Jack Aubrey Rules OK!

[Magic_Sailor]

Went to see Master and Commander at the flics last night. It was excellent and really got the flavour of Patrick O'Brians books.

The film is actually entitled Master and Commander: Far Side of the World and is supposd to encompass the two books. I don't think it did and is none the worse for that. Had they tried to put a book exactly on to film they would have been doomed to failure.

As it is, they use various "scenes" to help define the characters. Russel Crowe and Paul Bettany are excellent as Jack (as we've come to know him at home!) and Stepehen Maturin. They therefore give us something new.

Like the books, it's not all about swashbuckling action but more about life at that time aboard a man'o'war and it succeeds beautifully. Scenes of the Surprise rounding Cape Horn are fantastic and when she sets the whole shooting match with studdingsails aloft and alow it takes your breath away.

Russel Crowe said on Jonathan Woss's programme that all Englishmen and women leave the cinema about an inch and a half taller. He was not wrong!

We need more to develop the characters on screen now!

Magic

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[StugeronSteve]

Totally agree, went last night as well and well worth the ticket price.

Much to my Surprise (Ha Ha) Crowe makes quiet a good fist of the Aubrey role. But for being a bit too tall, good looking and healthy, Bettany is Stephen Maturin. I can't remember who plays the part of the curmudgeonly steward Killick, but he's certainly read up on the role well "which it'll be ready when it's ready Sir".

If you go expecting a slavish adherance to the text you might be dissapointed. Just go to see a well made, well acted and what seemed to me, at times, to be a frighteningly realistic glimpse of life on a man of war in the early C19.

The O'Brian humour is there, the action is there and anyone who has looked over the pushpit of his/her own boat as she carves herself a groove through the water will have been there!

Yeah they've changed the flag of the baddies as a political expedient, but O'Brian's books are so full of the politics of the time that you can forgive a little C21 adaption by the film makers.

If your boat's out of the water you will be going again and again, mine isn't and the winter crews might have to put up with a few visits to Puerto Solente etc.

Go and see it soon.

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[ChrisE]

Yes, it was a very impressive film although I wish I could turn my boat through 90 degrees, as thy do in the film a couple of times, without touching a sail! Apart from that the ship board scenes were very convincing. We saw it at a cinema with surround speakers and you could hear the sound of footsteps on the deck as the action took place below.

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[Chris_Rayner]

I agree. They have clearly tried to get the flavour of the books without trying to cram in every last detail; and I must say they have succeeded in great measure. The sweeping shots of Surprise and her company are terrific, and the scenes below decks and in battle are very convincing. It's a pity that some of the long shots of her under way were taken in a flat calm with what was clearly one or two fairly beefy diesels pushing her along with empty sails. But you can't have everything.

They've clearly left the way open for at least one sequel. My hope is that the Aubrey/Maturin films will develop the same strength as the Bond ones have. Here's hoping.

Chris Rayner

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[Magic_Sailor]

Trouble is, Capt Jno Aubrey said it $130M to make and so had to be a whopping success for there to be a follow up.

However, I felt the end left that possibilty distinctly open.

Magic

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