Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (DVD)

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Here's a man's movie if ever there was one. And for the man (or woman) who wants everything, every last bell and whistle, Fox Home Entertainment are offering the movie not only in bare-bones single-disc versions, wide and fullscreen, but in a two-disc Collectors Edition as well.

Based on a book by a man, directed by a man, produced by several men, written for the screen by several more men, and starring nothing but men, "Master and Commander" is definitely a man's movie. Wives and girlfriends beware; there's not a female aboard. Aye, matey, this is a rousing, high-seas adventure for salty sea dogs. And excepting a few minor lapses, a pretty good one at that.

Just how good is this 2003 release? "Master and Commander," subtitled "The Far Side of the World" because it's taken from one of a series of such books by novelist Patrick O'Brian, was nominated for ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. It landed two--for Cinematography and Sound Editing. Best Man's Movie was not among the categories this year or it would have won that one hands down.

Lest you get the impression the picture is simply all action and adventure, however, let me assure you there is a healthy measure of character relationship thrown into the mix as well. Indeed, maybe too much. The movie not only stirs the senses, but for a while at least it attempts to stimulate the mind. It's a combination we have come to expect from director Peter Weir, whose track record making intelligent films is as good as they get. Consider "Picnic at Hanging Rock," Gallipoli," "The Year of Living Dangerously," "Witness," "Dead Poet's Society," and "The Truman Show." Now, add "Master and Commander."

Russell Crowe dominates the film as "Lucky" Jack Aubrey, Captain of His Majesty's Ship Surprise, plying the waters for King and Country during the Napoleonic Wars. A preface informs us that it's "April--1805. Napoleon is master of Europe. Only the British fleet stands before him. Oceans are now battlefields." H.M.S. Surprise is a warship with 197 crewmen and 28 guns, sailing off the north coast of Brazil as the story begins. Captain Aubrey's orders, which set up the movie's plot, are to intercept a French privateer, the Acheron, and "sink, burn or take her a prize." Aubrey is determined to do just that.

The film's goings on are much simpler than I would have thought. The main story involves Aubrey's chess match with the Acheron, a much faster, heavier-gunned, and more powerful ship than the Surprise. Aubrey follows his foe around Cape Horn and up to the Galápagos Islands, facing harsh weather as well as a strong, wily opponent. The secondary plots involve the strained friendship between Aubrey and the ship's high-minded surgeon, Dr. Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany); and a glimpse of nineteenth-century class struggles between several crew members and a possibly jinxed young officer. The battles with the Acheron are brilliantly staged, realistic in the extreme, violent, and exciting. The human stories are well intended, but they appear to belong to another movie altogether. They go on for much too long and slow down the action considerably.

But this picture really belongs to Russell Crowe. He's in virtually every scene, and he towers above everyone and everything else. When I wrote a few years back that I thought Crowe's presence in "Gladiator" was somewhat perfunctory, that he merely looked good in a breastplate, I was taken to task by a reader who said I had obviously not seen the nuances in his performance. Well, be that as it may, I found Crowe's performance in "Master and Commander" top-notch. Through a commendable economy of words, he gives his character breadth and soul. He establishes a captain whom his men will follow anywhere: a strong, decisive, heroic, resolute, yet compassionate man, a perfect leader with all due respect for his enemy. Crowe conveys these varying attributes clearly, and call it nuance if you like, he's got it. I actually thought the character Crowe creates in Aubrey more varied and well-rounded than his Award-winning portrait in "A Beautiful Mind."

The conflicts in "Master and Commander" involve not only Aubrey's brisk and bloody encounters with the French ship, but an internal clash Aubrey experiences as he tries to decide whether to continue pursuing the Acheron at all cost--in other words, follow orders to the letter as well as follow his pride, since he has never lost in battle--or to do the sensible thing and return home. The opponent and the weather are against him, and Aubrey must make the best possible decision he can, not only for himself but for his crew and his country.

The biggest drawback I found in the film was its inability to satisfy fully the demands of being an outright swashbuckler like "The Adventures of Robin Hood" or "The Sea Hawk" or a straightforward epic in the tradition of "Spartacus" or "Lawrence of Arabia." It attempts to do both, but it doesn't quite succeed at either. Directer Weir wants to have his cake and eat it, too, making every move in the film seem dauntless and overlarge yet imbuing it with an underlying human touch. The result is not in the same league as the greatest swashbucklers or epics, and the movie will undoubtedly find disfavor among those who want more action and those want more personal drama. Can't win for losing some times.

I also thought the film for all its realism did not portray the ship's crew entirely accurately. The men all seem too clean cut, too well groomed, too refined of speech and bearing for a real-life account of life on the high seas. I suppose this is the consequence of having to heed a PG-13 rating: no swearing, no unnecessary violence, no scars, no tattoos, no sexual references. I would have liked perhaps a grittier view of the common seaman.