Horatio
Hornblower Series -Available at the club.
Author C.S. Forester wrote 11 novels featuring
the character of Hornblower, a sailor in the British navy at
a time when the forces of Napoleon stormed across Europe and
wooden ships were the battleships of the day. The novels are
a potent mix of history, adventure, and naval lore, and there
are dozens of adventures available for adaptation. Horatio
Hornblower: Collector's Edition takes several stories from
the first novel of the series (Mr. Midshipman Hornblower)
and later episodes and adapts them in a close but occasionally
liberal manner.
Several of the episodes found in Horatio
Hornblower: Collector's Edition veer off the path of Forester's
originals, either for budgetary or dramatic reasons. "The
Wrong War," for instance, is based on the story "The
Frogs and the Lobsters," but adds a framing device, a female
companion, and a dramatic beach rescue to increase the dramatic
elements. Similarly, "The Devil and the Duchess" still
holds the basic structure of its original story, but adds a prison
intrigue and expands a relationship which was very brief when
on the written page. In some cases, events of the stories have
been cut in order to save what would have made their production
much more expensive. Despite the changes, the conclusions of
the films are largely the same as that of their source material;
in short, the films generally end up in the same place, only
by a different route.
Given the limited budget of a television series
the producers of Horatio Hornblower: Collector's Edition
are able to mount, if not a large-scale experience, then at least
a consistently mid-sized one. The ship-to-ship combat that marked
the literary series is somewhat limited, which is understandable
given the dearth of real-world ships available to be blown apart
on television. As a result, the show often compensates with close-up
shots of exploding decks and flying debris, or by limiting the
combat to only a couple of minutes of screen time. Even with
a limited budget the sea and combat effects are a solid mix of
green screen, CGI, and model work, and there are times when the
action goes beyond merely acceptable and enters the realm of
impressive.