Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is based on a long string of natural-historic novels written by Patrick O’Brien, who worked on over 20 books within this series up until his death in the year, 2000. The movie came out in 2003 as a passion project from 20th Century Fox executive, Tom Rothman, and was critically acclaimed and received several Oscar-nominations though lost in almost every category against The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Despite what it was up against as it really had no chance against something as gigantic as the final film in one of the most celebrated fantasy trilogies of all time, this simple film is a pretty impressive sea-fairing tale to get into. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, Captain Jack Aubrey (played by Russell Crowe) commands a large British frigate named the HMS Surprise, which has never lost in battle before. That hubris and feeling of being untouchable comes back to him when a French privateer ship called the Acheron manages to surprise and almost wipe him and his crew right off the face of the Ocean before disappearing without a trace left behind. Refusing to back down and not wishing to see this ship left free to roam the open seas and attack more British fleets, Aubrey pushes for the ship’s demise and goes to any lengths to claim his victory, even putting the lives of his men at stakes, as well as ruining the friendship he has with the ship’s physician Dr Stephen Maturin (played by Paul Bettany). The race is on to see which ship will come out on top and which one will sink first, from the inside or the outside. Doing well critically and being a moderate success at the box office, Master and Commander holds up surprisingly well.  The drawn-out and slowly paced nature of the books means that plot elements aren’t as fleshed out and it does come to a bit of an anti-climax, but overall the film has very good acting, effectively cramped cinematography, good pacing, and a narrative that while straightforward, is able to keep this ship a likeable place to spend the movie in.

Since the film is not restricting itself to a singular narrative and is instead stretching itself out over several different sources, its understandable that some of the story elements aren’t the most fleshed out. Most of the characters that the movie focuses on don’t really get much of an introduction or even proper set, instead showcased to the audience during an intense action scene, setting the stage to show that the true focus of the story is on the task of hunting this ship down and the ramifications that is having on these people. The narrative itself has a lot of connections to a similar sea-faring novel in Moby Dick, with the leader of the ship taking pride and personal desire over morality and the safety of others. But while that story actively took steps and showed the deterioration of the character to reach that standpoint, not much is shown in that regard to truly feel like its warranted. This series in general seems very event-focused, with many people praising the stories for capturing the atmosphere, social and political tempers and all around feel of this time period, so it stands to reason the film would care a lot about its war-related themes and actions rather than on other aspects of the story. Many of the important moments in this movie feel like they would be stand-out moments in their respective novels, but they don’t quite reach the same level of impression in this film however. Thankfully, the directing by Peter Weir and writing by John Collee is able to keep the audience engaged with what little is shown to us. It manages to feel like it came from a novel through the choice of vocabulary, but without it feeling overly wordy, The tone is well balanced; with a light-hearted air put against grim truths and harsh consequences, especially a particular scene during the beginning where a character loses their arm, even with blood or screaming, its tense to witness. It really gives a sense of personality and lifelines to this boat; everything that makes it work, all the trials and struggles that surround it, how strong it is, how the crew interact with each other, it keeps the place from being boring and unlikeable, which is very important for the film’s main location of focus. The film is also wonderfully paced; despite being two hours, it doesn’t get dull or repetitive and it balances the fast-paced ship action with the slower conversation scene very well as to not rely too much on one thing. The ending of the movie is unfortunately not that strong; the camera work gets shaky, the editing is far too rapid to keep up with the action, and for the final confrontation of a movie-long pay off, it doesn’t live up to the hype.

The characters in the movie, due to the already mentioned split novel inspiration, aren’t the most complex or heavy in backstory. The film could have benefited from more elaboration on who they were before the events of the movie so that some choices could have left more on an impact as opposed to just feeling like a writing decision to move the story forward. With that said, most of the crew feel incredibly human and just like normal people, which surprisingly really works for this story. They don’t need that much interest surrounding them, and what is shown feels remarkably genuine, which is also attributed to the amazing cast surrounding this film. The actors manage to take very straightforward character types and add a whole new layer to them that wasn’t easy to display, which makes some sense as a good chunk of these crew members are portrayed by either very small or flat-out new actors, which brings a fresh sense of honesty to a lot of these roles characters, whether how simple they are. The key figurehead of all of this is Russel Crowe as Jack Aubrey. For someone who is known for his deadpan delivery and unemotional style of acting, he is truly amazing in this movie without even a sense of sarcasm. Every second he’s on-screen, he just glows with charisma and stature, he feels like a genuine leader that knows what he’s doing, enough to be a level of prideful to risk the lives of his crew, but with enough persuasion to convince them to do it, and the serious moments where he can act like his usual Russel Crowe self are much more earned because its such a contrast from everything else. A fantastic performance overall. The rest of the cast is also very good, with people like Paul Bettany and Max Pirkis being the main highlights.

On a technical level, the ship’s presence is conveyed much like it would be right out of a novel. The entire production design by William Sandell and the costume design by Wendy Stites is quite effective and really gives great presence to this ship. The lighting in the movie is expertly handled; where scenes are able to perfectly convey the right emotion and atmosphere just through coloring alone, from the glaring dirty yellow of the ship’s crew quarters, to the dark blue moon light that provides an almost ghostly air of the sea at the dead of night. Even the amount of work put into the craft of the ship and seeing all the people climbing and maneuvering their way through the set does capture the flustered panic of being at war on a ship. The cinematography by Russell Boyd is very mixed in terms of quality; on the one hand, there’s some wonderfully establishing shots showing off the ship out at sea, and most of the editing around the action moments done by Lee Smith during the opening attack is incredibly quick, clean and easy to follow, but the film has way too many titled angles throughout that start a bit too gimmicky after a while, and while it is effective in the uncomfortable cramped moments, it did not need to be showcased as much as it was (despite the fact that it still won an Oscar for Best Cinematography). The movie has some memorable music moments, not just in the score composed by Richard Tognetti along with Christopher Gordon and even Australian songwriter Iva Davies, but also in the sound design department, with Richard King creating truly authentic noises that you’d hear in this kind of environment like the harsh sea breezes and the sound of cannons firing (The movie also took home the Oscar for Best Sound Editing)

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World doesn’t look like it would offer much, but actually managed to effectively turn a relatively unknown novel and transform it into something that was one of the biggest Oscar contenders of 2003 (even if it wasn’t the one that took home all the wins). The movie rings of a personal tale of obsession and madness coming from isolation, but with a war edge that handles the grittiness in a smart effective way. The characters are acted brilliantly, most of the shots work well, the lighting captures the atmosphere of each scene perfectly, and it overall makes a story about being stuck on a boat for two whole hours pretty fun to watch. It could have used stronger plot and better establishment of some of its characters to effectively give more depth, as well as a better climax to effectively close off this chase movie but for what it is, Master and Commander is a war movie of an ocean breed that’s still worth a watch. Its that one sea shanty that is pulled out that no one knows about but will leave you impressed and delighted all the same.

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