Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World
Reviewed by Rich Drees
Captain Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe), skipper of the British naval vessel
Surprise during the Napoleonic Wars, is under orders to hunt down the
French privateer ship Acheron. In their first encounter, the
Acheron attacks from under cover of a fog bank, crippling the
Surprise. Rather than return to port, Aubrey orders the ship repaired in
order to pursue the Acheron. Learning that the privateer is on its
way to the Pacific via rounding the treacherous waters of Cape Horn and
realizing that the Acheron’s presence in the Pacific could tip the
war in France’s favor, Aubrey pushes his crew to their limits in an effort
to catch the ship.
Master and Commander: The Far Side Of The World is a thinking man’s high seas adventure. Director Peter Weir has recreated 19th century naval life faithfully, from the cramped quarters to the crudeness of the medical care. While the story does contain some moments that would feel clichéd in other films, Weir and his actors manages to keep them grounded in reality. In much the same way that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was to martial arts fantasies, Master And Commander is to high seas swashbucklers.
Aubrey is a captain who lives for the exhilaration of high seas adventure,
who relishes the thrill of the chase. He is a hard driven man who demands as
much from his men as he does from himself. When he has to make a difficult
decision to abandon the rescue of a crew member swept overboard during a
storm, he is the first man to take action, assuming the responsibility for
the loss of the man’s life through deed, not just through order. His drive
is tempered by his good friend, Ship Surgeon Dr. Stephen Maturin (Paul
Bettany). It is Maturin keeps his friend from becoming too obsessed with his
quest to sink the Acheron and acts as his conscious. (There’s some
irony in Bettany’s casting, as he also starred with Crowe in A Beautiful
Mind playing one of Crowe’s delusions. Here he’s helping to keep Crowe’s
character sane.) While it’s a dynamic that may seem a little familiar to
anyone who has ever seen an episode of Star Trek, it’s solidly
portrayed by Crowe and Bettany.
Director Peter Weir, who has given us such character-oriented pieces as Dead Poets Society (1989) and The Truman Society (1998), proves himself quite capable of delivering exciting action sequences. The naval battles are as exciting as they are in a popcorn film like Pirates of the Caribbean, but contain a heavier air of realism. Battles can be brutal and some characters will earn scars that they’ll wear for the rest of their lives. Weir has delivered a rousing adventure that while it ends with a sense of finality, still leaves the door open for a sequel.