Amazon.com Essentials:
Based on the rousing sea adventures in C.S. Forester's novel Mr. Midshipman Hornblower,
the four-film television series Horatio Hornblower explores 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 as Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk, not
to mention Captain 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
