable, but also typical of anything
within the War genre of late. The Dolby
Digital 2.0 Stereo has limited surrounds at best, with clear dialogue and is a
quality professional recording. Extras
are text biographies and bio of Waugh.
Those curious about Craig will find this interesting and as the new Bond
is seen by more and more people, this is bound to be a popular set.
- Nicholas Sheffo
