A film version of two of Patrick O'Brien's series of Napoleonic Naval sagas, "Master And Commander" had to balance the often slow-moving, documentary detail of the novels with a more open, dumbed-down and explosive tack to keep the fan-base of the books and still expand into the mainstream. So, Peter Weir - director of such often slow-moving character dramas as "Dead Poet's Society" and "Gallipoli" - knew the job was dangerous when he took it. But the results seem worth all the effort and anxiety for both the die-hard fan and the casual newcomer.
Captain "Lucky Jack" Aubrey (Crowe) a career-navy officer with a history of victory, and his crew, are hunting the treacherous waters around Cape Horn for a mysterious fleet and deadly frigate with a mandate from the French Government to sink and loot British trade ships. This is made more than a matter of duty by the fact that, in the film's opening scene, the French ship shatters the still silence of a fog-bound first watch with a blistering attack on Aubrey's ship which leaves her crippled and nearly destroyed.
Crowe, plumped-up and bleach blonde for the role, gives Aubrey an inherent humanity which doesn't need long, flowery speeches to give it life. Torn by his steely sense of duty, his pride and hunger for revenge and his responsibility towards his crew, he has to decide how far to go in pursuit and how hard to force his legendary good luck.
Bettany is excellent as his friend, the ship's doctor, a natural history enthusiast and the only man aboard not of the navy and so willing to question their methods when situations become extreme, even if that does leave him occasionally isolated.
There's no doubting that the film looks spectacular. It fills the screen with graceful greed and a shot of Crowe and his first officer, James D'Arcy, standing on the top-mast as the ship cuts through the water at full sail is dizzyingly brilliant. The battle-scenes are explosive, raw and immediate, drawing the audience into their deafening, bloody maw. But in the quiet lulls inbetween, the conversations and interactions between the officers and the crew feel natural and honest, as if they're a staple of an on-going life we glimpse for a moment now and then.
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Some of the loving detail of O'Brien's books can still be found here. If you have a knowledge of sailing ships or naval strategy, you can be swept up in it and, if you don't, then pay attention, because the technicalities are all explained in a quick, casual way that doesn't drag on the action or the story.
Weir doesn't shy away from the harsh aspects of the world he portrays. In the mix are the sailors' irrational, but crippling superstitions, the grinding hard work, press-ganged men and young lads, the savage weather and the iron grip on discipline needed when men are isolated for months on their own floating world with officers maintining control only because the men believe them worthy of it, and the grim, gory brutality of battle, where sawdust sops up the blood and any man can be the next to take a hit.
"Master And Commander" is a brilliant, thoughtful war epic that takes careful pains to offer a glimpse of the reality of its' world. After a year's work of delicate balancing, it is exactly what Weir and Crowe promised it would be.
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