Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World

[Mark]

Just saw my first television ad for this. Looks pretty action packed!

 

[Wombat]

I am a huge fan of the Patrick O'Brian novels. There are 20 books in the entire series (O'Brian died about 4 years ago).

The problem is the book Master & Commander is Book 1 in the series; The Far Side of the World is Book 10.

So this is going to be a very, very strange movie.

For me, the movie will probably be amusing, but nothing like the books. Unlike, say the Horatio Hornblower books or other Napoleonic-era naval novels, not that much time is spent in battles. As O'Brian once said, "Forrester [who wrote the Hornblower books] wrote great battles; I write everything else." The language of the era, the taste in music, food, and clothing, manners & morals, daily life on the vessels, all this is the purview of O'Brian's novels. Unfortunately, especially given the two trailers I've seen, this will probably be forgotten.

Much more importantly, the O'Brian novels are generally known as the Aubrey-Mataurin novels, after the TWO main characters. Thanks to having Russell Crowe this film is going to be a Star Vehicle concentrating almost entirely on Captain Jack Aubrey, who is a great naval commander, but a man who is nearly hopeless on land. The other major character, Stephen Mataurin, is an Irish-Catalonian physician, natural philosopher, and secret agent, as well as on-again-off-again addict of laudanum; he is also nearly hopeless in understanding the finer points of naval life. It is the interaction between these two characters that makes the novels truly amazing, from their mutual love for music, to their discussion of politics, to their interconnected love lives.

I'm sure this film will have lots of cannons and lots of booming.

It will not be even close to the books, and for that I mourn.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Wombat, darn I had no idea that O’Brian was dead... I've looked at the series a few times but maybe now I should start reading it.


Movies, are never as good as the book they are based upon.

 

[reapersaurus]

The language of the era, the taste in music, food, and clothing, manners & morals, daily life on the vessels, all this is the purview of O'Brian's novels. Unfortunately, especially given the two trailers I've seen, this will probably be forgotten.

Have you gone to the website?
Check out the Flash "adventure" there and see all the stuff you mentioned that they put up there.
It made me expect something totally different than the trailers. It seems to me that they ARE going with more a "true-to-life", daily life on the vessels approach with this movie, throwing you into the times they happened in, and just highlighting the exciting parts for the trailers.

BTW: I would think/hope that by now, movie fans wouldn't need this explained, but...:
Movies are not books.
They are not supposed to be direct scene-for-scene copies of the book.
Film is an entirely different medium, with different strengths and weaknesses than books.

 

[Desdichado]

Can you name the last time an actor was nominated for Best Actor three years in a row like Crowe? No bonus points for looking it up.

Easy: Tom Hanks for Philadelphia, then Forest Gump then Apollo 13.

I've seen a fair amount of previews for the movie, though.

 

[Desdichado]

Have you gone to the website?
Check out the Flash "adventure" there and see all the stuff you mentioned that they put up there.
It made me expect something totally different than the trailers. It seems to me that they ARE going with more a "true-to-life", daily life on the vessels approach with this movie, throwing you into the times they happened in, and just highlighting the exciting parts for the trailers.

BTW: I would think/hope that by now, movie fans wouldn't need this explained, but...:
Movies are not books.
They are not supposed to be direct scene-for-scene copies of the book.
Film is an entirely different medium, with different strengths and weaknesses than books.

I totally agree -- the movie should not be the book.

Also, the previews I've seen do not seem to concentrate on battle scenes much. I've seen a lot of shots of Russell Crowe training young boys to be the future naval officers of Her Majesty's finest, for instance.

On a different note: I'm not really a huge fan of Crowe. I thought his Oscar-winning performance in Gladiator was particularly underwhelming, for instance. It's like the guy is half asleep all the time.

 

[Wombat]

No, I don't expect movies to be exactly like the books

BUT

The O'Brian novels are about two men, their strengths and weaknesses, and their intertwining (and at times at-odds) careers.

That, so far, is what has me worried about the movie -- it's all about Jack, and haven't heard anything at all about Stephen

And, as pointed out before, they are taking two books, far separated, in the series

To put it in context, this is like having Adm. Nelson run straight from The Battle of the Nile to end up at Trafalgar within a couple weeks...

 

[Sirius_Black]

Easy: Tom Hanks for Philadelphia, then Forest Gump then Apollo 13.

I've seen a fair amount of previews for the movie, though.

Nope. Not for Apollo 13.

It's interesting to note that with the screener ban that the Academy has gone with this year, the door might be open for more nominations from epic pictures like this one and The Last Samuri, etc.

 

[Bob Aberton]

I think part of the reason that the Aubrey part of Aubrey/Maturin is getting all the attention is because Aubrey's played by Russell Crowe, an established Big Name, whereas Maturin is played by what's-his-name ( I honestly don't remember the name; could anyone satisfy my curiosity?), the relatively unknown newcomer. It's much better press to say "Master & Commander, starring Russell Crowe" than it is to say "Master & Commander, starring What's-His-Name, the obscure newcomer."

I'd advise those worried about the integrity of the novel's timeline should keep their shirts on; the way I've heard (and seen) it, the only part of Master & Commander that "Master & Commander" uses is the title, more or less. The plot, I've heard, is pretty much straight-up "The Far Side of the World," with the American antagonists changed to the French.

My feelings? I think that if well made (and it looks to be so far), this movie will have the same effect as LotR; it will please the vast majority of movei-goers and casual readers of O'Brian and it will absolutely infuriate a vocal minority of die-hard O'Brian purists.

Personally, I like O'Brian's attention to detail in every respect of his novels, not just the nautical bits. His characterization is fairly good, but I don't particularly like his writing style.

Give me some Horatio Hornblower any day...

As an aside, the other thing that makes me think the "Master & Commander" plot won't enter much into this movie is that, unless I'm mistaken, Aubrey commands a 14 gun brig, HM SLOOP SOPHIE(?) in the first book, while in Far Side of the World, he commands the 28 gun frigate (ship-rigged) HMS SURPRISE; and I know for sure that the vessel in the advertisements is a ship-rigged frigate, not a brig-rigged sloop of war. Not that that probably makes much difference to Hollywood, but this is a movie that seems to pride itself on historical accuracy, therefore I don't think they'd commit such a gross error as confusing basic sailing-ship rigs in the star (ship) of the movie.

 

[reapersaurus]

In MaC, Crowe is the captain of the Surprise.
Did anyone look at the website? I think you can capture some of the feeling from it...