What a magnificent adventure story, pure and simple.
It's unusual in that there are only two action scenes over the 2 hour, 19-minute film, one near the beginning and one near the end. They don't go on that long, either. For a modern-day film, that's very unusual.
However, that doesn't translate to infer this is too talky or boring. The film will keep your interest all the way. However, for any ladies out there looking for a bit romance in this tale, it isn't there. In that respect, unless you want to ogle at Russell Crowe, this a man's film with an all-male cast.
This movie is a great demo on how to make an adventure film fascinating without blood and guts and explosions every two minutes. It's an heroic tale, right down a little boy who shows us what guts are all about.
This movie won the Academy Award for both cinematography and sound and both honors were well-deserved. If you really want to appreciate this movie, see it on a nice TV and play it with 5.1 surround sound. The creaking of the ship coming out of all the surround speakers is awesome, just in itself.
One negative I had on the first viewing, which I corrected on the second, was the dialog. I had trouble with some of the accents and the naval terminology but that was corrected by putting on the English subtitles.
If I could sum this movie up in one word it would be "classy."
It's unusual in that there are only two action scenes over the 2 hour, 19-minute film, one near the beginning and one near the end. They don't go on that long, either. For a modern-day film, that's very unusual.
However, that doesn't translate to infer this is too talky or boring. The film will keep your interest all the way. However, for any ladies out there looking for a bit romance in this tale, it isn't there. In that respect, unless you want to ogle at Russell Crowe, this a man's film with an all-male cast.
This movie is a great demo on how to make an adventure film fascinating without blood and guts and explosions every two minutes. It's an heroic tale, right down a little boy who shows us what guts are all about.
This movie won the Academy Award for both cinematography and sound and both honors were well-deserved. If you really want to appreciate this movie, see it on a nice TV and play it with 5.1 surround sound. The creaking of the ship coming out of all the surround speakers is awesome, just in itself.
One negative I had on the first viewing, which I corrected on the second, was the dialog. I had trouble with some of the accents and the naval terminology but that was corrected by putting on the English subtitles.
If I could sum this movie up in one word it would be "classy."