Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Master and Commander:



Though the scenes of battle and broken bodies are brutal and gruesome, and every
cannonball threatens to crush bones as callously as it shatters wood, much of the film is calm and contemplative. Weir has managed to craft an emotional film that draws one in to the lives and world of the characters it portrays without necessarily
offering too much detail as to their personal stories. I-- Dana Rowader


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"Masterful and commanding." more...
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
"The opening 15 minutes of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World are so well crafted that they restore your faith in commercial cinema." more...
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
"...an exuberant sea adventure told with uncommon intelligence..." more...
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
"...probably the best movie of its kind ever made." more...
E! Online
"Even if you're a total landlubber, you should enlist for Master and Commander..." more...
filmcritic.com
David Levine
"Master and Commander is a masterpiece." more...
Hollywood Reporter
Michael Rechtshaffen
"Masterful direction and commanding performances make this epic voyage highly see-worthy." more...
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
"Bracing high-seas adventure with a brain." more...
New York Times
A.O. Scott
"...stupendously entertaining..." more...
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
"...this may be the best-looking film ever made about a seafaring vessel." more...
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
"...a rousing high-seas adventure that sweeps you into another world." more...
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
"This is a difficult film to talk about, because the things that are great about it are easily identifiable, while its failings are pervasive but vague." more...
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
"It's a simple story line, and yet it's rather hard to follow." more...
USA Today
Mike Clark
"...mystically entertaining..."
magnificent vigor and precision.
A stupendously entertaining movie


The smallest details of shipboard behavior become breathlessly absorbing. The battle sequences are filmed with impressive coherence
and rigor, but ''Master and Commander'' is, if anything, most thrilling between skirmishes, when the complex system of authority and
deference -- and the personality traits needed to keep it running -- is at the center of attention.

Peter WeirGenre/Type Adventure, Costume Adventure, Sea Adventure, Adventure DramaFlags Adult Language, Adult Situations,
ViolenceMPAA Rating PG13Keywords ship, crew, espionage, friendship, spy, chef, French [nationality], captain [ship]Themes
Heroic Mission, Obsessive Quests, War At SeaTones Tense, Lavish, Sweeping, Stirring, RousingRelease Nov 14, 2003 (USA)Released by
20th Century FoxSee Also
DVD Release(s)
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Links to other sites about Master and Commander: TheHow Master and Commander gets Patrick O'Brian wrong.
Posted Friday, Nov. 14, 2003, at 3:30 PM PT




Antiseptic view of a sailor's life
After his final defeat at Waterloo in 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte was taken by Her Majesty's Ship Bellerophon to his exile on the island of St. Helena, on the far side of the world. He was allowed by custom and courtesy to take his exercise on the quarterdeck every day (there is a famous painting of this somewhere in the National Gallery in London) and, having observed the iron discipline and nautical skill of the officers and crew, is said to have told the Bellerophon's captain at dinner that he now at last understood why his attempt at the Empire had been brought low.

This review is brought to you by a navy brat whose father is buried in the grounds of the modest little chapel, overlooking Portsmouth Harbor in England, where Eisenhower held the service on the night before D-Day. The stained-glass windows record this, as they do many other gallant episodes. I was reading C.S. Forester's Hornblower books when I was 8, and though I can't really tell a mizzen from a capstan I am steeped in the lore of the Royal Navy, and I devoured Patrick O'Brian's 20-volume masterpiece as if it had been so many tots of Jamaica grog. (If you care to know what I made of them, you may consult the March 9, 2000, New York Review of Books.)
Far Side of the World
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is a beautifully realized, atypically intimate action drama. After an absence of five years, director Peter Weir has made a bold and impressive return. With high seas films notoriously difficult to manage in regards to both budget and box-office marketability, Master and Commander deftly avoids the pitfalls and stands as one of the high points of the genre. The film's attention to period detail is fascinating and renders the setting of the ship as a character all its own. The film is so rich with detail that one gets an almost authentic sense of what everyday life was like on such a ship in the early 19th century. Accolades must go out to all of those involved with art direction, set design, and cinematography. Director of photography Russell Boyd, who has worked with Weir on several previous films, works wonders here, capturing images from seemingly any angle from which one could film a ship. His sweeping photography deftly conveys the grandeur and scope of the ship(s) against the backdrop of the sea, the minute details of life on the ship, and the claustrophobic, crowded lives of the men on board.


Sporting an impressive cast of both stars and unknowns, young and old, Master and Commander reigns in their talents to create an utterly convincing ensemble of characters. Perfectly cast as Captain Jack Aubrey, Russell Crowe, not-surprisingly, delivers another layered, intriguing performance. Equally, if not more, impressive is the moving portrayal of ship surgeon Stephen Maturin by Paul Bettany, who sinks into the role and reveals further depths to his acting. The two men, captain and surgeon, display an interesting friendship, characterized by mutual interests (playing music together), sharp divisions (military vs. nature/science), and hearty debate. But between them, and between all of the men on the ship, there is a great sense of mutual respect that is the heart of the film. Also noteworthy, among several impressive youths, is newcomer Max Pirkis as Lord Blackeney, a young midshipman who must deal with a very emotional loss early in the film.

Despite all of its successes, the film does pose a few problems, the most notable being the incomprehensibility of much of its dialogue. Along with the film's attention to period and nautical detail, many of the accents and terminology are difficult to grasp, especially when characters are talking fast or dialogue is spoken in the heat of battle. But even that does not deter one from becoming engrossed in the intrigue and drama of the film; in fact, the period accents and dialogue further set one in another time and place, where things are both foreign and strangely relatable.