Re: Members opinions about Master and Commander
 

Never mind. I found the forum for sailing ship DVD's on this website! #-o

Richard

Re: Members opinions about Master and Commander
 

Re: Master & Commander:
I enjoyed the movie except for the ending which seems to require
a sequel.
HOWEVER:
1) In one shot the ship was moving along at a fair clip, but
obviously under power as the sails were taken aback. Careless.
2) In the early part of the movie when Surprise was being chased
by the French ship, and losing ground, she used an elaborate ruse
involving a raft with a light on it to escape. She then looped around
and chased the Frenchman. She was now able to keep up, due
(as I understood the dialogue) to the fact she was upwind from the
Frenchman and thereby had an advantage, namely the "weather gauge".
Of course this is nonsense, but maybe I misunderstood. Well, I'm
78 and somewhat deaf........

Denis J

Re: Members opinions about Master and Commander
 

I agree with you on all these points. I thought Crowe was OK as Jack, and better cast than the other two that you mention. A couple of other casting choices mentioned on POB interest boards include:

- Nick Nolte (in his younger and more sober days) as Jack Aubrey. He's got the rugged looks and big mane of blond hair for it.

- John Malkovich as Stephen. I particularly like this, as he could match Stephens "reptilian gaze" and "croaking laugh."

- A number of better choices for Bonden. Billy Boyd doesn't exactly look like he'd be the "boxing champion of the fleet," does he?

Too bad also that there wasn't time enough for scenes on land so we could see how they would cast Sophie and Diana.

Re: Members opinions about Master and Commander
 

Great movie, and the only recent Hollywood effort I'm aware of that seems to do a good job of being period accurate as far as the ships go.
From the purely physical descriptions in the books, I tend to agree. OTOH, and Peter Weir mentions this in one of the extras, on film that combination could come dangeriously close to having a ludicrous "Laural and Hardy" effect, which definitely would've ruined the tone of the movie.
I thought the movie did a great job of paying homage to the series; it seems I'm in the minority though in thinking it did justice to the books. I measure that not by the fact of trying to compare them directly, which seems difficult with such separate medium, but instead by the fact that the movie enriched my subsequent readings on the books rather than detracting from the experience. I felt they did a great job bringing the "feel" of the A/M world to life, without slavishly trying to duplicate any of the books directly.

The weather-gauge would give the windward ship the advantage of having the ability to choose their best point of sailing when approaching the leeward chase, thus potentially shifting the balance as to which ship would be faster. I don't remember off the top of my head if Surpise is depicted as sailing on a different line on the second day (when they have the weather gauge) from that of the first (when being chased). If not, this may just be one of the finer points of sailing missed by the movie-makers.

Re: Members opinions about Master and Commander
 

I liked the movie, but as the cliche goes, "the books were better." I'd have to say that the fantastic descriptions of 18th century warships were the inspiration for my modeling bug. I've only read the first four, so don't spoil it for me if you know the whole story.

Dregs -

Re: Members opinions about Master and Commander
 

Excellent movie . well acted and for the most part a good script . Supporting actors (ie. the crew) were in a word, "outstanding" . The below decks secnes were also well done . Also ,interesting to note the scene of the young crewman using the "heads"-- nice touch of realism - LOL --

Re: Members opinions about Master and Commander
 

The sound, photography, acting were all very good, but having read the books - they tried to jam 2 of O'Brians novels into 1 movie and did neither justice.

Re: entertainment
 

ooh, the smell of sea spray and black powder :banna:

if you like sailing ships, you have to love it....since their is so little else left to watch :(

Re: Members opinions about Master and Commander
 

I liked the movie very much. Found that the more times I watched it, the more I picked-up about the construction of the ship.

Re: Members opinions about Master and Commander
 

I count the movie among my 3 or 4 favorite movies.
I also believe that it was a good entry for many viewers into the books by Patrick O'Brian.
It was also able to bring across the atmosphere, although some of the details were wrong.
To sum up: It is an excellent movie due to the atmosphere it portrayed (helped out extremly by the actors of the lower decks) and it brought Patrick O'Brians world to all those who havnt read the books.

JD