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Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is a 2003 film directed by Peter Weir and starring Russell Crowe as Jack Aubrey, with Paul Bettany as Stephen Maturin. The score includes an assortment of classical works, notably the Bach Suites for Unaccompanied Cello played by Yo-Yo Ma and a recurring rendition of Ralph Vaughn Williams' Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis.

Casting

Awards

76th Academy Awards

Popular wisdom holds that Master and Commander would have won more awards, but it had the bad luck of being released in the same year as The Return of the King (film), which overshadowed it.

2003 National Board of Review

  • #10 Film of the Year

Historical Authenticity

The film's special edition DVD release contains behind-the-scenes material giving useful insights into the film-making process. Great efforts were made to reproduce the authentic look and feel of life aboard an early nineteenth century man of war. Some of the filming actually took place at sea on board Rose (a reproduction of the 18th century frigate HMS Rose), while other scenes were shot on a full-scale replica mounted on gimbals in a large tank. There was a third ship, HMS Surprise which was a scale model built by Weta Workshop. A storm sequence was enhanced using digitally-composited footage of waves actually shot on board a modern replica of Cook's Endeavour rounding Cape Horn. All of the actors were given a thorough grounding in the naval life of the period in order to make their performances as authentic as possible.

Plot

The film is based on the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian and includes episodes from several novels in the series. The plot of the film, in which Aubrey in the HMS Surprise chases an enemy frigate round Cape Horn into the Pacific, is based loosely on The Far Side of the World, but the American frigate USS Norfolk in the book becomes the American-built French privateer Acheron in the film. USS Constitution was used as the basis for Acheron. The episode of deception of the enemy by means of a raft bearing lanterns is taken from Master and Commander, and the episode in which Maturin operates on himself to remove a bullet is taken from HMS Surprise.

An element of the plot is Maturin's desire to explore the Galapagos to examine its fauna and flora. However, the hunt of Acheron frustrates repeatedly this desire in spite of Aubrey's intentions.

The movie's success and the wide-open ending has led to credible speculation about a sequel, although it is not known whether Weir would wish to direct.

Trivia

  • The exploit of setting up a decoy of a large ship at night by attaching lights to a small boat was executed by the French privateer Robert Surcouf to successfully escape the British frigate HMS Sybille. It was also used by Lord Cochrane and described in his Autobiography of a Seaman, which was used by Patrick O'Brian as source material for his novel Master and Commander. In that novel, Jack Aubrey's first command, HMS Sophie escapes by using this tactic, while in the film it is Surprise which escapes Acheron using this trick.
  • In the movie, Stephen Maturin inadvertently gives Jack Aubrey the inspiration to disguise Surprise as a whaling ship to fool an enemy, implying that this is a new idea for Aubrey. However, in the first Aubrey/Maturin book Master and Commander, Aubrey regularly uses the tactic of disguising his ship during his very first command, and it is described as a common tactic used by warships to approach unsuspecting targets and avoid attention from larger enemy ships.
  • The music used in the trailer comes from the Children of Dune miniseries.
  • The actual ship used to shoot the movie is a sail training vessel called the Rose, now renamed HMS Surprise in honor of her movie role and moored at the San Diego Maritime Museum as a dockside attraction. It is now a floating museum filled with authentic cannon, clothes, tools and artists' representations of life on board an early 19th century Frigate, as well as memorablia from the movie. It is a replica of an original 18th century Royal Navy frigate, HMS Rose, that was in service from 1757-1779 and saw duty off the eastern seaboard of the United States during the Seven Years' War and the Revolutionary War before being scuttled by the British in a narrow part of the Savannah River to block the channel from a French fleet supporting the American assault on Savannah in 1779.
  • The song sung in the officer's mess is Don't Forget Your Old Shipmates.

Books about the movie

  • 2003, UK, The Making of "Master and Commander": The "Far Side of the World", HarperCollins Entertainment (ISBN 0007157711), Pub date 6 October 2003, Paperback
  • 2003, USA, The Making of "Master and Commander": The "Far Side of the World", W W Norton & Co Ltd (ISBN 0393058654), Pub date 6 October 2003, Hardback

External links

2003 films | Adventure films | War films | Seafaring films | Best Drama Actor Golden Globe Nominee (film) | Best Picture Academy Award nominees | Films based on fiction books | Films directed by Peter Weir | Films shot in Mexico | Films shot in Super 35

Gospodar i ratnik | Master & Commander – Bis ans Ende der Welt | Master and commander : De l'autre côté du monde | Master and Commander - Sfida ai confini del mare | Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World | マスター・アンド・コマンダー | Pan i władca: Na krańcu świata | Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World | Master and Commander - Bortom världens ände | Dünyanın Uzak Ucu (film)

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World".

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