Rating: 
Summary: wonderfully acted,produced, and directed
Review: The 8 hour production of Hornblower was my greatest television event. After watching I read Mr. Midshipman Hornblower and felt the screenplay was often superior to the book and in every case just as good. The acting was superb especially Iaon and Robert Lindsay. As Captain Pellew his facial expressions in various scenes were in some cases as powerful as the dialogue. The supporting cast and quest stars were superb as were the locations, sea scenes,and of course wardrobe. I can only hope the production company will decide to continue the series.
Rating:
Summary: Great uniforms & history
Review: A great & eciting story. The uniforms from head -to-foot are accurate. The hats, hair and the shose are very realistic. I say this is one of the best movies I'v ever seen. This is from G.Allard age 9
Rating:
Summary: The best thing i have ever seen
Review: Every thing about this is brilliant. The actors, the sets, the storyline. I could go on forever. Okay the story line is a bit different from the original books but it gives it more jazz. Oh, and Ioan Gruffudd is the most georgeous man alive!
Rating: 
Summary: Handsome sets but weak scripting
Review: If you have any familiarity with the age of sail or have read the Hornblower books this movie will certainly annoy you. Compared to the usual butcher job that screenwriters do on novels this movie stayed true enough to the original so that you won't hate it. On the other hand, the changes that were made have turned the protagonist from a calculating and efficient, though insecure, officer into a bumbling, pretty boy who gets ahead by playing the captains favorite. The captain's frantic desperation to save his young protege in the final tape makes one wonder if the directors haven't purposfully decided to add a homoerotic undertone to the relationship that was never a feature of the novels.Beyond the weakening of the central character there are many little bits that have been added that are blatently out of period or unrealistic. In battle scenes Hornblower jumps from gun to gun, standing directly behind them where he would be crushed by the recoil of a real cannon and yelling fire. He uses a ruse de guerre of running up a french flag and then almost decides to fire on the enemy without first showing British colors, only being disuaded by his crew since they are outgunned 100 to 1. When Hornblower is trapped on the beach with French forces advancing and no ship in sight, the Indie suddenly appears with the speed of a jet fighter to save the day. Oh yes, to accomplish this feat the captain has gotten down in the ships boat to row with the crewmen even though the ship is fully manned. These are just a few of the many bits of silliness that were added to no good effect by the writers. These descrepencies probably won't bother the average modern viewer, that's why hollywood keeps putting out this sort of half as... baked fare. I still weakly recommend this movie, even to those with a knowledge of history, literature or physics. It's not as bunged up as most hollywood attemps at period drama are.
Rating:
Summary: Fair Winds and Following Seas
Review: The best thing to hit TV since "Lonesome Dove." It's an old-fashioned swashbuckler with a brain and a heart. It's also a great coming of age story whose setting in the midst of the brutal warfare makes its celebration of traditional virtues uplifting rather than trite. Ioan Gruffudd delivers a performance that is rich, complex, quietly nuanced. It also happens to be a star turn of the first order. The supporting cast, particularly Robert Lindsay, is superb as well, and give this topflight production a depth unusual for this genre and this medium. Those who miss "Hornblower" should be flogged 'round the fleet!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I saw this on A&E and thought it was wonderful! I thought the handsome young man who played Horatio was excellent and hope to see him again in other movies. All four movies in this series held my interest and were done very well. Excellent locations and cast. Well worth watching again.
Rating: 
Summary: Horatio Hornblower or Hubert Horatio Humphrey?
Review: I can't express with what anticipation I look forward to this dramatization of C. S. Forester's superb Hornblower novels or the equally crushing disappointment with which I viewed the result. Once again, a masterpiece of literature has been destroyed by a screen dramatists attempt to "improve" it. Again and again, plots, incidents and characters have been altered from those set forth in Forester's novel "Mr. Midshipman Hornblower" and in every instance the screenwriter's decision has cheapened or weakened the end product. Worst of all have been the attempts at "political correctness." I can never remember Hornblower being portrayed as being so buddy-buddy with the common seaman, Forester (accurately) depicted the distant if respectful relationship between the two seafaring classes. And Hornblower never never NEVER expressed any sympathy for the French Revolution! The scene where the French villagers sing the Marseillese while their compatriots are executed never appeared in the novel and was of course blatantly stolen from "Casablanca." (I might add that in my opinion that cretins who burn works of art for firewood and use rare books to prop up table legs deserve anything they get!) Bottom line, avoid this abomination like the plague. Even the Gregory Peck version is superior!
Rating:
Summary: Everything that film-making was meant to be.
Review: Every so often we are lucky enough to discover a work-of-art that is the result of creative and energetic people taking the time and effort to bring into being the product of their vision. This is such a film. Every element from the choice of original story, script writing, filming, directing, sound-track, actors, staging, costumes and props have been carefully chosen and created. The result is a movie that provides historical insight, character development, humour and edge-of-the-seat action. Horatio (Ioan Gruffudd) begins as a naive young land-lubber, growing into a sea-worthy leader of wit and wiles under the worldly-wise eye of Captain Sir Edward Pellew (Robert Lindsay). Guffudd brings a wide range of emotions to the screen, pulling the audience into his battles with the sea, the enemy and worst of all, the weaknesses of his fellow beings. The sagacious Captain Sir Edward Pellew, in contrast, is played by Lindsay with a stealy discipline that manages to provides insights into a man of great depth. Like a meal prepared by a gourmet chef using only the best ingredients, the movie leaves us fulfilled but, still we ask, "Please sir, can we have s'more?"
Rating:
Summary: MORE MORE MORE!!!
Review: As a lover of Nelsons Navy, It's great. Hornblower is perfect, and the idea of building an actual replica of a frigate makes it better. The problem is that it cost 12 million to make. As a Brit its rare that films like that continue, especially as ITV (UK TV company) payed for most of it, and they are very tight on money!! Also if you read the books, they will require to built a proper man of war if they continue. Let's start funding them!!
Rating:
Summary: can't go wrong with this one
Review: When I first saw the ads on A&E for this series, I thought - I certainly can't commit to 8 hours of television viewing so I stuck the old tape in and set the VCR to record the series. Since I had nothing better to do that first Sunday back in the spring, I watched the first episode and it was so compelling, I watched its replay then again. Once you get hooked on this series, it's difficult to "let go" (which I've since discovered is 18th century term for dropping anchor). You get a hero with flaws, swash and buckling both, a captain who turns into a mentor, honorable and dishonorable characters, action, drama, crisis, love - the whole ball of wax. This is truly entertainment for all generations and genders. I ordered this series of tapes because I knew that I would be viewing them over and over again. I've not disappointed myself. The acting is superb, the sets and costumes are wonderful, the stories are exciting - you won't be able to get enough of this series. I recommend the accompanying "Making of HH" book that Amazon also carries - well "worth the powder" (insiders will understand the reference - jump on the bandwagon!)
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