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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > WWII > British TV > Mini-Series > Sword Of Honour (Daniel Craig version/2001/British TV Mini-Series)

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


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