Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951)

The greatest movie ever!

The greatest movie ever made..!

good back-story, and good acting

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

you can complain all you want about holes in the story, inconsistencies in continuity or lack of adherence to the novel.but you cannot complain about the stunning cinematography, ships and sea battles.Hornblower is a great piece of entertainment.the sea battles alone with the cunning and agility of the British ship's contests against its foes are worth the price of admission.Peck makes the character very likable and you won't be sorry for tuning into this tale.do not pass this by!

Horatio Hornblower was a very complex man and although it isn't actually necessary to know his life story to enjoy Mr R.Walsh's fine film,Mr G.Peck's excellent performance is even more impressive when you appreciate how he has grasped the small print - as it were - behind his character.Whether or not Mr Peck was familiar with the canon I do not know,but behind Hornblower's facade of confidence was a wariness befitting a relatively poor man in a navy run principally by very rich men.Unless he was actually engaged in running a ship,a Captain in good old King George's day was put on half - pay,a financial burden men like Hornblower could not afford to bear for long. Although marked as a "coming man" from his first midshipman's post,his progress was only grudgingly conceded by the upper - class Admiralty Sea Lords.To end up as he did - an Admiral - was a truly remarkable achievement. Being in charge of one of His Majesty's ships was not a job for a bleeding heart.The majority of the crew would have been press - ganged and were - to say the least - unwilling sailors.In order to maintain discipline it was necessary to employ the carrot and stick;and if the stick was threatened it had to be applied. Thus,at the beginning of the film a seaman is flogged because a young and inexperienced officer had threatened him with a flogging and Hornblower,although he finds the punishment abhorrent,points out to his junior that if he watches the flogging he may not be so cavalier in using it as a threat in future. Engaged on a secret mission from The Admiralty HMS "Lydia" is ordered to give aid and assistance to a megalomaniac dictator - an ally in the war against Napoleon.Hornblower captures a Spanish ship and hands it over to this madman only to subsequently discover that Spain has in fact changed sides and the captured ship will be used against the British navy. At the same time he is forced to take as a passenger the sister of the Duke of Wellington and return her to England. The consequences of both these actions turn his comfortable world upside down. I saw the movie when I was 12 years old and thoroughly enjoyed it as a rousing sea adventure.60 years on I can still enjoy for the same reason,but also as a study of an honourable man trying to act in an honourable fashion as fate moves the goalposts around him.A typical Gregory Peck role,in fact.I can only remain thankful that Mr E.Flynn was too drunk to play it.It certainly would have ended up a totally different movie.

It's fun, it's exciting, and it looks fabulous at times, it is however far from being a great movie. In the absence of Errol Flynn, Gregory Peck steps in to Hornblower's shoes and as much as he gives it his all {rumoured to have been one of his favourite performances}, it's a spot of miscasting that thankfully doesn't kill the picture dead, he's just sadly a tad too straight laced to really make the role work. The same can be said for the casting of Virginia Mayo as Lady Barbara Wellesley, pretty as she is, it's an odd bit of casting that never quite comes off, yet as daft as it may sound, neither case of miscasting hurts the picture, and this comes down to the astute direction from Raoul Walsh.The pace never flags so we are never over concerned with the central actors struggles to make the characters work, backed up by Guy Green's camera work and Robert Farnon's jaunty score, the technical aspects of the piece steer the viewer on to safe waters {ahem}. The sets are excellent and the recreation of the ships is first rate, with the final quarter of the movie giving us a blood pumping battle that's full of heroic bluster. It's a film that is easily recommended to adventure fans, tho far from perfect and it remains a wasted opportunity in my eyes, it's still a very enjoyable film for all the family. 6/10

I remember seeing this film when I was about 10 years of age on our black and white telly. I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread but had to wait for ages and ages for it to be shown again (no videos in those days!) When it finally came on, there was a bit of a gale blowing and our aerial was blown off the roof half way through the film. You can imagine how I felt. I have seen it many times since and it has stood the test of time,a good old fashioned adventure story with excellent actors, tons of excitement and loads happening from beginning to end. There are no false accents from Gregory Peck or Robert Beatty and we even have Richard Hearne (Mr Pastry, remember him, people of my age?) as Pecks batman. Stanley Baker, James Robertson Justice, Terence Morgan (He played the lead in the series 'Sir Francis Drake' in the early sixties) and Christopher Lee also make fine appearances. I recommend it without reservation.