Day: April 16, 2005

Sharpe’s Escape simply gives Bernhard Cornwell a chance to write about the battle of Bussaco. There is a more personal vendetta, of course, which gives Sharpe a chance to mimic the Tim Robbins escape through a sewer from Shawshank Redemption. Sharpe is fortunate enough to have company, including a beautiful naked woman, but it’s still foul. Actually, since this novel was written in 2004, I wonder if the Robbins “passage” wasn’t a direct inspiration for this part of the book. A bit of web-sleuthing did me no good in seeing if there has been other speculation or confirmation, since searching for books just brings up booksellers, most of the time. However, the search did turn up an unexpected tidbit: Boston Globe interview with Cornwell from 2004.

Got out for a mid-week movie to see Sideways. After all the hype, we felt like we were the last people to see the film, especially in San Francisco. Since there were three other people in the theater, I guess we weren’t the only slackers. Result? Mild enjoyment, but felt like a female buddy movie where the lead buddies were male… and gender was the only twist. Yes, it was a film made only for adults, with no pandering to a crossover audience of teenage boys or anything else — but it wasn’t surprising. The characters filled their roles, but too many of the lines felt like they should have stayed in the book, especially the rhapsodizing about how wine is like life, etc. Still, a movie that didn’t depress. After House of Sand and Fog, that was welcome.

House of Sand and Fog compels attention, but there’s no solace in this movie. Don’t watch it if you’re in the mood for a light-hearted escape. That which can go wrong, does. There are no winners here. Still, I might want to read the book from which the movie was made. The movie avoided simplicity, but I wonder what other depths (positive and negative) are in the written words. This DVD wasn’t on my Netflix list last weekend.

Although Sharpe’s Gold is the ninth book, chronologically, in the series, it was only the second Bernhard Cornwell wrote. Aside from demonstrating the cruelty of the guerrilla war pursued by the Portugese partisans, Sharpe’s Gold gives Cornwell an excuse to have Sharpe blow up the fortress at Almeida… while the British and Portuguese are occupying it. In the historical note at the end of the novel, Cornwell acknowledges that the actual cause of Almeida’s destruction remains a mystery. Also, the Gold of the title is stolen from the Spanish to pay for the construction of the Lines of Torres Vedras, a great defensive work north of Lisbon. Nice to use historical fiction to tie up some loose ends. This was a lightning read last weekend.