Master and Commander: it's a good thing I like cello music

[rm]

It probably would have helped had I read these books before seeing this, because then I would have cared about the characters and perhaps been less utterly lost with all the mumbly nautical talk.

And perhaps Kat and I were just extra extra punchy, but oh my god, I have never engaged in so much inappropriate laughter during what is truly a very well made film. I wish I had someting cogent to say, but I don't -- there's cello music and men bonding and a brave little cripple boy and lizards and some pretty boats! Oh.... being a bad person has never been so fun.

All that aside though, another stellar performance from Paul Bettany.

So has anyone else seen this. What the hell did you make of it?

Comments

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

Not much besides, "Heavens, what an interesting way for Peter Weir to follow up The Truman Show"- although he did direct Gallipoli, which has some similarities. The books themselves are basically O'Brian's spin on the Horatio Hornblower novels (Dad was Navy in the very tail end of WWII, so they've been around the house since forever)- although Weir & Co. cleverly change the villains from Americans, as in the book, to French.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I'm going to see it soon, in large part because it is directed by Peter Weir. I loved his Australian-made films - The Last Wave is a work of total genius (that oddly only works if seen on the big screen, on video it was nothing special to me), Picnic at Hanging Rock was hauntingly wonderful, and The Year of Living Dangerously is very special for me for a multitude of reasons.

I keep hoping his US films will measure up - Witness was half wonderful and half standard crime flick, I found The Mosquito Coast tiresome, but he recaptured much of his magic in The Truman Show. When his is on, he does disconnection and dealing with otherness better than any director I know, regardless of whether "the other" is a haunted visionary landscape or the back streets of Jakarta.

Did Weir manage to produce a similar sense of disconnection with people out on the high seas?

[kalyx.livejournal.com]

I liked it. I have really enjoyed Weir's work in the past and went in to Master and Commander expecting it to be one of my favorite films of the year. That said, I liked it, had no problems following it and thought it was a good film, but didn't personally connect with the film.

I did really like the ship's doctor. So although, I didn't get into the nautical stuff, I did enjoy the subplot with the Galapagos islands. It was also an interesting study of the power dynamics that occur on ships. Personal power dynamics is something of a personal fascination because I just don't understand them. That is probably why I found myself identifying with the doctor, because he existed outside of that world and outside of the power structure.

Over all, I liked the film. I liked the performances. I found several characters intriguing and the plot interesting but it I don't have any enthusiasm for the film. Boats and war will never be things that will get me to the cinema.

[rezendi.livejournal.com]

Riveted. Mesmerized. Adored it.

Mind you I was weaned on C.S. Forester's Hornblower novels.

It's an impressively Y-chromosome film. A single 10-second glimpse of a woman - who doesn't say a single word - during a 135-minute film otherwise entirely devoted to men. Shades of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA or DAS BOOT.

[rm.livejournal.com]

And I was totally fine with that -- I just felt like I wasn't let into the world to care about the characters until halfway through, and it was hard for me to get worked up by then.

In fact, I think that one shot of a woman, as well, as the picture of the picture of his wife we're both unnecessary, "look there are girls!" moments -- it was distracting to the damn story and seemed like "oh right, they have to acknowledge chicks."