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Ebert gives "Master and Commander" thumbs up
- Thread starter TiQuinn
- Start date
Particle_Man
Explorer
I saw it and liked it a lot. I did see the
coming, but that's all right.
Amusing that it was preceded by a trailer for Tom Cruise's "The Last Samurai". Nice to see the juxtaposition between "wannabe tough guy hero" and "real macho man tough guy hero". Sorry Tom, but no one comes close to The Gladiator.
Crowe is the John Wayne of the modern age. And it is not just about beating people up. It is the attitude.
Also, none of the other actors let me down, which I liked. And the naval scenes were breathtaking.
"Great Idea" of the captain
Amusing that it was preceded by a trailer for Tom Cruise's "The Last Samurai". Nice to see the juxtaposition between "wannabe tough guy hero" and "real macho man tough guy hero". Sorry Tom, but no one comes close to The Gladiator.
Crowe is the John Wayne of the modern age. And it is not just about beating people up. It is the attitude.Also, none of the other actors let me down, which I liked. And the naval scenes were breathtaking.
Fast Learner
First Post
Thank God Crowe isn't the John Wayne of the modern age: he's a much, much, much, much, MUCH better actor than Wayne ever was.Particle_Man said:
John Wayne couldn't have even touched Crowe's roles in A Beatiful Mind, The Insider, or L.A. Confidential. Wayne was a good tough guy but a lousy actor.
Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
Now yer talkin' crazy talk, pilgrim. *ka-click* 
They certainly did telegraph a certain plot twist, but they did it gracefully, and almost nothing else in the movie was heavy handed at all. The small blonde midshipman, for instance? His performnce could have been intolerably maudlin with another actor or director. As it was, he was superb. And I thought the movie ended on a wonderfully high point.
All in all, fantastic fun. We even went home and watched several hours of Hornblower.
They certainly did telegraph a certain plot twist, but they did it gracefully, and almost nothing else in the movie was heavy handed at all. The small blonde midshipman, for instance? His performnce could have been intolerably maudlin with another actor or director. As it was, he was superb. And I thought the movie ended on a wonderfully high point.
All in all, fantastic fun. We even went home and watched several hours of Hornblower.
Particle_Man
Explorer
Fast Learner said:
I can agree that Crowe is a better actor than Wayne. But I meant the macho tough guy part, is reminiscent of John Wayne.
Hey, Crowe has it all!
Bob Aberton
First Post
I third that; two thumbs up from Bob Aberton.
This was an awesome movie by any standard, but I think this is the best historical naval movie that I've seen since watching the A&E Horation Hornblower miniseries. This is what Hornblower would have been with a higher budget and a more involved plot.
The opening scene was absolutely perfect, the naval battles were - well, they defy description. You could almost feel the splinters flying past you, it was that good. The plot was very good, the acting was awesome (I thought Crowe and Bettany made an excellent duo in particular), although I had hoped that Mr. Pulling's character would have been a bit more unique - as it was, he almost seemed like "Generic Naval Officer #1." Mr. Midshipman Blakely (played by Max Pirkis, I believe) was very convincing as a 13 year old forced to grow up fast in the face of war and loss (and amputation). Mr. Midshipman Hollom was a pitifully tragic figure, and Plaice and Killick were particularly well acted as a pair of gruff old sea dogs. The subplots (
), as has been said, were well done and avoiding both triviality and over-importance.
All in all, this was basically a very realistic picture of naval life in the Age of Sail, complete with floggings, bad food, terrible weather, bloody sea fights, and the occasional near-mutiny. It definately gets points for historical accuracy, I like to think of myself as a pretty hard core nautical history buff and I could find almost no obvious inaccuracies (except maybe the lack of deadlights on the stern windows during battle and the strange lack of subordinate lieutenants - they had a midshipman as Officer of the Watch, I was under the impression that frigates of that class would have at least two lieutenants, who would each take a watch...). The characters were even wearing their cocked hats in the proper navy fashion. I also like the fact that they didn't dumb it down so "landlubbers" could grasp everything, it was liberally peppered with sailor-speak, and even tacking the ship I could find no inaccuracies in the sequence of commands or the actor's execution of them.
It had its lighthearted moments as well (the weevil race come to mind, as well as one of Capt. Aubrey's speeches; "Men, she may be bigger than us, and faster than us, and more heavily armed, but we have SURPRISE [HMS SURPRISE being, of course, Aubrey's ship] on our side!"). I also found Capt. Aubrey's hero-worship of Admiral Nelson to be rather amusing. But what I liked most about these moments was that it they didn't break the mood at all; they came across as genuine, if funny, moments or dialogue rather than an attempt at humor. No fourth-wall-breaking humor here, and Weir managed to preserve the epic mood without suffocating us with it.
And the storms. My God, I've never seen footage this realistic. I swear I attempted several times to mop the spray off my face - I was sitting right in front of the screen and I could all but taste the salt and feel the gale in my hair. Up till now The Perfect Storm has had the best storm-sailing footage that I have seen, and the 1960s Mutiny on the Bounty came very, very close, but neither of those movies has anything at all on Master and Commander. I would have been perfectly happy if the entire movie was occupied just with the SURPRISE rounding Cape Horn. And it was a very emotionally moving scene when
Powerful stuff.
This was an awesome movie by any standard, but I think this is the best historical naval movie that I've seen since watching the A&E Horation Hornblower miniseries. This is what Hornblower would have been with a higher budget and a more involved plot.
The opening scene was absolutely perfect, the naval battles were - well, they defy description. You could almost feel the splinters flying past you, it was that good. The plot was very good, the acting was awesome (I thought Crowe and Bettany made an excellent duo in particular), although I had hoped that Mr. Pulling's character would have been a bit more unique - as it was, he almost seemed like "Generic Naval Officer #1." Mr. Midshipman Blakely (played by Max Pirkis, I believe) was very convincing as a 13 year old forced to grow up fast in the face of war and loss (and amputation). Mr. Midshipman Hollom was a pitifully tragic figure, and Plaice and Killick were particularly well acted as a pair of gruff old sea dogs. The subplots (
Mr. Blakely's amputation, Dr. Maturin operating on himself, Mr. Hollom's despair and suicide
All in all, this was basically a very realistic picture of naval life in the Age of Sail, complete with floggings, bad food, terrible weather, bloody sea fights, and the occasional near-mutiny. It definately gets points for historical accuracy, I like to think of myself as a pretty hard core nautical history buff and I could find almost no obvious inaccuracies (except maybe the lack of deadlights on the stern windows during battle and the strange lack of subordinate lieutenants - they had a midshipman as Officer of the Watch, I was under the impression that frigates of that class would have at least two lieutenants, who would each take a watch...). The characters were even wearing their cocked hats in the proper navy fashion. I also like the fact that they didn't dumb it down so "landlubbers" could grasp everything, it was liberally peppered with sailor-speak, and even tacking the ship I could find no inaccuracies in the sequence of commands or the actor's execution of them.
It had its lighthearted moments as well (the weevil race come to mind, as well as one of Capt. Aubrey's speeches; "Men, she may be bigger than us, and faster than us, and more heavily armed, but we have SURPRISE [HMS SURPRISE being, of course, Aubrey's ship] on our side!"). I also found Capt. Aubrey's hero-worship of Admiral Nelson to be rather amusing. But what I liked most about these moments was that it they didn't break the mood at all; they came across as genuine, if funny, moments or dialogue rather than an attempt at humor. No fourth-wall-breaking humor here, and Weir managed to preserve the epic mood without suffocating us with it.
And the storms. My God, I've never seen footage this realistic. I swear I attempted several times to mop the spray off my face - I was sitting right in front of the screen and I could all but taste the salt and feel the gale in my hair. Up till now The Perfect Storm has had the best storm-sailing footage that I have seen, and the 1960s Mutiny on the Bounty came very, very close, but neither of those movies has anything at all on Master and Commander. I would have been perfectly happy if the entire movie was occupied just with the SURPRISE rounding Cape Horn. And it was a very emotionally moving scene when
Aubrey is forced to abandon a man overboard to his fate because it would be impossible to save him without risking his ship; the final shot has the ship sailing away through the massive Cape Horn swell and you see the sailor's head receding farther away with each wave until he disappears over the horizon.
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Particle_Man
Explorer
Uh, dude, you might want to expand your spoiler tags to include more of your message. Both times. And use 'spoiler' not 'spoilers' in the tags.
Krieg
First Post
Particle_Man said:I saw it and liked it a lot. I did see theNice to see the juxtaposition between "wannabe tough guy hero" and "real macho man tough guy hero". Sorry Tom, but no one comes close to The Gladiator.
Drunken scuffles hardly make one a "real macho man tough guy"...
John Wayne would never have needed his female personal trainer to come to his rescue.
John Wayne would never have needed his female personal trainer to come to his rescue.
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