Master and Commander The Far Side of the World (2003)
Directed by Peter Weir
Written by Peter Weir
Starring Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany, James D'arcy, Billy Boyd
Release Date November 14th, 2003
Published November 13th, 2003
I've never been exposed to the work of author Patrick O'Brien. His high-seas adventures are the kind of tales that always appealed to my father, a student of history, especially naval history. So Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World is an opportunity for my dad and I to bond over a movie, the film’s historical accuracy pulled apart over a dinner cooked by my mom. So you can understand why I was looking forward to this film and why I might seem to gush a little bit about this tremendous Oscar-worthy adventure.
Take the essential elements of Errol Flynn's classic high seas serials and a dash of Herman Melville and you get a sense of what you’re in for in Master and Commander. Lucky Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) is the Captain of the British navy ship the Surprise. Lucky Jack's mission is to hunt down and either sink or capture the French profiteer ship the Acheron (pronounced as Ack-Eron). It's 1805, and Britain is at war with France and its leader, Napoleon.
Though the Acheron is larger and better armed than the Surprise, the Surprise’s 197-man crew has complete faith in Captain Jack--everyone, that is, but the ship’s surgeon Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany). It's not that Maturin doesn't trust Captain Jack's abilities, however he functions as Jack's conscience as the captain begins to see the Acheron as his white whale. Two times early in the film the Acheron snuck up behind the Surprise and nearly sank it. The captain is determined to not let it happen again. Maturin feels that returning to Britain for repairs is a more prudent solution.
Even as Captain Jack and Maturin disagree vehemently over tactics, the two are good friends who spend their free time dueting, Maturin on the cello and Jack on his violin. Crowe and Bettany played a similar relationship in the Oscar winner A Beautiful Mind and their familiarity and ease working together shows.
The rest of the cast of Master and Commander run together and, especially during the battle scenes, it's difficult to tell them apart. The one other cast member able to make a real impression is Max Perkis as Blakeney, a teenager who both Captain Jack and Maturin take under their wing. Blakeney is also quite interesting from a historical standpoint as not only a teenager, maybe only 13 years old, but an officer on the Surprise. This seems unreal but it is historically accurate that children as young as 13 were taking positions in the British navy.
Master and Commander is the first non-documentary ever to be allowed to film on the famed Galapagos Islands, where Maturin is allowed to indulge his love of nature and, in a pre-Darwin scientific discovery, develops an obsession with a flightless bird that would be an amazing find. It would be, but in his search of the island, he discovers the hiding place of the Acheron and must rejoin Captain Jack for the film's climactic battle.
Based on the first and the 10th book of Patrick O'Brien's 20 volume series, Master and Commander was a dream project for producer and Fox Chairman Tom Rothman who acquired the rights to the books while O'Brien was still alive but was unable to get it made until after the author’s death in 2001. It wasn't until three studios--Fox, Miramax, and Universal--pooled $125 million that the film even seemed viable. Finally, after landing director Peter Weir and Crowe, Rothman had the tools to turn the dense, character-driven adventure into a film.
With so much rich dialogue and innumerable characters Master and Commander seems an unlikely blockbuster but in the capable hands of Weir, who also co-wrote the script with John Collee, it is an epic action adventure movie that evokes classic Hollywood filmmaking. In its scope and scale it's reminiscent of Lawrence Of Arabia, but may be more akin to Gladiator, another modern epic that also starred Crowe. The combination of realistic stunts and seamless CGI is what true blockbusters should aspire to. Too many computer generated effects can be distracting and more often annoying. Master and Commander proves there is no substitute for real actors and real stunts. Let the Oscar season begin with Master and Commander firing the first shot.
