12-13-2007, 12:18 AM
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Paul's Avatar
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Current Project: LTS
Project Status: I'm a Newbie (Don't know where to start)
Location: DC Metro
Posts: 3
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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.
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Originally Posted by Gene
Russel Crowe was a pretty good Capt. Aubrey though I don't think he's anywhere 13 stone! Steven Maturin wasn't what I expected. He wasn't small enough, looked too good to be Steven.
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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.
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After having read the Aubrey, Maturin series over six times (there comes a time when you loose count) I've come to know Steven and Jack as friends. I kind of hoped the movie would have followed the books a little closer but again the movie was great!!
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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.
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Originally Posted by dennjohn
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........ |
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.
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definately great entertainment and that what we went for. The two young grandsons were entranced with the film. The sound effects were "ace" made me think that "smell effects" would add to a film. The Viking Museum in York has a section with the smells relevant to a Viking settlement. I not give the details, but the smell of fish was the least offensive.