I just got back from seeing this. What a fantastic film! With all due respect to one of my heros, Eroll Flynn, this may be the best slice of period nauitcal life I have seen. I saw it projected digitally and did not notice any cap-codes. However, there was about two frames worth of some kind of pixelation at one point. I am so glad this film rose above the pablum of the majority.

Just saw it and loved it, but my wife was bored with it. Peter Weir did an outstanding job!

jeez I felt the movie was like one of those films that your high school History teachers made you see and give a report on. The effects were great, but the story was pretty predicatable. Russell's acting relayed completely on his charisma. The surgical scenes were tepid and nowhere as convincing or as realistic (as they should have been IMO) as to what the television show ER does. A subplot that has no resolution. A nonmemorable score. The now-cliched movie opening grabber battle sequence seems very deriative and obligatory. I kept on waiting for a scene to really impress me and give me an emotion, it never happened. Very very disappointing.

How do you compare a surgeon on a ship in the 1800s to ER?

Just got back from seeing this. I thought it was good. The first 20 minutes were amazing and when the ships do battle it was really good. Sagged in the middle for my liking.
But in a very weird way it made me feel proud, being from England and to know these sort of battles went on for my country.

Am I the only one who didn't understand the ending?

DVDTalker Ted The Bug, yes, I think we as viewers were supposed to infer that the French "doctor" was indeed the French Captain. If I recall correctly, the "doctor" says that the captain just died on the operating table and hands over the supposed dead Captain's sword. As to why they had to once again chase after the Acheron, I am guessing that the French "doctor" would not be imprisoned on the Acheron. He would be seen as non-threatening and a non-combatant and perhaps as a courtesy of war be given relatively free reign on the ship. Plus since Maturin stayed as doctor on the English ship, perhaps the French "doctor" would also be relatively free in that he might as a humanitarian gesture be treating both French and English wounded. Overstating to clarify the point now, but the French "doctor" - since he is actually the French Captain - would now be like an undercover Rambo on the Acheron. The English don't see him as a threat; he would have access to weapons (the surgical instruments); people to help him (the less seriously injured French crew he is treating); and might have an easy time overpowering any superficial/unsuspecting guards who are watching him and gaining their weapons too. At night, it is foreseeable that he could in some way let the other prisoners free and take over the ship (at least that's how it would go in the old Errol Flynn movies). As far as a sequel goes, yes, you are supposed to get the idea there is going to be a sequel though I don't necessarily think we are to expect the sequel to be tied directly to the Acheron storyline of the film. I read the ending as more of a "stay tuned for the further adventures" type of ending. I'd expect the sequel to be a different story altogether perhaps with just a passing reference or prologue resolving what happened with the Acheron (but I could be wrong since I haven't read the books.

The biggest problem I had with Master and Commander (and I wouldn't call it a problem, per se) was its novelistic tendacies. What I mean is that the movie felt like an abbreviated novel, its literary roots were very obvious and disruptive. There just was no flow. It seemed that scenes were just there to illustrate points that were certainly explored in much greater depth in the book. And you cannot incorporate every scene from the book into the film so characters suffer and become decoration. Even the relationship between the captain and doctor seemed like window dressing. A reviewer said it well that the ships themselves are what Weir was really interested in.

That said, I enjoyed the movie enough and I appreciate that the script took this route over a cookie-cutter hollywood plot complete with love interest and triumph of humanity. There were many scenes I found interesting and scenes that were beautiful. The boarding of the Acheron brought fond memories of Captain Blood. But as a whole it just didn't click as well as it could have.

Thanks flixtime that makes much more sense now....

Anybody who has read the book care to comment on the ending?

Actually when the Captain is talking to the Doctor, he says
something to the effect that the French Doc would be the Doc on
the other ship. That's when he's told that the French Doc died in
the battle and he realizes the Captain is running around loose on
the Acheron.

Hope this helps.

Jason

Can anybody comment on if the book shows what happens when they turn around to go back to the Acheron or if the book ends the same as the movie?

Excellent film that I had been looking forward to all year, since I am a big fan of the novels.

The film is pretty loosely based on the book, so to ask about the ending is not really useful as it does not happen in the book like that.

The book that the film is based on is the 10th book in a 20-novel series, "The Far Side of the World". The 1st of the series is "Master and Commander". Some of the minor incidents are based on the other books.

In the book, set in 1813/14, the Surprise is chasing the American frigate Norfolk. The whole thing is based on a true incident from the war of 1812 when the USS Essex was captured off Valparaiso, Chile, by HMS Phoebe. I guess they had to change the premise for the American market ;-). Everyone hates the French and the British were fighting the Napoleonic Wars so it was easy to move the incident to 1805, I suppose.

However, it does not follow the book very closely, even when this change is accepted - but I won't spoil the book for those that have not yet read it.

There are far more sub-plots and incidents in the book. The book also relates to the others in the series very closely - they should really be read as a continuing story rather than separate stand-alone novels.

I don't know where anybody gets the idea that the crew thought there was a spy aboard. 18th/19th century sailors were notoriously superstitious (even the officers, as demonstrated in the film) and in the film they believed they had a Jonah aboard - someone who brings bad luck. Everything bad happened on his watch, including the storm.

Flixtime has explained the ending perfectly. In any event officers would generally be on parole.

The books are far more literary than simple action adventures, by the way. They have many layers of complexity, character development, plot, background etc and they evoke the times and their manners amazingly well. Much, much better than Hornblower. And the Maturin character is an Irishman with a few surpises up his sleeve. The books are very comic at times, too.

The weevil joke is just one minor example. There is a brilliant cricket set-piece joke, that looked for a brief moment as if they were going to use in the film (but they didn't), and an amazing description of how dog-watches came to be so-named.

Re: Master And Commander Review
 

Trying to find the best thread for this movie and decided to post in this one. I watched the new 4k release recently and it reminded me of how much I loved this movie. I haven't watched it since it was released on home video over 22 years ago. It still holds up for me.

Re: Master And Commander Review
 

22-year thread bump! Is that some kind of a record? This thread is from the dim, dark past from years before I even joined DVD Talk.

Re: Master And Commander Review
 

How's the PQ, worth the upgrade? Blu-ray.com 's review wasn't all that glowing.

Re: Master And Commander Review
 

I just paid $5 for the 4K upgrade on Fandango at Home. I watched it on Movies Anywhere. I thought it looked good. I didn't feel like spending $40 for the 4K disc.

Re: Master And Commander Review
 

I'll probably do the same. I love the film, but screw the $40 price tag. It's also a bare bones release.

Re: Master And Commander Review
 

The blu-ray is hard to find too?

Some guy at Amazon is selling 20 copies for $44 or trying to scam people thinking it is 4k?

Re: Master And Commander Review
 

Looks like it's out of print. The 4k Steelbook is sold out at Amazon.

Re: Master And Commander Review
 

I cannot find a single negative thing to say about Master and Commander. By far my favorite ship movie.

Re: Master And Commander Review
 

I've read it looks good, as long as you accept it is based on a very old DI. The real issue is that the 4K has less deep bass than the BD, which itself already had less deep bass than the phenomenal sounding DVD.

Re: Master And Commander Review
 

Maybe they release a standard 4k with no steelbook in the future?

Re: Master And Commander Review
 

I still think that the whole "neutered" bass complaints are a bunch of horseshit. I have a 5.2.2 system and it rocked hard. I don't care what some stupid audio-graph says. They make it seem like it's a lightweight sounding soundtrack and it's not.

Re: Master And Commander Review
 

I'll find out whenever Amazon deems fit to send me my pre-ordered copy. I never got the BD, but I still have the DVD so I'll be able to compare directly. I know for a fact that claims of Edge Of Tomorrow having deepier/louder bass on BD versus 4K are very true (I own both). However, that movie still sounded fantastic on 4K despite the reduced bass, which I would have been blissfully unaware had I not owned the BD. If Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World turns out like that, I will not be too upset.