Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Tagline-The Courage To Do The Impossible Lies In The Hearts of Men.

Hello friends! I love nautical movies and mostly every project Russell Crowe has been in so combining the two definitely works in my opinion!  Master and Commander is a 2003 film based on the 1969 book of the same name by author Patrick O'Brian. This book was the start of a series of 20 books in all. O'Brian kept working on the series until his death in 2000. But i am not here to talk about the books, this is a movie review blog. So here we go. Beware of massive spoilers of course. And also for Star Wars Episode IV- A New Hope! You will see why in a minute.

The cast includes Russell Crowe as Jack Aubrey, Paul Bettany as Dr. Stephen Maturin, James D'Arcy as 1st Lt. Tom Pullings, Max Pirkis plays Blakeney, a midshipman and Lee Ingleby plays Hollom, also a midshipman.

Now a brief introduction to the plot. In April 1805, around the beginning stages of the Napoleonic Wars,  Captain John "Lucky Jack" Aubrey is in charge of the the English frigate H.M.S. Surprise. He is tasked to hunt down and take, or if failing that objective, destroy a French privateer (authorized by a particular government to harass and take enemy ships in times of war, often targeting merchant ships) vessel called the Acheron. The Acheron is a very fast and durable ship due to its unique hull design. This task is very personal to Aubrey as the ship has been a thorn in his side for a while.

From the first scene onwards the viewer is absorbed in the pursuit of the Acheron and the lives of the crewmembers. The atmosphere of paranoia at the beginning when Hollom dismisses the Acheron as a fishing vessel and it somewhat ironically catches the Surprise unawares with deadly consequences really sets the tone for the rest of the film. In the movie the Acheron is referred to as " the Devil's ship".

 Fittingly Acheron in Greek mythology is equated with death or hell. Some scholars think that in Greek mythology not only does Charon ferry the dead to the underworld on the Acheron River, not on the Styx, but a few scholars even believe that Acheron is the actual name of Charon's ferry. I personally don't really agree with this because there's not an overwhelming amount of literature to support it.

The film also captures the superstitious nature of sailors at the time very well. Not only does the attempted shooting of what i believe is an albatross ( a symbol of very bad luck amongst sailors) fail to get food for the sailors stranded on the open ocean without any wind, on top of that the shooter misses and severely wounds Stephen! They have to go on dry land to do surgery to save his life. Even more seriously, the distrust and view of Hollom as a bad luck charm eventually breaks Hollom down and sadly he takes his own life because he feels he is cursed. 

The cast is great and work really well together. In particular Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany really portray the strong bond between their characters. However sometimes their ideas conflict. Crowe as Aubrey has a desire bordering on fanaticism to hunt the their French prey but Stephen (Bettany) wants to catalogue species when they stop at the Galapagos Islands. An interesting difference between Aubrey and the rest of the crew is highlighted when they stop at the Galapagos for the first time. Everyone is gawking at the unique wildlife and scenery, everyone that is except Aubrey who is looking in the opposite direction and scanning the horizon for signs of the enemy.

The film rightly portrays that while storms and battles with the enemy are very harrowing, the majority of time at sea is relatively peaceful and mundane. The movie can be almost heartbreaking though like when in a storm a man is caught in the broken rigging and acting as an unwanted sea-anchor and they have to cut the torn sails loose to save the ship from sinking thus leaving the man to drown. Fortunately the relative seriousness of the film is occasionally undercut with funny dialogue and events such as the "choosing the lesser of two weevils" anecdote. That never fails to make me smile.

Master and Commander has a couple instances of the trope of what i like to call "five second foreshadowing". This is when something, often involving imminent danger, to a character is made known to the audience such as a bomb timer counting down and it always becomes relevant or realized by the character usually a short time later.  

For example, in Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope, Luke pieces together that since the jawas were probably interrogated by the stormtroopers into giving up his and R2D2's location, that puts his aunt and uncle in grave danger. And indeed they are found dead. 

A example in Master and Commander is first when a fiery shadow illuminating the fog signifies a cannon shot by the Acheron. A second example is when after the final battle Aubrey realizes that the "doctor" of the Acheron is actually the French captain and he has to renew the chase! Another infinitely more tragic instance in the film is when one evening Hollom is talking to midshipman Blakeney and when he finishes with the small talk he says "Goodbye Blakeney". The young boy is momentarily mystified but realizes milliseconds too late that the only way to leave the ship is by jumping off and watches Hollom do so holding a cannonball and therefore sink to his death.

Master and Commander was directed and partially written by Peter Weir. Russel Boyd was in charge of the fantastic cinematography. Lee Smith was the editor.  Robert Gould was the set decorator. Wendy Stites was in charge of costume design. Master and Commander was the first non documentary set in the Galapagos Islands.

In conclusion Master and Commander is a very good naval period piece and is ultimately a very human story. As said before,  Aubrey's obsession with the Acheron contrasts with Stephen's desire to stay on the Galapagos and gain more knowledge for and about the world. This is definitely of my favorite films. I totally recommend it if you haven't seen it.

Thanks for reading!!

Till next time,

Conrad Smith