Review of Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World (Collector`s Edition Two Discs)

Introduction

It`s 1805 and the HMS Surprise is sailing off the coast of Brazil. Commanded by Captain Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe), it`s mission is to capture or sink the French vessel Acheron. Aubrey is known as `Lucky Jack` to his crew, but almost immediately the Surprise is surprised by the Acheron coming out of dense fog with cannons blazing. In a short but bloody battle, HMS Surprise is badly damaged and has suffered large casualties. Some ingenuity and hard graft saves her from certain defeat from the much larger and powerful aggressor. Despite this setback, Aubrey decides to make running repairs and give chase to the Frenchies and give them a good seeing to.

Directed by Peter Weir (Oscar winner with The Truman Show, Dead Poets Society and Witness), this film was nominated for 10 Oscars but only won 2 (although bar a sticker on the packaging this is never mentioned once by any of the cast or crew). Then again, it was up against The Return Of The King, and I doubt many would mind Peter Jackson`s time in the spotlight after being studiously ignored on the previous two occasions.

Video

The film is presented anamorphically in its original 2.35:1 ratio on a dual layer disc, with sharp picture and strong colours. The colours change with the tone of the film, sharp vibrant colour for the more laid-back paradise shots, with mostly a subdued blue/grey tone during the action pieces. It is also worth mentioning at this point that the film won the Cinematography Oscar for 2004.

Audio

Good use of environmental sounds such as wind and sea. There are lots of background noise to make you believe you are really on this ship and the battle sounds are very impressive with cannonballs and splintered wood whizzing across your living room. A good soundtrack produced by Iva Davies (of Australian band Icehouse), Richard Tognetti (violinist) and Christopher Gordon. These three had previously collaborated on a new interpretation of the Icehouse track Great Southern Land called The Ghost Of Time. This track was performed as part of the Sydney Millennium celebrations at the Sydney Opera House. As above it is also of note that this film won the 2004 Oscar for Sound Editing.

Features

There is somewhat of a trend at the moment to release 1 and 2 disc editions of popular films simultaneously. There is a price differential, the cheaper bare bones version for those who just like to watch the film itself. Personally I like to watch decent extras that show me how the film was made, even if 99% of the time I`m only going to watch them once. This one is stuffed to the gills with decent extras.

Disc 1

Trailers - a selection of trailers precedes the film, annoyingly aping the way old VHS cassettes were compiled. Luckily judicious use of the Menu button can avoid having to sit through these.

First Look at I, Robot - 2.5 minute preview of the Will Smith film, mostly fluff but interesting.

Text advert for fox.co.uk - completely useless, particularly as there is a full-length ad for foxinternational.com at the start of the disc.

Disc 2

Deleted Scenes: These scenes were presumably cut for pacing reasons as they range between 2 to 10 minutes in length. All just give you more of an idea of what life was like aboard a ship like the HMS Surprise. The film loses out on a bit more atmosphere, but the story would not have been affected by the inclusion of these.

The Hundred Days: This is a very detailed documentary that tracks the film from pre to post production and is very informative. Interviews with crew and cast and lasts 68 minutes.

In The Wake Of O`Brian (19 minutes): Explores the writing of Patrick O`Brian and Weir`s script-writing, and how Weir wanted to capture the essence and feel of the original narrative.

Cinematic Phasmids (30 minutes): Subtitled as the art of deception, this documentary looks at the SFX contained in the film. Mostly about the use of CG and models, the life-size in the tank and the smaller one produced by Weta Workshops. Detail on how they achieved the FX for battle damage and weather elements plus the SFX needed for the Galapagos Islands portion of the film.

Sound Design (18 minutes): Interview by Richard King (Sound Designer) on the search for sounds to be incorporated into the sound FX for the film. This documentary also provides a good demonstration of the use of looped dialogue versus location audio.

Interactive Sound Recording Demo: This feature allows you to hear how the sound of cannon fire was recorded (as seen in the Sound Design doc) through each of the 7 microphones used. You can hear each one individually and collectively.

HBO 1st Look: follows the trend of previous editions of this doc, and is quite interesting although there is some minor repetition from the Hundred Days documentary.

Multi-Camera Shooting: Much of this film was shot using multiple cameras. This filming strategy has numerous pitfalls, but it was decided that the benefits outweighed the drawbacks. There are three sections to this feature. `Surprising the Surprise` and `Final Battle` are just straight-forward shots captured on the multiple cameras. You can view each one individually and swap between them using the Angle button, although I preferred to see them all together on one screen. The vignette explains some of the reasoning behind the multi-camera strategy and shows how some of the shots came together.

Still Galleries: I`m not a massive fan of Still Galleries, seems a lazy way to fill a DVD in my mind by just dropping in a lot of still photographs. There are four presented here and they are actually quite interesting. Conceptual Art by George Jensen shows some sketches that illustrate life onboard the HMS Surprise. Conceptual Art by Daren Dochterman deals with both ship design and ship damage, as well as the Galapagos camp. Naval Art shows some of the key images that Weir and his crew used for reference in their search for cinematic inspiration. Technical Drawings presents detailed schematics of both HMS Surprise and the Acheron - the former based on real plan kept by the Admiralty in Whitehall for the real HMS Surprise.

Conclusion

Really this film format is familiar to most British TV watchers, being a larger budget version of Hornblower. That`s not to say it`s not enjoyable, but it`s not exactly groundbreaking either. Russell Crowe (Aubrey) and Paul Bettany (Stephen Maturin) lead the way as good friends who find their relationship under strain as their different cultural backgrounds clash under trying circumstances. Aubrey is the brash Naval Commander who has an overriding sense of duty and has his pride severely dented by the attack of the Acheron (there is definitely a certain irony about an Australian playing a British Naval Captain of this era). Maturin is a Doctor and has the air of a modern man, more concerned with the welfare of the crew and his interest in botanical exploration than the fact his country is at war and he`s serving on a warship. Maturin also tends to play the part of Aubrey`s conscience and there is good interaction between the two. Aubrey also shows how rooted he is in Naval tradition and superstition when Maturin realises that Aubrey actually believes the ship talk of a Jonah in the crew.

The Surprise crew is made up of a good ensemble cast, notably Billy Boyd in his first role post-LOTR. Surprisingly (or maybe not considering his track record) they all seemed to jump at the chance to work on this film despite a warning from Weir that they may not get large parts. Special note should go to Max Perkis (Blakeney) who gives a solid performance as the one-armed young midshipman, his character a mix of the raw courage of Aubrey and the exploring sensitive side of Maturin.

This film is essentially the Naval equivalent of a movie length car chase, the main plot being quite simply the French chasing the English, and vice-versa. In between, however, the film takes the time to explore life aboard a vessel during this time period with painstaking accuracy and also explore key themes of friendship, loyalty and trust. Whilst the battle scenes are big and impressive, I would venture that what happens in between is probably more important and is what holds this film together. If you like big battles then you`ll only really watch the beginning and end, but if you persevere with the rest of this film then you might just be able to start to understand what made the Royal Navy so great.