Post by klep on Apr 5, 2021 9:09:18 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 4/4: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
EXPLORATION WEEK!
We hold a romantic place in our hearts for the Age of Sail. There's some ineffable allure of voyaging the high seas in a wooden ship, timbers creaking as the wind propels her through the waves, seeking fortune in discovery or plunder. It powered a $4.5 billion dollar film franchise in Pirates of the Caribbean that still threatens us with new installments to this day, and just a few months ago we collectively spent a couple weeks singing sea shanties.
At a time when Pirates of the Caribbean was still fresh, giving us fantastic tales full of magic and mystery, Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World countered with a more grounded and realistic view of a life at sea. Based on the novels by Patrick O'Brian, Weir's film follows Captain "Lucky" Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe), his friend and ship's physician Dr. Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany), and the crew of HMS Surprise as they hunt a French privateer the Acheron during the Napoleonic Wars.
Great care was taken to make the film as accurate to the era as possible. Crowe and Bettany learned the violin and cello respectively, the sound team went out to find actual cannons to record, cast members were instructed in naval life of the period, and parts of the filming were done on the Rose, a reproduction of an 18th century vessel (much of the rest was done on the set used for filming Titanic). Weir was even able to film scenes on the Galapagos islands. The result is a film that never feels like anything other than an authentic seagoing experience. We see stretches of boredom alleviated by stories and song and punctuated by the brief chaos of combat, rampant superstition to exert control over natural forces that could snuff them out in an instant, crew of all ages including the too old and the too young, and yes the horrors of pre-antibiotic, pre-anaesthesia medical care.
And of course it gives a fantastic portrayal of naval combat, as the Surprise and Acheron play cat and mouse up and down the South American coast. We see how battles could be decided in an instant thanks to vagaries of fog, or how they could drag on for days and weeks as ships give chase in the sea and vie for position. Ultimately the Surprise is able to win the day against a vessel that heavily outclasses her, but only by virtue of a clever ruse from Captain Jack - and even then the battle to take her is bloody and messy.
At the film's heart is the relationship between Aubrey and Maturin, one a proud Englishman devoted to King, Country, and duty and the other a doctor, naturalist, and Irishman fond of neither war nor the Crown. While their discussions come to a head most prominently over a broken promise to allow Maturin time on the Galapagos, the undercurrent is always one of where Aubrey's duty should most prominently rest - with his orders from the Crown or the men risking their lives to follow him. Though principled, they both show a willingness to make sacrifices for the other when truly important and, though neither really wins their argument, by films' end each has come to at least understand more of the other's position.
While Master and Commander performed well at the box office, it didn't gross much more than its budget and unfortunately never saw a sequel despite avid interest from its star. With the Pirates films dominating box offices and superhero stories on the rise, it just seemed like there wasn't enough space for an exquisitely crafted naval period piece - a victim of being not quite successful enough. A shame to think that in another universe there's a long-running successful Master and Commander franchise of early 19th century seafaring action (there are nearly as many Aubrey-Maturin stories by O'Brien as Fleming wrote Bond stories). The Pirates and now Marvel movies have increasingly given us fantastical CGI spectacle as they get wilder and weirder, but as Maturin finds on the Galapagos there's plenty enough strange and exciting in the real world to keep us busy for a lifetime.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 4/12: King Kong
KAIJU WEEK!
For Kaiju Week we'll be discussing one of the earliest films that could credibly be placed in the genre with the legendary 1933 film King Kong. Join us next week as we discuss this tragic tale of colonialist exploitation. King Kong is available on HBO Max and Watch TCM and can be rented from the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 4/6: Tina
The podcast continues its look at Tina Turner with this new HBO documentary. Join us Wednesday for our discussion of Tina, available on HBO Max.
EXPLORATION WEEK!
We hold a romantic place in our hearts for the Age of Sail. There's some ineffable allure of voyaging the high seas in a wooden ship, timbers creaking as the wind propels her through the waves, seeking fortune in discovery or plunder. It powered a $4.5 billion dollar film franchise in Pirates of the Caribbean that still threatens us with new installments to this day, and just a few months ago we collectively spent a couple weeks singing sea shanties.
At a time when Pirates of the Caribbean was still fresh, giving us fantastic tales full of magic and mystery, Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World countered with a more grounded and realistic view of a life at sea. Based on the novels by Patrick O'Brian, Weir's film follows Captain "Lucky" Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe), his friend and ship's physician Dr. Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany), and the crew of HMS Surprise as they hunt a French privateer the Acheron during the Napoleonic Wars.
Great care was taken to make the film as accurate to the era as possible. Crowe and Bettany learned the violin and cello respectively, the sound team went out to find actual cannons to record, cast members were instructed in naval life of the period, and parts of the filming were done on the Rose, a reproduction of an 18th century vessel (much of the rest was done on the set used for filming Titanic). Weir was even able to film scenes on the Galapagos islands. The result is a film that never feels like anything other than an authentic seagoing experience. We see stretches of boredom alleviated by stories and song and punctuated by the brief chaos of combat, rampant superstition to exert control over natural forces that could snuff them out in an instant, crew of all ages including the too old and the too young, and yes the horrors of pre-antibiotic, pre-anaesthesia medical care.
And of course it gives a fantastic portrayal of naval combat, as the Surprise and Acheron play cat and mouse up and down the South American coast. We see how battles could be decided in an instant thanks to vagaries of fog, or how they could drag on for days and weeks as ships give chase in the sea and vie for position. Ultimately the Surprise is able to win the day against a vessel that heavily outclasses her, but only by virtue of a clever ruse from Captain Jack - and even then the battle to take her is bloody and messy.
At the film's heart is the relationship between Aubrey and Maturin, one a proud Englishman devoted to King, Country, and duty and the other a doctor, naturalist, and Irishman fond of neither war nor the Crown. While their discussions come to a head most prominently over a broken promise to allow Maturin time on the Galapagos, the undercurrent is always one of where Aubrey's duty should most prominently rest - with his orders from the Crown or the men risking their lives to follow him. Though principled, they both show a willingness to make sacrifices for the other when truly important and, though neither really wins their argument, by films' end each has come to at least understand more of the other's position.
While Master and Commander performed well at the box office, it didn't gross much more than its budget and unfortunately never saw a sequel despite avid interest from its star. With the Pirates films dominating box offices and superhero stories on the rise, it just seemed like there wasn't enough space for an exquisitely crafted naval period piece - a victim of being not quite successful enough. A shame to think that in another universe there's a long-running successful Master and Commander franchise of early 19th century seafaring action (there are nearly as many Aubrey-Maturin stories by O'Brien as Fleming wrote Bond stories). The Pirates and now Marvel movies have increasingly given us fantastical CGI spectacle as they get wilder and weirder, but as Maturin finds on the Galapagos there's plenty enough strange and exciting in the real world to keep us busy for a lifetime.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 4/12: King Kong
KAIJU WEEK!
For Kaiju Week we'll be discussing one of the earliest films that could credibly be placed in the genre with the legendary 1933 film King Kong. Join us next week as we discuss this tragic tale of colonialist exploitation. King Kong is available on HBO Max and Watch TCM and can be rented from the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 4/6: Tina
The podcast continues its look at Tina Turner with this new HBO documentary. Join us Wednesday for our discussion of Tina, available on HBO Max.