Master and Commander

One of my favorite movies is “Master and Commander,” directed by PeterWier and starring Russell Crowe.  This movie is based on the seafaring novels by Patrick O’Brian – I believe he wrote 20 before he died, and I have read the first 9 of them.   I loved the books and when I learned that a movie was to be made adapting them, I was more than eager to see it.  Ever since I was a kid I have been fascinated with seafaring tales.  I read all the Howard Pease books, e.g. “The Tattooed Man” when I was in 4th grade.  Later, and continuing to today I have read many books about the seafaring explores like Magellan and Drake, as well as fictional “sea tales”  such as “Voyage” by Sterling Hayden the actor. Of course sea battles between sailing vessels have been at the top of my list.  I saw “Master and Commander” in a theater right after it came out and it just blew me away.  I then bought the DVD and have enjoyed it even more in subsequent viewings.

Anyway, yesterday I was  channel flipping and came across “Master and Commander” at about its half-way point.  Of course I was mesmerized and watched it until the end.  That partial viewing confirmed my belief that the film is underrated, even taking into consideration my obvious bias.  I could try to explain all the wonderful things about “Master and Commander,” but I’ll simply say that if you have not seen it, please check it out, and if you have seen it, give it re-watch and you won’t regret it.   It has it all:  adventure, humor, pathos, awesome battles, gorgeous cinematography, a stint on the Galapagos islands, and one of Russell Crowe’s best performances. 

Seeing it again yesterday made me realize that there are not a lot of movies that I will re-watch over and over, but “Master and Commander” is cetainly one of them.  Another one that always hooks me  if I’m channel flipping is “48 Hours” with Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy in one if his very early roles, which was directed by Walter Hill.  In fact, I think I’ll make my next post be a list of movies that I will pretty much always end up watching if I’m channel flipping.

I’ll close here with the last paragraph of Roger Ebert’s review of “Master and Commander:”

"Master and Commander" is grand and glorious, and touching in its attention to its characters. Like the work of David Lean, it achieves the epic without losing sight of the human, and to see it is to be reminded of the way great action movies can rouse and exhilarate us, can affirm life instead of simply dramatizing its destruction.