Hornblower: The Even Chance (1998)

For having a relatively low budget, the film's style and overall art direction are immensely impressive.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Horatio(Gruffudd, imbuing the role with a strong sense of honor and pride) begins his naval career at 17, in the year of 1793. In spite of various circumstances being against him, he does, in time, fare well with the other midshipmen(if you don't know a lot of Navy lingo, you will want to keep a dictionary on hand, and a finger on the pause-button). Then, Simpson(Healy, making for a truly reprehensible antagonist) returns, and his abusive behavior, thus far tolerated by the other low-level(none of the officers know about it) workers, leads to a feud with our titular protagonist.I haven't read the novels, but if this is anything to go by, it's no wonder they were deemed worthy of adapting. This is an excellent first chapter, and sets the scene for numerous more - I look forward to taking in the following seven. Thoroughly well-acted, filmed compellingly(though you can, at times, tell this was made for television), credible with a richness of detail(many subtle ones), all characters developed well - and with a pace that features many events and people, without rushing ahead to fit it all in. The realism is impressive - there are some elements that make it clear that this is fiction, a dramatization crafted around things that have happened, and with how gripping this is, you easily forgive that. It goes into universally human themes - respect, discipline, friendship, etc.There is a bit of brutal, bloody, disturbing and violent content in this - it is quite honest in its depiction of the many nasty, potential consequences of sea-faring, and ship-based warfare, of the time. I recommend this to any fan of drama and historical adventure. 8/10

I certainly had my doubts when I rented the first volume of this series - apparently called "The Duel" here in the United States and "The Even Chance" in its native Britain. A rose by any other name...It is really good. The main character Horatio is played immaculately by Ioan Gruffudd (I would really like to hear how that is pronounced.) It is hard not to compare it to the movie Master and Commander. I found that movie very entertaining, and also very worthy in its own right, but I have read the books by Patrick O'Brian, and how can a movie do justice to that? I mean, really.I have not read the Forester books, so I cannot comment on the adaptation. I CAN compare the overall experience of seeing the Hornblower films to, well, everything else I have seen about similar subjects, and it fares well indeed. In fact, there has been nothing better overall. I enjoyed everything they did with it. I have to say, I thought it looked a little cheap at first - but I hesitated to even mention that because it was more than made up for in authenticity and raw acting.I only mention it now so that if anyone reading this sees that, they are forewarned - it isn't special effects heavy, it's more genuine. And the scope and range of it is far deeper than anything else yet (about the same subject.) OK, now that Hornblower's praises have been sung again, rightfully, I just want to mention a highly under-read series that I hope some of you will pick up on, by the name of Flashman. I don't really compare Hornblower to Flashman directly, but they are both historical fiction (and I suppose military.) And I have to say, George MacDonald Fraser has given us something special in Flashman, in that his main character has serious and admitted flaws, unlike Horatio. As far as I know, no movies have been made from that series, but anyone who likes the Hornblower adventures as much as I do might like these too.

If America only knew how good this was,it would be the highest rated Made-For-TV movie series of all time(hard to believe there are more people out there that would rather watch "The Columbo Mysteries" than Horatio Hornblower- that just goes to show the power of major network name-brand advertising.The Hornblower movie series has been television at its finest. I have seen all 6 of the A&E Horatio Hornblower movies,"The Duchess and the Devil" is my favorite of the 6 films. However I tune in to A&E everytime they air a new Hornblower movie. So far all 6 movies have been based on the Horatio Hornblower adventure novels written by C.S. Forester(the same author who wrote African Queen). Each Movie chronicles the on-going adventures of Horatio Hornblower who is a Brittish Lt. in the Brittish Navy during the late 1790's-to early 1800's during the Napoleonic era in Europe. I sincerly believe that each one of these 6 Films has been good enough to have shown at the movie theaters,if the producers had wanted to. Unlike other Made-For-TV films,The Hornblower films do not have that Made-For-TV feeling to them,like most television movies have.A common misconception that people who havent seen these movies have is that all 6 of these films go to gether as a mini-series- that is not true. The Hornblower movies are not a mini-series,all 6 of these films are individual movies about the same charactor- with all the same actors playing the same roles in each film(EXAMPLE:think of the James Bond films-They are not sequels, but they are all about the adventures of James Bond- that same principle applies to the Hornblower movies) I give the entire Horatio Hornblower movie series 5 out of 5 stars. Its Perfect entertainment- but you cant please everyone, so for those of you dont like epic battleship battles,historic style drama,high stakes adventure, and danger on the high seas,if you dont like stuff like that-there is always Columbo re-run for you to watch.

First of all, a note about the American titles for this mini-series: what's wrong with you people? Can't you leave a title alone? Or do you think your crowd is so dumb, they wouldn't understand the title that the makers gave it? Why did you have to change "The Even Chance" into "The Duel", for instance (and the other titles as well)? Translating a foreign title is one thing. Altering (and totally ruining) an existing title is something else.And now to the comment: "Hornblower" is one of the best-made series I have ever seen. It's clever, it's interesting, it's really wonderful in all aspects possible. And Ioan Gruffudd is not only good looking, he's a good actor- a skill that most Hollywood stars unfortunately lack. Right now I have only seen the first two episodes, but I'm definitely not going to miss the other two.