It’s taken me far longer than I wanted to get round to seeing Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World, but it was more than worth the wait. In fact, I have no hesitation in saying it’s the best film I’ve seen of 2003, and will update my Top Ten List accordingly when I get time.

The initial plot is pretty simple – an English naval ship is attacked out of the blue by a French frigate. The French protagonist can out-man, out-gun, and out-sail the English vessel, but they manage to escape. The Captain, however, refuses to simply sail home and refit – the enemy must be caught and destroyed… somehow… and not all the crew think that going after such an enemy is a brilliant

The lead roles (the English ship’s Captain – “Lucky Jack” and Doctor) are played by the brilliant Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany, who worked together so fantastically in A Beautiful Mind, though the characters they play here are very different. Though the film has its fair share of action and there are several other memorable characters, the film is effectively a character study of these two men, and how their surroundings, duties, and the events on board the ship affect them and their relationship. Though they appear to be at different ends of the spectrum (the Captain is very much a military man and very pragmatic while the Doctor favours a more pacifist approach and just wants to study nature), they have many similarities – particularly stubbornness – and a sense of loyalty and honour. At times these qualities are on the brink of being consumed, and their shared love of music seems to be all that keeps them from being enemies. The way the characters are portrayed is brilliant – from the Captain’s anguish at some of the decisions he has to make and the consequences of these actions to the Doctor’s feeling out of place at mealtimes when naval banter and jokes are flying around the room. The characterisation is deeper than in any other film I’ve seen in the past couple of years – in fact, since I saw A Beautiful Mind.

There are many other characters of note, especially impressive were the distraught midshipman who was literally out of his depth, the young seaman who endured an amputation, another slightly older seaman who became a hero, and a crazy old guy who went around quoting obscure (or, occasionally, appropriate) biblical passages and basically thought everyone was cursed at one time or another.

I’ve deliberately kept the above description as vague as possible while still containing as many relevant details as possible, because such an amazing film deserves much more than a skimpy review. I’m sure that there are plenty of detractors who will tell you that this film is overlong and boring, of course – there’s a fair bit of action, but atmosphere, mood, character development, and humour (somewhat surprisingly for this sort of film – but it works!) are the really important aspects of this film. Peter Weir (Director, Producer, Screenplay) understands that having unbearable tension all the way through the film diminishes its effectiveness, and Master & Commander strikes the fine balance between tension, action, emotion, and thoughtfulness perfectly.

It’s refreshing to find a film of this type (or any type, come to think of it!) having very few obscenities in it (in fact I think there were only two in the whole film). The violence in the battle scenes is fairly graphic but not as gory as in, for instance, Gladiator or Cold Mountain, or possibly even Troy. A few operations are shown, but you don’t really get shown any gore. The certification it received was probably due as much to the fact that children just wouldn’t understand the undercurrents of what was going on than actual content – they would probably find it too boring because there’s a lot of talking and planning scenes.

The special effects are good and the feeling of being at sea is convincing (beware if you suffer from sea-sickness…), but what really deserves mention is the cinematography – it’s glorious. I haven’t been as impressed with any film’s cinematography as much as this for a very long time – much kudos to Russell Boyd! The musical score suits the film perfectly.

Crowe and Bettany are superb but none of the cast disappoint. The script may be too slow for some people’s taste, but to my mind it is perfect – thankfully resisting the temptation to give Crowe a pointless love interest, which could have ruined the movie. Overall, just about everything is as good as it could have been. Three thumbs up!

Cast

Cast List

Russell Crowe ...Capt. Jack Aubrey
Paul Bettany ...Dr. Stephen Maturin, Surgeon
James D'Arcy ...1st Lt. Tom Pullings
Edward Woodall ...2nd Lt. William Mowett
Chris Larkin ...Capt. Howard, Royal Marines
Max Pirkis ...Blakeney, Midshipman
Jack Randall ...Boyle, Midshipman
Max Benitz ...Calamy, Midshipman
Lee Ingleby ...Hollom, Midshipman
Richard Pates ...Williamson, Midshipman
Robert Pugh ...Mr. Allen, Master
Richard McCabe ...Mr. Higgins, Surgeon's Mate
Ian Mercer ...Mr. Hollar, Boatswain
Tony Dolan ...Mr. Lamb, Carpenter
David Threlfall ...Preserved Killick, Captain's Steward
Billy Boyd ...Barrett Bonden, Coxswain
Bryan Dick ...Joseph Nagle, Carpenter's Mate
Joseph Morgan ...William Warley, Cpt. of Mizzentop
George Innes ...Joe Plaice, Able Seaman
William Mannering ...Faster Doudle, Able Seaman
Patrick Gallagher ...Awkward Davies, Able Seaman
Alex Palmer ...Nehemiah Slade, Able Seaman
Mark Lewis Jones ...Mr. Hogg, Whaler
John DeSantis ...Padeen, Loblolly Boy
Ousmane Thiam ...Black Bill, Killick's Mate
Thierry Segall ...French Captain
Aidan Black ...Pvt. Trollope, Royal Marines

Crew

Directed by
Peter Weir

Writing credits
Patrick O'Brian (novels)
Peter Weir (screenplay) &
John Collee (screenplay)
Produced by
Todd Arnow .... co-producer
Alan B. Curtiss .... executive producer
Samuel Goldwyn Jr. .... producer
Meyer Gottlieb .... co-producer
Duncan Henderson .... producer
Peter Weir .... producer

Original Music by
Iva Davies
Christopher Gordon
Richard Tognetti

Non-Original Music by
Johann Sebastian Bach (from "Unaccompanied Cello Suite No.1 in G Major")
Luigi Boccherini (from "Boccherini La Musica Notturna delle Strade di Madrid. No. 6, Op. 30")
Arcangelo Corelli (from "Adagio from Concerto Grosso Op. 6, no. 8 in G Minor Christmas Concerto")
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (from "Violin Concerto No.3")
Ralph Vaughan Williams (from "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis")

Cinematography by
Russell Boyd

Film Editing by
Lee Smith

Casting by
Mary Selway
Fiona Weir

Production Design by
William Sandell

Art Direction by
Bruce Crone
Mark W. Mansbridge

Set Decoration by
Robert Gould

Costume Design by
Wendy Stites
Kacy Treadway (special costumes)


Rating

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense battle sequences, related images, and brief language.

Length

138 min

Official Website

http://www.masterandcommanderthefarsideoftheworld.com/



Related Films

Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany teamed up previously in A Beautiful Mind. Much as a loved Master & Commander, I view it as inferior to A Beautiful Mind, which is one of my Top Ten Films of All Time. This dramatisation of the true-life story of Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Nash is, in my opinion, one of the finest films ever made. Jennifer Conolly also puts in a tremendous performance as Nash’s wife.

Russell Crowe also starred in Gladiator, which got an honourable mention in my Top Ten Films of All Time, though it didn’t quite make it into the top ten itself. The story of a wronged Roman General and the evil new Emperor (brilliantly played by Joaquin Phoenix) is utterly compelling and the tension almost unbearable at times.

Paul Bettany also appeared in A Knight’s Tale, which was a lot more fun than I was expecting it to be. With Rufus Sewell excellent as a baddie and Heath Ledger reasonably good as the hero, Bettany plays Chaucer, a wondering poet in search of inspiration, money, and clothes…


Thanks for reading,


CaptainD


Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older