The image of Johnny Depp's portrayal of a pirate in Jerry Bruckheimer's Pirates of the Caribbean floated through my head during the first 20 minutes of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, yet another seafaring film by Bruckheimer.
After the first reel of this new adventure, you're plunged into the storyline and are no longer merely an audience member. Director, co-producer and co-writer Peter Weir (The Truman Show) truly succeeds at creating the film's enveloping atmosphere: You can feel the wind on your hair and the salty smell in your nostrils. You're at the helm of the ship, along with all the sailors.
Master and Commander, based on the first two novels of a massive series by Patrick O'Brian, is, in some senses, your basic revenge picture. The film opens on the HMS Surprise, a British ship helmed by Captain Jack Aubrey (another example of the Johnny Depp parallel). Almost immediately, the frigate is besieged by a mysterious French ship, the Acheron. After losing some men and helming a seriously damaged ship, Aubrey decides to chase after the French ship and tear it to pieces.
That, in a nutshell, is the plot. In between the opening and closing action sequences, the audience takes a trip past the Galapagos Islands and the neverending ocean. Surprisingly, this is a very episodic movie filled with minor character vignettes. Some are more entertaining than the others.
As "Lucky" Jack Aubrey, Russell Crowe once again proves why people excuse him for his poor behavior with the media worldwide: He's a hell of an actor. He jumps from father figure to friend to funny drunk to mastermind captain easily. There isn't a single second during this movie that you don't believe Crowe is master of his ship, ruling all he sees before him. The only thing that's hard to swallow is his blond hair.
The quieter dramatic role of Aubrey's best friend and the ship's surgeon, Stephen Maturin, is the film's biggest lure. In a way, Maturin is the anchor that holds the movie from becoming a complete revenge action flick. Paul Bettany, who played Crowe's imaginary college roommate in A Beautiful Mind, shows a new side of his acting capabilities: He plays a more mature character in this film. He's the soul of the picture.
The hardest scene to watch is a painful surgery the doctor performs on himself. You have to see it to believe it. The only other recognized actor here is Billy Boyd, who played one of the Hobbits in the Lord of the Rings series. In this film he plays a coxswain, but has no real character development. Most of the other actors remain undeveloped as well.
One of the most interesting aspects in the movie is that there are kids on this ship. I'm going to assume that this movie is as historically accurate as the books are said to be, since under most cases, I'd barely believe that preteen males were on the ships in the early 1800s, fighting the French and Napoleon. True or not, this part of the movie is great. A young Lord Blakeney, portrayed by Max Pirkis, matures from a frightened child to a young man ready to follow in the footsteps of his elders.
For me, the best sequence of the movie occurs in the middle, featuring some creepily memorable imagery. Without giving anything away, a midshipman portrayed by Lee Ingleby is shunned by everyone else on the ship during one particularly interesting portion. This sequence may have a predictable outcome, but the way we get there is astounding.
Weir and his co-writer John Collee have crafted a fast-paced movie that keeps us intrigued and on the edge of our seats through everything. The movie is almost claustrophobically filmed, as there are only two occasions in which the film shows locations outside the ship (near the end, the British leave their ship to go on ... another ship). Weir is unquestionably capable of producing an adrenaline-filled adventure unlike any other.
Finally, I conclude with this incredibly bad joke from the movie. (I stopped myself from using an old pirate movie joke: It's rated "Arrrrgh!")
The captain asks the doctor to choose one of two weevils. The doctor says he'd pick the stronger of the two bugs, but the captain tells him he should always pick "the lesser of two weevils."
I only have one true complaint about this otherwise excellent movie: The humor is bad. However, you're not going to see this movie for the comic relief, nor should you.
Josh Spiegel is an entertainment reporter for the Web Devil. Reach him at joshua.spiegel@asu.edu.
