Master And Commander: The Far Side of the World

Synopsis The year is 1805, and Cap’n Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) is helming HMS Surprise in pursuit of one of Napoleon's frigates, said to be intent on spreading the Napoleonic Wars to South America.

When I was a mere shrimp I used to love the old black and white swashbuckling movies in which the likes of Douglas Fairbanks Jnr, Errol Flynn, aided by their trusty first mates (often played by Alan Hale) would gallantly battle their scurvy foes on the high seas. Peter Weir’s new millennium version of this sub-species of adventure yarn stays faithful to the form and spirit of those redoubtable models - only the production values and special effects are transformed to meet contemporary benchmarks (Russell Boyd, who had worked with Weir on Picnic At Hanging Rock and Gallipoli took out the Oscar for Best Cinematography).

Master and Commander is a film pitched to the family entertainment market but this in no way belittles it despite the fact that sometimes the close-ups of be-whiskered old salts do come very close to Monty Pythonesque parody. It’s just that it’s storybook stuff made real, an idealized version of the Lord Nelson era of naval battles (the books, by Patrick O'Brien, on which the film is based were commissioned to satisfy the Hornblower market after C.S. Forester died in 1967) – all about heroism and self-sacrifice in war but, mercifully, not in the usual ridiculous Hollywood war action movie mode. The device of the character foil is used to introduce a self-awareness to what otherwise would have been an exercise in low-brow machismo. This comes in the form of the ship's surgeon, Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany), an amateur naturalist, who is also Aubrey's best friend and articulate critic. For the younger members of the audience, less concerned with moral niceties, there’s also a couple of plucky boys to identify with.

Weir’s direction, which is often inclined to vague symbolism, stays well-focussed on the action and the technical delivery is magnificent (the opening battle is a cracker) although in the absence of sub-plots the film tends to slow down in places. Russell Crowe as Lucky Jack, is a gladiator of the waves, dedicated to king and country, likeable yet strong, the perfect gentleman, yet cut from the same cloth as his merry crew. Errol, Doug and Alan would have been proud.

 

 

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