Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

It’s very gratifying to see that two decades after its making, “Master and Commander” continues to do well on streaming platforms and not only has a solid base of core fans but also picks up new ones. There has been a tradition of tall ships films going back to the 1930s, but it had been a while and the undertaking was a calculated risk by Fox executive Tom Rothman, who dreamed up the project as a possible new franchise. Though it wasn’t the flop that some people suggest and even turned a profit in worldwide figures, it wasn’t the blockbuster that was needed to justify sequels. Rothman is also to be thanked for choosing Peter Weir to direct the film and investing all the time it took to get him to say yes.Weir had a great career as a director, especially one coming out of Australian television,having achieved international success with “Picnic at Hanging Rock”in 1975. He was a director who could work in any genre and his films included “The Year of Living Dangerously”. “Gallipoli”. “Witness”, “Dead Poets Society” and “The Truman Show”. He was given a large budget and great freedom as a co-producer and co-screenwriter, and was a fan of the books himself. He took a straightforward, serious approach, ignoring many of the tropes of the genre. Notably, there is no big romance, once a prerequisite for any epic-length action film. There is also no subplot taking place involving politicians and admirals in London, no Governor’s Ball in some colorful colonial capital, only the briefest glimpse at any local people and no overtly comic sidekicks. It takes place entirely aboard the ship at sea.His goal was to make its depiction of life on board a military ship in the early 1800s as authentic as possible, and this he accomplished so well that historians of the period go out of their way to praise it. The historical situation is not quite as perfect, (in 1805 Napoleon was not yet the “Master of Europe”) and in fact in the book it’s the War of 1812 and the enemy ship preying on Pacific Ocean British whalers is American. Try getting that financed in Hollywood. With typical economy, Weir introduces you to life aboard the ship at dawn in a long, almost totally silent sequence without any opening credits that tells you all you need to know. Within minutes we learn that life aboard is always in jeopardy and that this is a serious world where just waking up in sound shape is something to be thankful for.We are then thrown into a harrowing situation where the ship, H.M.S. Surprise, is under attack by the larger, faster, greater-gunned French ship, The Acheron. We meet Captain Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) who immediately shows his leadership and ability to make correct decisions, which is one of the themes of the film. In this case he has to turn and run to lose the enemy in the fog, which shows that he won’t let ego get in the way of the right choice. Known as “Lucky Jack”, he values his ship and the men on it and they know it. He will have to make a number of decisions as things develop, one of them particularly troubling, but he does what must be done. Russell Crowe is superb in conveying this character who is as intelligent and responsible as he is a fighter who will be the first to board an enemy ship when the time comes. He also plays violin and performs duets with his friend and ship’s surgeon, Dr. Stephen Maturin.Their friendship is one of the highlights of the film and Maturin is probably the only man with any access to Aubrey’s inner thoughts. The doctor is the modern man of the Enlightenment while Aubrey is more traditional and though they clash at times, it’s mostly along the expected lines of the idealist and the realist. These never develop into dense philosophical arguments as some might suggest, though at one point the doctor tells Aubrey that ego, not duty, is driving him. Paul Bettany is up to the task of standing up to Crowe without melting and creates a warm, human character of the surgeon. Both actors actually learned to play their instruments so it would look right and documentaries have shown them actually playing the music note for note, even though professional recordings were used for the final cut.All of the other actors are convincing in their roles. They should be, as they had to go through “boot camp” training to learn their jobs on the ship and how to do everything from climbing the rigging to loading and firing the cannons. It was a long shoot, mostly in Mexico and the isolated circumstances led to them working well as a group. It’s hard for me to grasp how almost 200 men could live and work together on a ship this size. Officers, midshipmen, Marines, sailors, cooks (there were even animals aboard for food), in conditions virtually no one today would find tolerable. Duty, loyalty to each other in conditions where if the enemy didn’t get you, the sea might and a strict hierarchy shown by the various uniforms, held it all together. Even then things could get rough, as when superstition causes a crisis on the journeyThe midshipmen get a much larger presence here than usual in films, where they often aren’t depicted at all or if they are, they are played by older actors. Here they are actually played by the 13 to 15 year olds they would have been back then. And they are treated as adults, fighting, drinking with the older officers at dinner and not spared from danger. This looks rather startling today, seeing what look like children in this situation, but like the rest of the details it’s historically accurate. People didn’t live as long back then and didn’t create an extended childhood into their twenties. The midshipmen are upper class, of course and the youngest is addressed once as Lord Blackeney, but there are even younger teens among the sailors. As for the rest of the cast, Weir went out of his way to find men who didn’t look “modern” and he succeeded.The film was made on a real replica of a period ship - the Rose, a 160’ 20-gun frigate - modified to become the Surprise. In fact it was when Weir was touring the Rose while trying to decide whether to do the film that he found out the ship was for sale - and when the studio okayed buying it, he said yes. There was also a duplicate built and mounted on platforms set in the enormous water tank used for “Titanic”. The ship looks very lived in, a big improvement over the past when even some of the better movies in the genre had perfectly clean movie set decks. The violent Cape Horn storm was real and was the result of a replica of Captain Cook’s ship, the Endeavour, duplicating his journey allowing their transit of the Cape to be filmed for “Master and Commander”.This is a film whose worth is being more and more appreciated over time and it’s really good they got to make it before CGI took over. This is probably the best approximation of life on ships of this type that we’ll ever see. I got the blu-ray. If you activate them, there’s a pop-up map you can call up to show you where the ship is and a similar history/trivia function that will fill you in on those kinds of details if you wish. Since this is a film most fans will watch more than once, it’s nice to have those options. But the best are the deleted scenes, of which there are quite a few. None of them are big, dramatic scenes with lots of dialogue, but there were many bits of two minutes or less that had to be cut for time but which illustrate a lot of day-to-day shipboard life.

Bottom Line: In the final analysis, as the credit rolled I felt cheated; I wanted more or this suburb movie about naval action in the 19th century.Master and Commander opens with the following caption: April 1805 Napoleon is master of Europe. Only the British Fleet stands before him. Oceans are now battlefields.Directed by Peter Weir with screenplay by Weir and John Collee, Master and Commander is based on two novels by Patrick O'Brian, part of a twenty-book series of Royal Navy Captain "Lucky" Jack Aubrey's adventures spanning the later 18th - early 19th centuries.This particular installment followed Captain Aubrey, superbly portrayed by Russell Crowe as he captains the 24 gun 6th Rate frigate HMS Surprise. Aubrey's orders are to intercept French 4th Rate 44-gun Frigate Acheron currently en-route to the Pacific Ocean with the intention of making war in those waters off the coast of Brazil. Aubrey is to either sink, burn, or take the French warship as a prize.In the first five minutes of the movie however the larger, faster, more heavily armed Acheron draws first blood, when materializing out of a fog bank she delivers a devastating broadside to the HMS Surprise, damaging the ships bowstrip, mainmast, and rudder, severely crippling the ship. If it weren't for the same prevailing fog, the quick thinking of Aubrey and able rowers, the HMS Surprise would have surely been lost and well, the movie ended.Against all opposition Aubrey decides not to sail home for a refit of his shattered vessel, but to effect repairs at sea in a quite little inlet off the Brazilian coast. Repairs completed the game of cat-and-mouse is taken up again as the HMS Surprise chases the Acheron around Cape Horn into the Great South Sea (Pacific), where she looses her mizzen topmast and a well liked seaman.The chase final ends at the Galapagos Islands (of all places) where British whalers are currently plying their trade, creating the perfect backdrop for the Acheron to do her worst, and for the climatic battle scene to take place.My ThoughtsAs it unwinds, mostly onboard the HMS Surprise, the plot evolves into an extended game of cat-and-mouse: encounters with the aptly named Acheron as the "phantom ship" are in juxtaposition with prolonged glimpses into life onboard a 19th century Royal Navy Frigate. We are treated to little interaction with the French crew, save through spyglass. Most of the human interplay is reserved for Aubrey and his mixed crew of seasoned naval veterans, conscripts involuntarily impressed into service, young midshipmen, and powderboy's who are far too young to see battle.Weir's concentration on the HMS Surprise and her crew brings home a realism seldom seen in Hollywood productions; indeed the battle scenes between the HMS Surprise and the Acheron seem cursory to the telling of the lives of men too harshly lived. And Weir's passion for detail is evident in every frame as he brings to life O'Brian's rich historical details -- the sailors' routine, the pettiness and superstitions, the grim realities of 19th-century navies, the realistic battle scenes, the blood, and horror, and heroism, the honor and devotion to duty and country, are all portrayed in a stark often macabre reality.The cast is rich, varied, and too numerous to list in narrative, but the relationship between Aubrey and his old friend, and ships doctor, Stephen Maturin, portrayed by Paul Bettany is well worth exploring and receives the most attention throughout the movie. Maturim is Aubrey's alter ego, his rational voice, and his musical partner. It is through their music that we are treated to the two men's attempt to bring civility to an otherwise uncivilized pursuit.But Maturin is Aubrey's intellectual equal (Aubrey's military mind and almost mindless devotion to duty is offset by Maturin's humanity, conscience and scientific curiosity). They are both endowed with a similar sense of honor, and know each other well enough--although we are not told from where their relationship sprang--to playfully, and oft-times earnestly challenge their respective positions, though Aubrey has to obvious upper hand; as captain the final word is his. Their friendship was made warm and believable by their obvious onscreen chemistry; the closeness they shared while locked in a battle of wills made me wish for the same kind of uncompromising male friendship in my life. Watching their verbal spars in the officer's mess and their infrequent musical duets together (Aubrey play the violin and Maturin plays the Cello) was for me clearly one of Master and Commander's greatest pleasures.Though through necessity there is "nautical" speech peppered throughout Master and Commander, it is only used to lend realism to the story, and contemporary speech is used otherwise. The use of contemporary chatter is designed to keep the less nautical engaged in the movie drawing them deeper into the action, allowing them to care, and enveloping the story in a cloak of humanity as the HMS Surprise pursues the Acheron across two oceans.In the final analysis, as the credit rolled I felt cheated; I wanted more; the movie ended just as the Aubrey and Maturin were once again engaged in play, and the ship was clearing the decks for action, once more in pursuit of the Acheron after Aubrey learns a prickly bit of information. This is testimony to the movies draw, it has everything one would expect from a high-seas adventure movie set in the 19th century--exhilarating battles, menacing weather conditions, honor, bravery, devotion to duty, treachery, superstition, God, and a wonderfully cast of characters that brings life onboard the HMS Surprise to a point where you can virtually taste and smell the salt laden sea spray on your lips and feel the fresh sea air on your skin.

Very tense action-packed drama on the high seas. Really good surround sound and surprisingly good picture. Definitely something for the library.

Wonderful movie, delivered in great time. Product in perfect condition.Thank you to all. Amazing site to shop, thank you Amazon 🌞

Grande filme e ótima qualidade de imagem.

Gran película. Excelente sonido en 5.1 canales. Doblaje al español latino.

I SAID CLASSIC!

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