Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Not A Moment To Be Lost
I can’t write this review.
You have to understand. I have been working on this one, really and truly, for days now. But I can’t do it. I can’t make myself write the review. And it’s not my fault.
This is a movie review site, but my first love is books, always has been, always will be. I don’t do book reviews here, of course, I do them over at Epinions and BookReporter.com, where I can score free review copies. But this is not a book review, it’s a movie review. And I can’t do it.
The best movie of 2003 is Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and it’s impossible for me to do a review. I love the movie, but I am not the guy you want to see it with, probably not the guy you want reviewing it, either. Not at all. I am going to be the guy to point out exactly how and how not the movie is faithful to the Patrick O’Brian canon. I am going to be the guy who will let you know that the real name of the Max Pirkis character is William Babbington, and not Lord Blakeney. I can tell you what parts of the movie were drawn from Master and Commander, the first book in the Aubrey-Maturin series, and what parts of the movie were drawn from The Far Side of the World, the tenth book in the series, and what else comes from the rest of the books.
I have all twenty books in my bookcase; I am looking at them right now. I bought my first copy of Master and Commander when I was in my second year of law school, over ten years ago. I have been reading and rereading the books ever since, and do not have the space here to tell you how excellent they are. Besides that, you’d never believe me anyway. You have to read the books — make the long-term committment to read all of them, to understand a minimum of the sea-going jargon, to comprehend the supreme importance of the weather-gauge, of course, but mostly to get to know, and to love, the characters of Captain Jack Aubrey and Doctor Stephen Maturin.
Or, you can just watch the movie.
I could spend, literally, hours of your time and reams of print explaining things about the movie — who Barrett Bonden (Billy Boyd, still looking very hobbit-like) is and why Aubrey trusts him, how trepanning works, what weight of metal HMS SURPRISE was carrying, and what the heck the deal is with all the smoke in the last battle scene. This is just for starters, you understand. I could go on.
{87,408 words omitted from original draft of review, discussing ways in which the movie deviates, or follows, the O’Brian canon}
However, this is a movie review, first and foremost, and what a movie this is to review, especially for those who love the O’Brian books. The centerpiece of the movie is the character of Captain Jack Aubrey, and Russell Crowe plays him as boldly and fearlessly as ever anyone could. The Far Side of the World is a near-perfect stage for Crowe, more than in his element here as an action star. His character here is that lion afloat, Jack Aubrey, sent to take or destroy a French frigate on a mission to prey on British whalers in the South Pacific. The wooden frame of HMS SURPRISE is a small world, but it has plenty of heroic scope for a man with enterprise, daring, and a bit of luck, and Crowe has all of this in spades. Crowe even manages to wink at that other side of the Aubrey character in a brief scene where he catches the eye of a fair Brazilian maiden.) Crowe’s incarnation of the Aubrey character is his best work to date, and should put him high up in the running for Oscar consideration.
The rest of the actors are primarily there to support their Captain, as they should. Paul Bettany is Stephen Maturin, Aubrey’s best friend and confidant; as ship’s surgeon and resident polymath, he has a degree of freedom to speak his mind around Crowe that the ship’s officers do not. He is not here in the movie as much a presence as he is in the books, where his friendship with Aubrey is the linchpin for the entire series. The books…
OK, wait. Wait. Just wait.
I can’t do this. I swear I can’t. The greatest thing — the best thing — about The Far Side of the World is that everyone involved, Weir, Crowe, Bettany, all the way down to the youngest ship’s boy, obviously loved the books and used them as their guide. Everything I love about the books — the archaic language, the devotion to honor, the exacting historical research, the conflicted and conflicting relationship between Aubrey and Maturin, the courage of the lower deck, the boom of the cannons, the roar of the typhoons around Cape Horn — it’s all in the movie. Every bit of it, and if the movie takes bits and pieces out of the different books, so be it.
But The Far Side of the World does more than that. It illustrates and illuminates the books. It shows us, rather than tells us, what it’s like to be on a gun crew getting hammered by a French frigate. It makes clear the complexities of rigging, as well as those of shipboard society. It takes us into Maturin’s cockpit, the hammock-deck, the topmasts - everyplace we’ve been in the books comes to us in magical, living color.
If you haven’t read the books, The Far Side of the World may be no more or less than a great movie; the story of a strong captain leading a questioning crew on a sea chase in the far reaches of the Pacific Ocean. If that’s all it is for you, it’s good enough. But if you know the books, love the books, you will be sailing on an ocean of delight all the way through. Seeing glories such as Maturin exploring on remote Pacific islands, being invited to a drunken dinner in Aubrey’s cabin, seeing the inimitable Preserved Killick (David Threlfall, nailing the character) preparing toasted cheese as the Captain and the Doctor sit down for a little Corelli duet — well then! What more could you possibly want, except perhaps to join them?
For me, The Far Side of the World was a transcendent experience. It is the best adaptation of O’Brian’s work there could ever be, or could hope to be. Thank you to Peter Weir and to Russell Crowe for giving me the opportunity to share in your great work.
I just wish I could write the review it deserves. But I can’t.