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Volume CXXXIII, Number 10 |
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Crowe Masters the high seas
TED REINERT
ORIENT STAFF
Captain Jack Aubrey or Captain Jack Sparrow? Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, the new high seas literary swashbuckler starring Russell Crowe, may not draw in the crowds like this summer's surprise smash hit Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. But Master and Commander is the one that might be doing some pirating at the Oscars come February, and with good reason-it's an awesome and intelligent nautical epic and war movie, and possibly the best film of the year so far.
Australian director Peter Weir (The Last Wave, Witness, The Truman Show) has adapted the late Patrick O'Brian's 20-volume Aubrey-Maturin series of historical novels of the Napoleonic Wars. O'Brian's fans might resent the cobbling together of a plot from several sources, but the resulting story is excellent. Weir has also earnestly kept the writer's spirit of historical accuracy for his film.
At the center of the story are O'Brian's great characters Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, played by Weir's countryman Crowe and his A Beautiful Mind co-star Paul Bettany, respectively. Aubrey is a crafty, lucky, life-loving leader. Maturin is the ship's surgeon and the captain's best friend, a thinker and a naturalist. Their friendship seems based around their frequent jam sessions (on violin and cello).
The film's opening finds Aubrey's ship the HMS Surprise chasing a larger and more powerful French enemy, the Acheron (aptly named after a river in hell), off the coast of Brazil. The Acheron intends to bring Napoleon's war to the Pacific. Aubrey is determined to stop this. However, the French captain is equally wily and keeps switching the prey and predator roles on his British pursuers.
Aubrey will not give up easily however, chasing his enemy around the Horn in very nasty weather. The Surprise makes a stop at the Galapagos to the great joy and disappointment of Maturin, who discovers several new animal species including the marine iguana and a flightless cormorant, but cannot stay as his best friend cuts the visit short to get back to the pursuit.
The story gains a fascinating supernatural element as an old sailor recovering from a brain operation calls the Acheron "the devil's ship" and talks of Jonah, leading the unhappy men of the Surprise to blame the bad luck of the voyage on a young midshipman who must be cursed, a notion that all aboard except for the scientific Stephen will come to believe. There is also the attempted shooting of an albatross, which as readers of Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" will know, simply can't be lucky.
Crowe and Bettany are both at the top of their game here. Crowe, who became a superstar and won an Oscar with Gladiator, relishes playing the macho leader of men again, but Aubrey is a more nuanced and interesting character than Maximus. Crowe would be guaranteed an Oscar nomination if he didn't already have so many, while Bettany should definitely get a supporting nod. The rest of the cast, including Billy Boyd, one of Lord of the Rings' hobbits, does a good job as well. The special effects used in this film during storm and battle scenes are utterly convincing, besting The Perfect Storm for technical marvel.
Weir has successfully made a brilliant epic and an action film for the intelligentsia. If Crowe's star power gets Master and Commander enough attention, then the award-ravenous Miramax machine should be very happy.
4 out of 4 polar bears
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