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| Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World |
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| Review Thread - Master & Commander |
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| POSTED Wednesday, November 12, 2003 05:29:21 PM |
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| REPLIED Wednesday, November 12, 2003 06:18:25 PM |
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| REPLIED Friday , November 14, 2003 04:16:02 PM |
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| REPLIED Friday , November 14, 2003 07:22:46 PM |
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| REPLIED Friday , November 14, 2003 07:36:48 PM |
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| REPLIED Friday , November 14, 2003 09:25:27 PM |
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| REPLIED Saturday, November 15, 2003 04:24:31 AM |
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| REPLIED Saturday, November 15, 2003 08:56:29 AM |
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| REPLIED Saturday, November 15, 2003 10:53:01 AM |
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| REPLIED Sunday , November 16, 2003 04:39:58 PM |
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Saw it Saturday.
It was extremely well done. I was struck by how much it reminded me of films made many years ago, without many of the Hollywoodisms that plague the creative process today.
It was an earnest work, with beautiful photography, excellent action sequences, and nicely fleshed out characters.
Peter Weir deserves a lot of praise for this film.
It's got reality, whimsy, bravery, and great atmosphere. It's hard to recreate the 19th Century, and make it interesting to a moern audience.
I was also very glad that there was a minimum of "dumbing down" of language, over-explanation of the ship, the culture, etc. It made you pay attention.
If you're 15, and don't know what's going on in this film, (or don't care) I can only say that your education is to blame, or you've been playing too many video games to be in the real world like people of 1805 were.
The other nice thing about this film was that it wasn't all Russell Crowe: He was certainly the major driving force, and did his usual excellent job of creating a character, but all of the supporting cast was excellent as well, and Weir gave them all nice moments.
As a reader of the books, it didn't follow either book it was drawn from closely, but it captured the relationships between the officers and men of the HMS Surprise very well.
As a big fan of naval history, I was thoroughly delighted with the film, it captured my delight in studying that time, and made me yearn for the kind of freedom those sailors had, even though they were in a virtual wooden prison for years at a time.
Four stars of four, and thanks to Peter Weir and the cast for an enjoyable evening of cinema.
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." |
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| REPLIED Monday , November 17, 2003 10:24:34 AM |
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3.5 stars out of 4 for me!
I saw the movie on Saturday and was thoroughly impressed. The movie was well balanced, thoughtful and accurate to history. Hats off to Weir and the Cast\Crew for a fabulous and refreshing new movie.
As a Patrick O'Brian enthusiast I can say that I felt this was about as good of an adaptation as I could have hoped for. I certainly felt it was about as good of an adaptation as the LOTR movies. There are some elements of the characters that do not ring true, but I did not find them too distracting or upsetting as to ruin the experience. I wish that they had shown more of the innocent, naive and gullible Jack Aubrey who is a master in his element, but something of a fool outside it. However, since the circumstances of this story kept Jack in his element 95% of the time, I thought Russell Crowe played the part very well. I was also impressed with Stephen's character played by Paul Bettany. While Stephen was Jack's singular friend and able to speak freely around him, he would never have made some of the comments they had him make about what he though Jack should do with regards to sailing or commanding his ship. However, in my mind these were minor flaws in the script, not the actor. For the most part Bettany rang true as the hot tempered and rather eccentric Stephen Maturin.
I found the story to be interesting and I felt it moved fairly well. I do not understand some people's complaint about the movie being "boring." I certainly found it quite interesting from start to finish.
I found the start a bit awkward with them already being at sea and the relationship between Captain and Doctor already established. I was sort of hoping to see them meet and learn to appreciate one another. However, since the story is taken mostly from book 10 in the series I guess this is understandable.
I loved the sub-plots and was glad to see such attention to detail. Overall the movie was a resounding success. A "must see" for my friends and family.
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| REPLIED Friday , November 21, 2003 09:53:53 PM |
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| REPLIED Friday , December 05, 2003 07:47:50 PM |
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| REPLIED Saturday, December 06, 2003 02:12:54 PM |
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Hopefully we'll hear what people think. 
