Review: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (*** 1/2)

MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD
A film review by Steve Rhodes

Copyright 2003 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2


In MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD, by director Peter Weir
(THE TRUMAN SHOW), it's time to get all dressed up. Time for the
gentlemen -- there are no ladies present -- to put on their fancy top hats
and tails. No, it's not party time; it's battle time, as a British frigate
takes on a French one in 1805 when Napoleon ruled the European continent but
not the high seas. It's time for you to sit back in your seat and get
treated to what might be called a thinking man's popcorn movie. A film too
good to open in the summer time, it is coming to theaters early this holiday
season for your viewing enjoyment.



So when was the last time you saw a rip-roaring naval drama, full of
deafening cannon fire, complex naval strategy and good old fashioned
swashbuckling fun? Please do not insult my intelligence by answering,
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL, which was a cute
comedy, not a drama. MASTER AND COMMANDER has plenty of humor in it, as in
its weevil race, but it is fundamentally a realistic depiction of what it
was like to sail aboard a warship off the coast of Brazil during a time of
war.



The epic story, which is as much the star of the movie as Russell Crowe in
his superb performance as Capt. Jack Aubrey, concerns a naval cat-and-mouse
battle between two ships: the older, smaller and technologically inferior
British ship, the HMS Surprise, under Capt. Aubrey's command and a vastly
stronger and larger French vessel under an unnamed captain. Crowe is
offered numerous opportunities to grandstand and rejects them all,
delivering one of his most heartfelt pieces of work. MASTER AND COMMANDER
again reminds us of what a brilliant actor he is.



Even more than the effects of powerful cannons blowing men and masts to
bits, the film's most memorable sequences and the ones most likely to make
you squirm are the surgery scenes. Dr. Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany, who
played opposite Crowe in A BEAUTIFUL MIND) attends to the operations with
the crude instruments and limited medications of that era. Thankfully, the
director knows the best times to cut away or this PG-13 rated film might be
too much to bear, as a young lad's arm is sawed off and as brain surgery is
performed on a senior sailor.



The script by Peter Weir and John Collee, based on the novels by Patrick
O'Brian, is full of beautifully written prose. An especially fine example
of this comes in a simple but profound funeral led by Capt. Aubrey. "Simple
truth is that not all of us have become the man we once thought we might
be," he says of one of his fallen comrades. The thrilling movie itself
becomes much more than you probably expect. The only nagging question I had
on leaving the theater was how in the world they keep on those top hats in
blowing rain with thirty-foot swells?



MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD runs a fast 2:08. The film
is rated PG-13 for "intense battle sequences, related images, and brief
language" and would be acceptable for kids around 12 and up.



The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, November 14, 2003.
In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century
theaters and the Camera Cinemas.



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