At least one subplot involving an officer who is disliked by the enlisted men and wonders if he is cursed, could easily have been excised, resulting in a tighter storyline. Some of this stuff - such as Maturin teaching a willing "disciple" about his naturalist hobby - is fascinating. There are a few tense moments, such as when the Surprise encounters a typhoon off the coast of Cape Horn, but much of the film's protracted middle segment concerns more mundane matters. The interim 75-odd minutes include character building, crew interaction, and details concerning what life was like on a ship in Nelson's navy. Master and Commander opens and closes with rousing battle scenes. The longer the chase goes on, the less clear it becomes who is the pursuer and who is the pursued in this high-stakes cat-and-mouse game. Thereafter, a chase begins, with the Surprise pursuing the Acheron south through the Atlantic Ocean, around Cape Horn, and through the Pacific to the Galapagos Islands. Only the presence of a fogbank saves Aubrey and his crew. The first engagement is a near disaster for the Surprise the French ship is bigger, faster, and has more guns. So, in April of that year, the HMS Surprise, commanded by Captain Aubrey, is stationed off the east coast of Brazil with the mission of stopping the French privateer Acheron. Nowhere is the fear of Napoleon becoming Emperor of the World more prevalent than in England, where the anti-French sentiment is the strongest. When the movie opens, it is August 1805 and the Napoleonic Wars are in full swing. Judicious cutting could have resulted in a tremendous sea-bound adventure. The screenplay was written by Weir and John Collee, who, if anything, may have tried to cram too much of O'Brian's written material into the final script. Although Master and Commander uses the general plot thrust of O'Brian's The Far Side of the World, it changes and deletes key elements and borrows select details from many of the other books in the series. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is based on the exploits of characters created by 20th Century author Patrick O'Brian, who wrote 20 novels centered around the adventures of Captain "Lucky" Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) and Doctor Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany). One is designed to please popcorn munching crowds of distracted teenagers the other has been made for adult viewers who are interested in what it might really have been like to live on a tall ship. One is pure fantasy the other (although not based on a true story) takes rigors to be historically accurate. The two films ( Pirates and Master and Commander) have little in common except that both involve seafaring ships. Some might believe that the unexpected success of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean has resulted in a sudden upsurge in interest about high seas derring-do, but anyone expecting a "spillover" effect to generate a box office ripple for Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World will likely be disappointed.
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