Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

It's 1805, and the Napoleonic wars are raging in Europe. Halfway around the world off the coast of Brazil, the British naval ship H.M.S. Surprise, led by Captain "Lucky Jack" Aubrey, are hot in pursuit of a French frigate. She's twice their size and almost twice their guns, but they need to take, burn, or sink her to prevent the war from carrying over into the Pacific. Together with his loyal officers, tough crew, and best friend and ship's physician Dr. Stephen Maturin, he's got to lead them to victory, or go down trying.

This is one of those movies that I like more and more every time I watch it (one of these days it's going to end up on my Top 25). A riveting tale of adventure, relationships, and fighting at the high seas back in the age of the sail. That it is blisteringly authentic only adds to it's excellent atmosphere.

The characters (several already established in the book series I will talk about below) are played as well as can be, and this helps establish a sense of connection to the entire crew. A tough thing, since beyond leading men Russel Crowe as Aubrey (his best role to date, in my opinion) and Paul Bettany as Maturin, it's essentially an ensemble cast, Black Hawk Down style. This means that while it may take a few viewings to get everyone's name down, you still feel like you know each and everyone one of them. You're happy when they're celebrating, you're exhausted after they go through a hard day's work, and you're definitely sad when one of them dies (an all-too-likely occurrence on the high seas).

I mentioned it was a highly accurate movie, and that's definitely true. From the opening moments of a crew member going through the ships decks, from the lower hold to the crew quarters of tightly packed hammocks crammed in side-by-side, it completely presents what is was really like to be on a naval ship of that era. The dialogue is full of nautical expressions, sayings, and idioms, the ships move like they should, and the cannons take a good four or five men to operate properly. The rigging looks like it should, repairs take forever, and a drought with no wind means they're shit out of luck. It creates an atmosphere that's absolutely perfect, and sucks you in from the opening shot to the closing credits.

Now, some may find this be a bit of a dull movie. After the opening cannon barrage, it's essentially people talking and a ship moving around the water for two odd hours (with an intense final battle to bookend things). Men talking, actually, since the only women in the entire film is a native islander who appears for one minute without speaking. While it may sound boring, it's actually far from that. The relationship aspect I talked about earlier is basically a big bromance (yes, I like that word, so sue me). Aubrey and Maturin are two best friends, and while they do disagree on several things (Aubrey is a pure navy man, while Maturin is much more civilian and relaxed about things), watching them interact together on the ship is quite interesting. Equally so is the general banter of the crew, and it all is just so... well, delicious is the best way I can describe it. It's dialogue that I never get tired of, and find to be endlessly fascinating.

As I mentioned previously, this film is based off a book. Several books, actually, in a twenty book long series. As to how accurately it is to the novels, the only thing I can say against it is that it doesn't play up Maturin as much as it should. In the movie he's definitely a main character, but with a bit of a sidekick feel next to Aubrey. In the books, the two are equals, with about half the events seen through Maturin's eyes. Apart from that everything seems spot on, and I recommend the books as much as I do the movie. I'm just about done with the second one right now and absolutely loving it (and unlike most movies from books, since this one is only based on a few entries there's still a great sense of surprise and wonder when reading them, even after watching the movie many times). That's the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian. Look them up sometime, they're well worth your time.

To close, I basically love this movie. It's an amazingly good sea tale, basically unmatched when it comes to naval movies for that time period (the closest I can think of would be the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, which I also love. But that's more fantasy to this historical fiction). It's one that I think everyone would go for (it's got a nice mix of action, humor, story, and character), and one of those movies where it actually is a crying shame it never got a sequel.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3Gf.....eature=related