Sharpe's Rifles (1993) :
Sharpe's Memorable Speech To His Soldiers
Director: Tom Clegg
Writers: Eoghan Harris,
Bernard Cornwell
© ITV Studios
Plot Summary
(Source: WikiPedia)
In 1809, Sir Arthur Wellesley (David Troughton),
the commander of the British army fighting the French in Portugal, is
saved from three pursuing French cavalrymen by Sergeant Richard Sharpe
(Sean Bean). Wellesley rewards Sharpe with a field promotion to lieutenant and command of the "chosen men", a handful of sharpshooters previously led by Rifleman Patrick Harper (Daragh O'Malley). The two men take an instant dislike to each other.
Wellesley has no money to pay his men; however, he has arranged for a loan from the Rothschild family.
James Rothschild has set out from Vienna with a badly needed bank
draft, but is overdue. Sharpe, his men, and a company under Major
Dunnett (Julian Fellowes)
are sent out to search for him. While Sharpe and his men are out
scouting the terrain, the company is surprised and wiped out by enemy
cavalry led by Colonel de L'Eclin (Malcolm Jamieson) and a mysterious
man in black civilian clothes (Anthony Hyde), with only Perkins and a
gravely wounded Captain Murray as survivors.
The band took refuge in a small cottage and Captain Murray succumbed
to his wounds. Harper tells Sharpe that the men have decided that they
want to go back; he and Sharpe end up fighting and are taken unawares by
a band of Spanish guerrillas led by Commandante Teresa Moreno (Assumpta Serna)
and Major Blas Vivar (Simón Andreu). Sharpe declares Harper a mutineer
and joins forces with the Spanish guerrillas for mutual protection,
since they are headed in the same general direction. Sharpe begins to
bond with his men and also with Teresa. The guerrillas are protecting a
chest and when Harper kills two French cavalrymen to protect it, Sharpe
frees him and drops the mutiny charge. Along the way, they encounter the
Parkers, a Methodist missionary couple and their niece, whom they take
under their protection.
Major Hogan, Wellesley's chief of military intelligence, shows up and
orders Sharpe to assist Vivar with his mission to rouse the people. The
Spaniard has brought a thousand-year-old family heirloom with him - the
Gonfalon of Santiago or "Banner of Blood". Legend has it that Santiago (Saint James)
himself will appear to defend Spain when the flag is raised over the
chapel in the town of Torrecastro. Sharpe, Teresa, Vivar and their men
attack and defeat the French garrison. Vivar crosses swords with the man
in black, who turns out to be his own brother, the Count of Matamoros,
and kills him. He then raises the flag. At the end of the battle,
Colonel de L'Eclin is about to shoot an unarmed Sharpe, but is shot and
killed by Rifleman Perkins. Sharpe rewards the young Perkins by making
him a "chosen man".
Sharpe reports back to Wellesley. When the general expresses his
disappointment that Sharpe did not find Rothschild, Sharpe reveals that
"Mrs. Parker" is the banker in disguise, to Wellesley's delight.
Afterwards, Sharpe and Teresa make love, before she leaves to continue
fighting the French.
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