2003 historical war, dir. Peter Weir, Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany;
IMDb /
AllMovie. In 1805, HMS Surprise
goes out hunting a French frigate…
Yes, I've given this the same introduction as my review of Das
Boot, because I feel it's trying to be very much the same sort of
film: it's not asking whether a particular war is right or wrong, it's
just about depicting what it's like to be fighting in that war. (In
this case of course it's on the side that we know, historically, is
going to win.)
As a depiction, it's pretty good. Even when Peter Weir gets put to
making a generic film, he does his best to pep it up a bit (see Green
Card, which in the hands of another director would have been a
standard rom-com, but manages to rise just a little above that). With
some decent source material to work with…
Well, I have to pause there. Several people whose judgement I very
much respect laud the Aubrey-Maturin stories; I've read Master and
Commander, and thought it all right, but not good enough to tempt me
to read another. Since then I've started reading the Hornblower books,
and perhaps when I've finished those I should try returning to
O'Brian, since he's clearly one of the authors who's trying to provide
more of the same. (The first of O'Brian's books came out three years
after Forester died, which makes the inspiration very clear.)
So it's not fair of me to dislike the film because it's not the book,
both because I didn't much rate the book and because they're different
media anyway. But I do think that Maturin in particular is very much
short-changed by the script's treatment: all his spying is forgotten,
and he's just a doctor and naturalist who for some reason has got
aboard this warship as the surgeon without being a naval officer. Yes,
all right, one of his jobs in the book is to be the bloke on the ship
who doesn't understand ships, so that things can be explained to him
(and to the reader), but that seems to be his main job here; some
impressive instances of surgery don't really make up for that.
Also the film is Frankensteined from at least four different books in
the series (opinions differ), which means that the through-line plot
(this enemy frigate is too tough for us to fight, but our job is to
fight her), which doesn't really have much momentum to start with, is
broken up by incidents and fragments of other stories which progress
at their own pace. The bookending of the film by the two major fights
feels as though the budget for action was stretched, and while it
doesn't entirely sag in the middle (a storm sequence is particularly
effective) the changes in mood and speed are very apparent.
It doesn't help that, true to the book, Aubrey and Maturin between
them have all the qualities of the ideal man, and they only differ so
that they can argue. Like Hornblower, Aubrey's job is to be Right
About Ships; unlike Hornblower, who's at least mildly humanised by his
self-loathing, his non-naval activities as shown here are restricted
to playing the violin with Maturin. (The decision to remove all port
scenes also means that the only women on screen are a few non-speaking
natives in canoes.) There's some effort to show the burden of command,
but a medium-good episode of Star Trek can do that better.
This was a pet project of Tom Rothman, who'd become chairman of Fox
Filmed Entertainment in 2000, and immediately authorised production of
the film. Unfortunately, by the time it came out in 2003, the
filmgoing public's mood had shifted much more towards escapist
spectacle than grim realism, and while this wasn't a complete failure
its returns didn't justify any further films (though I gather
something is now theoretically in the works, of course with a
different cast and crew).
But, but. As an audiovisual spectacle it's excellent (and that's
where it won its Oscars, for cinematography and sound editing). The
tiny island of human life in a great big hostile environment reminded
me both of Das Boot and of the snowy landscapes in Fargo; the
great clouds of gunsmoke hide what's going on, as historically they
would have; and if some of the chaos of storms and boarding actions
never quite resolves into working out just what's going on, well, I
find that I I forgive it. Richard King the sound designer did a lot of
work with reenactors to get not only the sound of the right sort of
gun but the other sounds made when projectiles hit targets, and the
visceral impact largely does its job of causing me not to think about
the weakness of plot and characterisation. At least at the time.
As usual if you want more of my witterings you should listen to
Ribbon of Memes.
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