Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Directed by Peter Weir
After an abrupt and violent encounter with a French warship inflicts severe damage upon his ship, a captain of the British Royal Navy begins a chase over two oceans to capture or destroy the enemy, though he must weigh his commitment to duty and ferocious pursuit of glory against the safety of his devoted crew, including the ship's thoughtful surgeon, his best friend.
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What critics say influenced Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Their interaction takes on a preening quality, reminiscent of the interaction of the "Star Trek" characters four or five movies down the line.
Audiences still warmed-up from the summer's pulpier swashbuckler, "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," will respond most warmly, as will fans of the Horatio Hornblower books and their many film and television descendents, including "Star Trek."
Director
Peter Weir
Critics compare Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World to 9 of Weir’s own films.
The sea and the ships are beautifully depicted by cinematographer Russell Boyd, an Australian who shot many of Weir's best movies, including "The Year of Living Dangerously," "Picnic at Hanging Rock," "The Last Wave" and "Gallipoli."
He also manages to very subtly capture the texture of daily life on a British Navy ship in the year 1805, and he gives his characters some eerie shore leave in the Galapagos Islands that recalls the environmental mysticism of Weir's two great '70s films, "Picnic at Hanging Rock" and "The Last Wave."
Think "Picnic at Hanging Rock on the High Seas" as a reference to Weir's 1975 film.
Weir attained international stature by directing the subliminally spooky The Last Wave and Picnic at Hanging Rock in the '70s.
Such a carelessness we'd never expect from Weir, who's famous for selecting subjects that deal with significant and often intimate issues— Picnic at Hanging Rock , The Last Wave, Witness, Dead Poets Society, etc.
Consider "Picnic at Hanging Rock," Gallipoli," "The Year of Living Dangerously," "Witness," "Dead Poet's Society," and "The Truman Show."
The sea and the ships are beautifully depicted by cinematographer Russell Boyd, an Australian who shot many of Weir's best movies, including "The Year of Living Dangerously," "Picnic at Hanging Rock," "The Last Wave" and "Gallipoli."
He also manages to very subtly capture the texture of daily life on a British Navy ship in the year 1805, and he gives his characters some eerie shore leave in the Galapagos Islands that recalls the environmental mysticism of Weir's two great '70s films, "Picnic at Hanging Rock" and "The Last Wave."
Weir attained international stature by directing the subliminally spooky The Last Wave and Picnic at Hanging Rock in the '70s.
Such a carelessness we'd never expect from Weir, who's famous for selecting subjects that deal with significant and often intimate issues— Picnic at Hanging Rock , The Last Wave, Witness, Dead Poets Society, etc.
By turns brutal and majestic, Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (hereafter Master and Commander) reunites the antipodean director with Russell Boyd, the cinematographer with whom he shot The Last Wave, Gallipoli, and The Year of Living Dangerously, and the two have produced a picture on par with those films: historically aware, but more notable for its epic beauty and scope.
Co-writer and director Weir ( "The Truman Show," "Dead Poets Society," "Gallipoli") rises to the challenge of turning the ship's confines into a terrarium of interesting characters and nautical drama, thanks in large part to Crowe as the dauntless, iron-willed Aubrey and Paul Bettany (who co-starred with Crowe in "A Beautiful Mind" ) as the ship's sea-novice surgeon and the captain's dear friend.
Consider the Amish village in Witness and the small town facade in The Truman Show and Master and Commander fits right in.
Among his most notable works The Year of Living Dangerously , Dead Poets Society , and The Truman Show .
Australian writer-director Peter Weir ("The Truman Show," "Dead Poets Society"), working with co-screenwriter John Collee, has plucked from a couple of the novels for the movie, which encompasses a series of showdowns between Aubrey's HMS Surprise and a faster, stronger French ship.
Director Weir (Witness, The Truman Show ) hones the story’s focus to laserlike intensity.
He has been at the helm for the likes of Picnic at Hanging Rock, Witness, Dead Poets Society, Fearless, and The Truman Show.
The sea and the ships are beautifully depicted by cinematographer Russell Boyd, an Australian who shot many of Weir's best movies, including "The Year of Living Dangerously," "Picnic at Hanging Rock," "The Last Wave" and "Gallipoli."
Among his most notable works The Year of Living Dangerously , Dead Poets Society , and The Truman Show .
This is Mr. Weir's best movie in ages, conveying the subtle sense of mystery that underlay "Gallipoli" and "The Year of Living Dangerously."
Over the years, Mr. Weir has acquired a deserved reputation for tackling difficult subjects, though despite such praiseworthy efforts as The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), Witness (1985) and The Truman Show (1998), I have felt just as often that his reach has exceeded his grasp.
By turns brutal and majestic, Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (hereafter Master and Commander) reunites the antipodean director with Russell Boyd, the cinematographer with whom he shot The Last Wave, Gallipoli, and The Year of Living Dangerously, and the two have produced a picture on par with those films: historically aware, but more notable for its epic beauty and scope.
Based on Patrick O'Brian's novel "The Far Side of the World" from the author's "Master and Commander" series, Peter Weir ("Gallipoli") directs this clipper ship war drama with loving attention to the magnificence, skill and ethos of life on the high seas during the 19th century Napoleonic Wars.
Co-writer and director Weir ( "The Truman Show," "Dead Poets Society," "Gallipoli") rises to the challenge of turning the ship's confines into a terrarium of interesting characters and nautical drama, thanks in large part to Crowe as the dauntless, iron-willed Aubrey and Paul Bettany (who co-starred with Crowe in "A Beautiful Mind" ) as the ship's sea-novice surgeon and the captain's dear friend.
The sea and the ships are beautifully depicted by cinematographer Russell Boyd, an Australian who shot many of Weir's best movies, including "The Year of Living Dangerously," "Picnic at Hanging Rock," "The Last Wave" and "Gallipoli."
Australian three-time Academy Award directing nominee Peter Weir ("Gallipoli"/"Dead Poets Society") adapts with co-writer John Collee the popular adventure novel by Patrick O'Brian to the big screen.
This is Mr. Weir's best movie in ages, conveying the subtle sense of mystery that underlay "Gallipoli" and "The Year of Living Dangerously."
This is all the more surprising given Weir's history as a critic of the military-imperial ethos in "Gallipoli."
As the ship moves from place to place, the action is staged with great physical energy by director Peter Weir, a man whose previous works (including "Witness", "The Truman Show" and "Fearless") would hardly lead one to believe that he could possibly be the right person for the job.
Over the years, Mr. Weir has acquired a deserved reputation for tackling difficult subjects, though despite such praiseworthy efforts as The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), Witness (1985) and The Truman Show (1998), I have felt just as often that his reach has exceeded his grasp.
Director Weir (Witness, The Truman Show ) hones the story’s focus to laserlike intensity.
Australian helmer Peter Weir (Witness, Dead Poets Society) creates a traditional, nuanced tale concerning the masculine virtues needed for leadership, victory, and progress.
His other films include "Witness," in which cop Harrison Ford mingles with the Amish, and "The Truman Show," in which Jim Carrey doesn't realize he's living in a TV show.
As the ship moves from place to place, the action is staged with great physical energy by director Peter Weir, a man whose previous works (including "Witness", "The Truman Show" and "Fearless") would hardly lead one to believe that he could possibly be the right person for the job.
In one of his lesser-known films, Fearless, Weir began with an extraordinary sequence that captured the claustrophobic horror of being trapped inside a ruptured airplane poised to crash.
Weir's specialty as a director is the exploration of isolated systems (the Amish community in Witness , the boat in the middle of the sea in Master and Commander ), and in Fearless he got a real doozy: a mind defining itself in defiant separation from the rest of society.
The basic central character in a Weir film is that of an outsider who finds himself alienated from the world around him (sometimes knowingly, as in "Witness" or "The Mosquito Coast" and sometimes unwittingly, as in "The Truman Show").
Co-writer and director Weir ( "The Truman Show," "Dead Poets Society," "Gallipoli") rises to the challenge of turning the ship's confines into a terrarium of interesting characters and nautical drama, thanks in large part to Crowe as the dauntless, iron-willed Aubrey and Paul Bettany (who co-starred with Crowe in "A Beautiful Mind" ) as the ship's sea-novice surgeon and the captain's dear friend.
Australian three-time Academy Award directing nominee Peter Weir ("Gallipoli"/"Dead Poets Society") adapts with co-writer John Collee the popular adventure novel by Patrick O'Brian to the big screen.
Among his most notable works The Year of Living Dangerously , Dead Poets Society , and The Truman Show .
Australian writer-director Peter Weir ("The Truman Show," "Dead Poets Society"), working with co-screenwriter John Collee, has plucked from a couple of the novels for the movie, which encompasses a series of showdowns between Aubrey's HMS Surprise and a faster, stronger French ship.
The latest from talented director Peter Weir (Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show ) is Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World, a 19th-century seafaring tale based on the novel by Patrick OBrian and adapted for the big screen by Weir and John Collee.
The direction by Peter Weir ("The Truman Show," "Dead Poets Society") is praiseworthy indeed, as nearly the entire film takes place on the open sea, and the guy actually had a real ship built for that reason.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World desperately wants to be the kind of swashbuckling adventure that Errol Flynn and Burt Lancaster (in Robert Siodmak's vastly undervalued The Crimson Pirate) used to make.
Master and Commander doesn't rank among the year's most profound and artistic endeavors, but Peter Weir crafts his film like Hitchcock's Lifeboat on steroids, proving that he can successfully handle an epic adventure without losing the small touches and human characters along the way.
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Then again, Paul Bettany as Dr. Stephen Maturin Aubrey's sidekick, best friend and occasional conscience sports a haircut (and a detached scientific manner) that kept reminding me of Henry Hull in Werewolf of London.
Director
Ridley Scott
Critics compare Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World to 3 of Scott’s films.
The storm which takes the Surprise's mast and one of its most popular seaman is frightening, one of the best portrayed on film since Ridley Scott's "White Squall."
Peter Weir's war epic "Master and Commander" is the most realistic experience you'll have on the sea since Ridley Scott's "White Squall."
If you doubt that, just wait for the crackerjack opening scene -- a slow evolution from moody darkness to fiery action, it weds the manners of Horatio Hornblower with the menace of Black Hawk Down.
This is similar to the approach that Ridley Scott used in "Black Hawk Down" and while I found it effective in the case of Scott's film (possibly because I was already familiar with the source material), it doesn't quite come off as well this time around.
But Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World doesn’t fare so well script-wise, with tacked-on conflicts aboard the ship (the sailors seem to invent drama for themselves to fill out the picture’s running time) and sea battles hyper-edited in the distracting chop-chop style of Gladiator and Black Hawk Down .
Given a better written, more complex character than his protagonist in Gladiator , Crowe rises to the challenge, successfully synthesizing Aubrey’s genial charisma and iron-willed leadership, his weaknesses for classical music and stupid jokes, his fondness for his men and his ability to have them flogged or even send them to their deaths when necessary.
And then, the captain on deck: Jack is awesome, the ship is glorious, and at this point, the film looks for all the world like it will be, as Empire magazine terms it, "Gladiator on the high seas."
Russell Crowe is still able to be captivating as a leading man, although he’s softer in this than his powerful performance in “Gladiator” or “L.A. Confidential.”
Leave it to Peter Weir to figure out a way to snap Russell Crowe's string of inspired performances which started with LA Confidential and included A Beautiful Mind , Gladiator, The Insider, Proof of Life, and more.
Crowe is brilliant once again, just as he was in A Beautiful Mind and Gladiator .
Russell Crowe turns in another impressive and commanding (no pun intended) performance, that will most likely be recognized come awards season - though it still doesn't beat his work in "Gladiator".
The O'Brian novels started in the early 70s, after the "Star Trek" original series was off the air, but before "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" which owes much to the fog-based sea battle which opens the film.
Director
Michael Curtiz
Critics compare Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World to 3 of Curtiz’s films.
If you've seen any of the great swashbucklers of the Errol Flynn era, such as "Captain Blood" or "The Sea Hawk," it will feel as good as, but no better than, any of them.
The biggest drawback I found in the film was its inability to satisfy fully the demands of being an outright swashbuckler like "The Adventures of Robin Hood" or "The Sea Hawk" or a straightforward epic in the tradition of "Spartacus" or "Lawrence of Arabia."
The economy, clarity, and muscular force of Curtiz’s imagery shines when compared to Peter Weir’s oft-confusing spatial relationships between men and ships in Master and Commander .
This is a big budget, well-crafted swashbuckling adventure that reps a bow to the great sea faring films like “Captain Blood,” The Sea Hawk” and “Against All Flags.”
If you've seen any of the great swashbucklers of the Errol Flynn era, such as "Captain Blood" or "The Sea Hawk," it will feel as good as, but no better than, any of them.
The biggest drawback I found in the film was its inability to satisfy fully the demands of being an outright swashbuckler like "The Adventures of Robin Hood" or "The Sea Hawk" or a straightforward epic in the tradition of "Spartacus" or "Lawrence of Arabia."
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I'm grateful that the script managed not to burden Crowe with Charles Laughton's classic Mutiny on the Bounty outburst, "You call yourselves seamen?"
It should be noted that MASTER AND COMMANDER is by no means a disaster like Waterworld; if you're looking for filmic comparisons, think Das Boot minus the gripping tension, or Mutiny on the Bounty minus the mutiny.
It’s like comparing “2001: A Space Odyssey” to “Star Wars” because they both take place in space.