Horatio Hornblower - The New Adventures (Loyalty / Duty)

Like Patrick O'Brien's Master and Commander, The stories are coming closer to the real history of the times.Actions and terminology more correct, as one may need to learn more of these times themselves to fully appreciate. Again must mention the author Patrick O'Brien, C.S.Forrester and the real person and Biography upon whom both authors are actually writing about, Cochran with the version by Robert Harvey,an excellent start.Lord and Admiral Thomas Cochran is probably the best fighting Commander of the English, and second only to Admiral Horatio Nelson,in fame not accomplishements.So feared for his Naval and Commando Tactics [often tagged Father of British Commandos],he did in the HMS Speedy[150 men] of guns too light to penetrate the Hull of the Frigate [350 men], through invention as you go, and more so leadership, borded and defeated a bigger force by both superior skills of todays "Seals". Tactics that caused the enemy to blunder and drop through the hatchs below, which Cochran immeditieatly closed that trapped the enemy there by move cannon into a rather intimidating position.Pointed at the hatches should there be a break out. Then quickly sent a few lads back the Speedy were only the Ships Doctor had remained tending the 'ships helm and pretened to be the voice of several commnders of waiting gangs replying to Cochran's for more men or there?At the Battle of Aix, Boney's Invasion fleet when realising it was Cochran as he blew up the Log-Chain Booms blocking the Harbor, in haste all 7 French Ships-of-=the-Line ran aground and were helpess. So by now you know he was known as the first Commando, invented Bomb ansd Fire Ships but His contribution to America and subsequent England the all Navies; Ships smaller, lighter, faster, with more Fire power. Luckly the Brits did not change until after the War of 1812. Some other minor points, He designed and built with prize money the First English Steam Powered Man-a-war. He took that and ships he owend to South America, where he joined with Simon Bolivar to deferat the Spanish both on land and at Sea.Then at request, he moved on to Brazil, where his legened helped when he Bluffed the Portugese Fleet to surrender to a smaller force.Some time later recalled to Duty,to Constanople where the Turk and Greeks had been fighting for so long not sure when it started? Within minutes of his Sailing into the Harbor, both countries Surrendered.So anyone gettting tired of him, his true feats and inventions and the constant battle withh is governments graft and corruption as well as that in the Admirality, he finally did the impossible and took the day. But his greatest achivement is as a reformer and one who fights for his men. It's his winning sufferage for the working man.Been an Ocean sailor, USNA CLASS 59 First big Sail aboard the "Freedom", 80 foot ocean boat.Great proof that history is better than fiction. Patrick O'Brien makes Cochran into two people, Capt Aubrey and Dr. MaturinLord Dundonald of the Cochran Clan we are really Blair-Cochran. Same family as Tony Blair.Must add two Scotsmen, Cochran and John Paul Jones coming from only a few miles of each other. Who Rah!Robert Harvey the biographer -Lord Harvy too a and famous Admiral.Will our young actor slide into Crowes role in the O'Brien series when he finishes the Hornblower series, Let'as hope so. My complents to the Mentorand Superior of Horatio acting ability,All three equal to the man they are potraying.

This is the third installment (2 episodes/tapes) of the made-for-TV movies based on the first 3 of C.S. Forester's novels (The second 2 episodes are "The Adventure Continues," the first 4 simply called "Horatio Hornblower" - note that the whole set of 8 is available on DVD as "Collector's Edition" and that the DVD entitled "Boxed Set" is, misleadingly, only the first 4). The whole series is superbly done and I only regret that they stopped producing them at this point, as there were plenty more good books left.The costumes and settings are very well done and the casting and acting are wonderful - Hornblower, Captain/Admiral Pellew, Maria and Bush are just as I pictured them from the books. The actors playing the "foremast jacks" are also great, and the characters of the two most prominent, Matthews and Styles, are very well developed, really even more so than in the books, I thought. By the accustomed standards of books-made-into-movies, these videos take very few liberties with the original story lines (as is typical, a few subplots and minor details are dropped), although the screenplays do change the specific dialogue in a few noticeable scenes, and the tone/style of voice is a bit different than I envisioned for some characters, notably Bush and Wolfe.As for the obvious and frequent comparison to the Aubrey/Maturin novels of Patrick O'Brian and the more recent movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, I would have to agree with most people that the Hornblower books are not nearly as good but these TV shows are probably better than that movie. (I haven't seen the old Gregory Peck movie, which I understand covers roughly the same period of fictional time as this entire set.) It is pretty rare that people who have read the book(s) actually think that the movie is not only OK, but actually better - in my case, the only other instance of this I can cite is the Lord of the Rings trilogy.Overall, certainly very highly recommended!

"Horatio Hornblower - The New Adventure" is great, and even better than the previous movies. The battle scenes are excellent, and very realistic, especially in the sea battles where we can see splinters splashes after explosions.But A&E takes advantage of our loyalty to Hornblower, by releasing poor quality DVDs, as these are the 7th & 8th sequels, and yet the sound still (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), it should be at least (Dolby Digital 5.1) which gives us better firing and explosions sounds.Also, the early releases of "Horatio Hornblower - The New Adventure" DVDs are in "Full-Screen format", which is reasonable as it was made for TV. But later, they released "Horatio Hornblower - The New Adventure" DVDs on a "Widescreen format". Actually they trimmed and enlarged it to make it in "Widescreen format", which effect the quality especially in close-up scenes - Lucky me that I own the "Full-Screen version".And unlike the previous Hornblower DVDs, this one has no useful extras, even the captioning is not an interactive function of the DVD player, but of the TV set (Closed Caption Decoder).We love Hornblower, and Ioan Gruffudd (Horatio Hornblower) performance was excellent as always, he proved that he always conquer, in love and war.

This set is superb! Became totally entranced with the ocean and the beautiful ships. The acting is excellent, story lines obsessive!! The only reason I gave it 4 stars is it says it’s closed captioned, but only some of the discs are. If you’re not deaf, like me, buy and enjoy it!! It’s wonderfully captivating!