Last night I watched “Master and Commander: The Far Side Of The World.” I thought it was naff, to be honest. Had some truly, truly dire scenes (and to be fair, some rather good ones too).
Anyway, since there’s a very small scene where our Jolly Jacks are on deck relaxing to some ‘traditional’ music, and knowing how much of an effect such scenes can have on the viewing public, I just wanted to be the first to say:
“Hi, I saw “Master and Commander” and really liked the sound of the tin whistle. Can anyone tell me what the tune was called?”
A: Apparently the tune is called “The Cuckold Came Out Of The Amery”. Bach and Mozart got the most playing time.
Great movie and glad it won two oscars from the scant LOTR orts. The beautiful Gallapogos, the “lesser of two weevils” scene, Paul Bettany, great pacing, directing, shooting with nicely done historical context. A thoroughly entertaining movie that despite the gore and tension of the chase, managed to come off as light-hearted (fun ending, etc.).
As I recall, the whistling was all of several seconds, but welcome nonetheless.
Yup, naff. Like, the stupidity of a Royal Marine even considering shooting an Albatross (particularly after all the Jonah nonsense in prior scenes) with a Brown Bess (which would’ve been .75 calibre). And accidentally hitting the doctor on deck (even though the bird was flying over the rigging). And the doctor being mildly discomfitted by being hit with a three-quarters-of-an-inch ball weighing a tenth of a pound doing 800fps. And said doctor not only just being mildly discomfitted (oh gosh, there’s a bit of shirt in the wound which might cause an infection…!) but later operating on himself to remove the ball. Brings a whole new meaning to “physician, heal thyself”.
And of course the whole naffitude of said doctor being “the first naturalist on the Galapogos Islands”…and being able to wander around collecting specimens scant days after removing the minor discomfort of a girt big musket ball from his liver…
The opening scenes were great. The storm scenes were great. The pursuit and battle scenes were great. But the middle of the film was suffused with considerable naffitude.
I much prefer the “Hornblower” series meself. But then that’s just my opinion
What the film managed to do best was
create the feeling that you were
really on one of these ships in
that day. It’s too bad so much of
the action was a bit muddled.
I wonder if this is the beginning
of a series, there were a few of
these novels.
P. S. I do wish that in the scenes where
the captain and the doctor were playing
duets on violin and cello, they had
sounded like good amateurs, not
Yascha Heifetz and Yo Yo Ma.
I thought the movie was great and it led to my reading the Aubrey/Maturin series of books by Patrick O’Brian (four of them anyway). I enjoy the books but this is a case where the movie was better. If I had not seen the movie first the books would have been more difficult to follow.
One difference that struck me is how Maturin is portrayed in the books vs. the movie. In the movie, he seemed like pretty much of a pacifist, where in the books he is a spy who kills without much regret and spends half his time pining over the American Diana Villers. I do think Russell Crowe was an excellent choice for Aubrey.
One other interesting aspect is that in the movie the ship Aubrey is pursuing is the French Archeron, where in the books they are pursuing an American frigate. I’m guessing this was to make the movie more accessible to a US audience and I wonder if would have been as successful otherwise.
I MUST reply to this thread! Apart from REALLY liking Master & Commander (it pushed me over the edge, inspiration-wise, and induced me to FINALLY attempt an instrument I have always wanted to play but feared: the violin), I just happened to be on board the HMS Surprise on Tuesday!
I took a trip there with my Dad, who lives in Southern California. He also really liked the movie, and so we took the train from LA to San Diego–which is a beautiful train ride, by the way–to visit the museum, which is a mere 10-min walk from the Amtrak station. We must have spent an hour aboard the Surprise–below decks is a sort of mini “Master & Commander” museum, and they had a period-dressed docent giving talks about the ship and the movie.
Now, after seeing and so much liking the movie, I have been inspired to try the books, which I am liking. But I’ve always liked ships and historial re-creations, especially, so the whole thing coming together was pretty delightful. I highly recommend a visit, if anyone lives or will be in the area.
Of course, the crowning glory here is…yes, I had my little Dixon with me and played a few tunes. That’s right–I whistled on board the ACTUAL Surprise, so no one can tell me that art doesn’t imitate life (or in this case, life was imitating art, I guess).
Anyway, I took lots of pics and will post them when I get them.
My summary of Master and Commander:
Something almost happens…
But doesn’t…
You think something might happen…
It almost does…
But doesn’t…
A character you don’t care about at all dies…
You don’t care…
Something almost happens…
But doen’t…
Finally something kind of happens…
But not really…
You don’t care…
Three hours later you walk out wondering why the hell you sat for 3 hours waiting for something to happen, all the while suffering through horrible acting, an unintelligible storyline, excruciatingly bad “character development”, etc. You just wasted 3 hours of your life.
So, no, I didn’t like it very much.
And I LOVE boats, the sea, adventures, epic movie, etc.
Hey Chris, looks like we may have the beginnings of a “reverse barometer” relationship with respect to movies. Anything else you hated? Can’t wait to see them…
I liked Master and Commander very much but I have read the entire series by Patrick O’Brian, some of the books twice. As I watched M&C I thought that the film would be difficult to follow for those who had not read at least some of the books. O’Brian has several books to develop the characters of Aubrey and Maturin that were only briefly refered to in passing in the film. He explains the daily life of a Royal Navy ship and lots about the rigging, etc. If you don’t like that stuff the books are not for you. But I was fascinated by it and read all 20 books in a one year period. Needless to say I was not yet playing the whistle at that time so I had more reading time.
Mike
Actually, B, I think I’d probably love the book. I grew up sailing, used to be a sailing instructor, am very into maritime history, etc. I think I’ll probably pick the book up someday. I’ve heard it’s quite good.
Best,
chris
Well, I guess I’m spoiled. My grandfather was in the Royal Marines, my father was in the Royal Navy, I went to the Royal Navy boarding school in Ipswich, and lived a fair chunk of my life in and around Portsmouth. Naturally I trod the planking of HMS Victory on many occasions.
I liked Chris’s review of the movie, and have to say I agreed with it muchly.
It was jolly convenient that a member of the crew was married to an American girl whose cousin took him to see the Acheron being built (“in a yankee shipyard”)…thus enabling him and his oppo the carpenter’s mate to knock up a meticulously detailed model of the enemy ship…
Haven’t read the books on which the film was based. But I still commend the “Horatio Hornblower” series.
Oh and I owned an India Pattern Brown Bess musket and used to compete with it at Bisley. The doctor would not have survived the hit he took. Little Lord Blakeney would’ve been incredibly lucky to survive the loss of his arm (wasn’t he sweet?) and the old gadger surviving a trepanning at sea in those days would’ve rightly earned the salty nickname of “Lucky Old Bugger” and no mistake
Because I love reading about the age of sail, and Capn Cook in particular, I liked the movie. I didn’t think all that much of the story and noticed some of the observations above but tell me: has any other movie conveyed what must have been the horror to be on the firing deck in battle?
The flying splinters and all, the sheared masts and rain of riggin’ was just awesome. I am pretty sure that’s how it really was…
And yeah, I am a Hornblower fan. Read all those books years ago and like the tv series too. Funny to contemplate that they were WW2 propaganda to bolster English spirits.
Yes, this was one of the disappointing revisions to O’Brian’s original writing, where Maturin is injured not on ship by a Brown Bess, but on land, in a duel, by a pistol-shot. And in fact, before the duel, Maturin removes his shirt precisely because he wishes to avoid infection from fibers entering the wound. In the book, he does still operate on himself, so the movie got that right.
I am enjoying the Aubrey-Maturin series very much. However, O’Brian’s style is not that of Cussler or Clancy, so a fascination with the history of the Age of Sail is rather essential to making it through these books.
