The period is early 19th century. Captain Aubrey commandeers HMS Surprise, an English Naval vessel, through the waters of the Western Atlantic on a chillingly foggy winter day. The orders of the Crown lay down that this 27-gun smaller vessel do everything in its capacity to prevent a much larger enemy (French) vessel from carrying Napoleon Bonaparte’s sea war to the South Seas. The latter is newer, bigger, more powerful, and packs more lethal arsenal, what with 42 guns lined along its broadside.
Yet, the bigger enemy is the weather. At an age when radars, night-vision glasses and wireless communication were unheard of, the crew uses hand-held telescopes to capture just a hint of something ahead. With the ship on full alert, the Captain – with his keen sea-sense – suddenly sees a muffled light source. He has just enough time to holler ‘Down everyone’ before the first couple of cannon balls rip through the woodwork. Thankfully, there was no shrapnel then, but the high velocity steel ball does enough on its own. It cracks the sail mast, bludgeons gaping holes on the vessel’s hull, and smashes any human bodies unfortunate enough to be in its path.
Then ensues a brief but debilitating battle with the smaller vessel veering to its side – so it can launch its own balls of death, and so it can try and prevent further damage by chugging away as fast as the wind can push at its tattered sails. Inside, frantic seamen bail water out at a pace that can only hope to match the water gushing in. There is even lesser time to tend to the incapacitated, leave alone the dead.
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The opening sequence of Master and Commander: The Far Side of The World arrests you, leaves you riveted to the seat. The title is quite a mouthful, but when you get beyond that, you enter into a different world. This is the second major sea movie in just a few months’ time (after Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl), but the genres are quite different, and both stand out in their own right.
Director Peter Weir, known to make engaging classics with disparate storylines (sample Witness and The Truman Show), now throws up an appealing heroic that makes you throw up a salute in response.
Throughout the over-two-hour ride, viewers are treated to a see-saw battle of the French cat and the English mouse, outwitting each other with smart moves, manoeuvres and decoys. But that just proves to be the setting for the blow-hot-blow-cold interludes between the Captain and the ship’s doctor Maturin.
The characters of the two protagonists are built up superbly. Captain Aubrey, played to finger-snapping perfection by Russel Crowe, is shown as the die-hard patriot, the unabashedly aggressive natural leader who thinks nothing of putting his and his crew’s lives on the wire in his quest for victorious service to his nation. In stark contrast, Dr. Maturin, essayed by Paul Bettany (did you notice him in A Beautiful Mind?) is the practical pacifist, the adventurous naturalist, and the calm thinker. While Aubrey motivates his weather-beaten men to repair the ship without docking (as that would mean forsaking the chase), the doc does his conscientious bit to prevail upon him to be open to other options.
They make an interesting pair, warming up to each other to the extent of playing musical duets (Aubrey with the cello and Maturin with the violin!); but sticking to their cold guns when it comes to on-the-edge decisions. Aubrey resorts to his status to veto supposedly softie suggestions from Maturin, but is forced to do a rethink when the latter gets accidentally shot.
Other characters too impress – the tentative and un-authoritative officer, the teenaged lieutenant, the young protégé to Maturin – all churn out bravura performances. The artistes who depict the hard-as-nails crew too live up to the challenge.
The film winds up with a deadly final confrontation between the two sail ships, a fitting tribute to the unseen and unsung sailor hero.
No! There’s no mandatory feminine interest here! In a departure from convention, the only female bestowed even a single frame in the movie is the Brazilian lady who gazes alluringly at the toughened sailors.
Dialogues are in a class of their own, be it the bantering at dinners (notice how Crowe mimics Nelson, under whom he first served), or the raucous one-liners between the two leads.
The exceptional scenes of sea-warfare reek of a high budget, but would certainly have been impossible without diligent hard-work. The background is top notch. Noises of creaking wood and softened footfalls on wooden decks, added to some outstanding camerawork, give one the feeling of continuous motion.
The movie is – somewhat surprisingly – quite educational! One learns a lot of the ways of the high seas; but benefits also from a rare study of interesting life forms – birds and insects – in discreet but charming little islands.
Overall, this turns out to be a more than successful attempt at immortalising the works of the famous novelist Patrick O’Brian.
Why’s the fifth star missing? Well, that’s for the slowcoach middle portions. It’s also funny to see Crowe attempting to curb his natural Aussie drawl into a clipped British accent!
A classic, out and out. A sure shot. Catch it while it lasts. Aye aye, sir!