Master And Commander

What's the Plot?

April 1805. The HMS Surprise - 28 guns, 197 souls - has been given her orders. "Intercept French Privateer, Acheron... you will sink, burn or take her a prize." The Surprise's Captain, "Lucky" Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe), renowned throughout the British Navy as a fighting and cunning man who served under Nelson, aims to see his mission through... but at what cost? Out of nowhere the Surprise is attacked by a superior enemy who seems impervious to their cannons and under the command of an equally cunning captain. Upon escaping, Aubrey discovers that the ship in question is in fact the Acheron, the vessel that he has been charged with to destroy or capture. After making hasty repairs at sea, Aubrey chases after "the phantom ship" putting his ship and his crew under extreme pressure, including his friendship with the ship's doctor, Stephen Maturin (Pail Bettany), who believes that its' Aubrey's dented pride that is fuelling his chase and not the duty of his orders. As the Surprise plays a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game across two oceans, capturing "the phantom ship" by outwitting it's clever captain will be the mission that will make his reputation - or destroy "Lucky" Jack and his crew.

The Review

Sea pictures have an air of dread about them, most notably Waterworld and Titanic. Master And Commander is as ambitious as them, in both scope and detail, but it arrives in cinema's without the overblown budgets and disasters that the others did. This means that the film can be judged on what's upon the screen and not from the gossip pages, and believe me, are you in for a treat. Weir, who delivered the likes of Witness, Dead Poet's Society and The Truman Show, goes all out for realism and is not far wrong in his claim of "doing everything" to bring to the screen a total experience of 19th century sea warfare.

From cramped, unlit quarters below decks through to stitching up the dead in their own hammocks with the last stitch going through the nose, the team behind the film have excelled themselves. But this isn't just a history lesson, oh no. From the startling, jaw-dropping surprise attack on the Surprise, an air of Jaws abounds as the unseen predator makes it's attacks on the unsuspecting British crew then disappears into the mist /night. Even the sea shanty "Spanish Ladies" gets an airing from the men that Robert Shaw's character loved so much.

Crowe, who definitely leads the movie, hands in another Oscar nomination performance, bringing presence, power, leadership and surprisingly, humour to the role - his "lesser of 2 weivels" joke is so bad it's hysterical. Fans of the Patrick O'Brian novels may be upset that the film is 2 stories mixed together instead of one true adaptation - there are 20 books in all - but for non-readers, Weir's version does them the ultimate compliment in making the audience want to read the books to see what else "Lucky" Jack gets up to. Breath-taking in scope, stunning in visuals and superbly scripted and acted (despite it's Hollywood "cliffhanger" ending), history has never been so good, or great to watch! So, grab a buoy and watch the British seamen save the day!

STEVE'S SCORE