For those who like action and adventure from a more romantic age you can't beat Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World for your needs. As a film it rates right up there with Captain Horatio Hornblower which starred Gregory Peck and Damn the Defiant with Alec Guinness, a couple of films I liked very much.
Russell Crowe completely fits my conception of Patrick O'Brian's Napoleonic naval hero 'Lucky Jack Aubrey'. He's a worthy successor to C.S. Forrester's Horatio Hornblower. The books have been best sellers for years and this is Jack Aubrey's first screen appearance.
The film opens with Crowe in command of a ship that's just seen a lot of action and it's not in the best of shape. Orders from the Admiralty come to him. There's a French frigate who's quite a bit bigger than Crowe's ship, nevertheless she's the only one near her in those southern latitudes so it's a search and destroy mission. One that can't be accomplished until necessary repairs are made.
There's surprisingly little combat action in this film until the very end. It concentrates on character and goes into the most minute of detail the life on board a British ship of the line during the Napoleonic Wars. The action takes place in 1805 right after the Battle of Trafalgar and the United Kingdom is still keeping a lot of ships close to home.
Crowe is nothing short of outstanding as Aubrey the charismatic captain of this vessel. He gets good support from the rest of the cast, my favorites being ship's surgeon Paul Bettany and Max Pirkis as the young midshipman who Crowe takes a fatherly interest in.
In a sense the character's nickname of 'Lucky' is a misnomer. What you get Crowe's Jack Aubrey is a man of skill and daring and experience who knows how to take advantage of breaks and make his own luck. Never more so when he has that final encounter with the French ship.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World gives you a real feeling for the Napoleonic era. I do hope that Russell Crowe gets another chance to bring 'Lucky Jack Aubrey' back to the screen again.
Russell Crowe completely fits my conception of Patrick O'Brian's Napoleonic naval hero 'Lucky Jack Aubrey'. He's a worthy successor to C.S. Forrester's Horatio Hornblower. The books have been best sellers for years and this is Jack Aubrey's first screen appearance.
The film opens with Crowe in command of a ship that's just seen a lot of action and it's not in the best of shape. Orders from the Admiralty come to him. There's a French frigate who's quite a bit bigger than Crowe's ship, nevertheless she's the only one near her in those southern latitudes so it's a search and destroy mission. One that can't be accomplished until necessary repairs are made.
There's surprisingly little combat action in this film until the very end. It concentrates on character and goes into the most minute of detail the life on board a British ship of the line during the Napoleonic Wars. The action takes place in 1805 right after the Battle of Trafalgar and the United Kingdom is still keeping a lot of ships close to home.
Crowe is nothing short of outstanding as Aubrey the charismatic captain of this vessel. He gets good support from the rest of the cast, my favorites being ship's surgeon Paul Bettany and Max Pirkis as the young midshipman who Crowe takes a fatherly interest in.
In a sense the character's nickname of 'Lucky' is a misnomer. What you get Crowe's Jack Aubrey is a man of skill and daring and experience who knows how to take advantage of breaks and make his own luck. Never more so when he has that final encounter with the French ship.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World gives you a real feeling for the Napoleonic era. I do hope that Russell Crowe gets another chance to bring 'Lucky Jack Aubrey' back to the screen again.