Master and Commander

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I am thinking of renting this movie, as I never got around to seeing it in the theater. I was wondering if it is worth it. It recieved quite a bit of praise, and I want to know what you think of it.
 

dannybou

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I went and saw it at the movies. I think it is worth renting, but not buying. The battle scenes are good, but I found there was alot of dead time in this long movie. Russell Crowe is alrgiht in his role. Yeap, worth a rental.
 

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Well worth the rent!!:thumb: It is truly excellent, it is the new standard for historical movies that all others should be judged by. I saw it twice in the theaters (its very rare I see anything twice in the theater), and I will be buying it on DVD.:bowdown:
 
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I missed this at the cinema, but my DVD copy turned up yesteday, so I think tonight's the night to settle down with my cats, a couple of cans of Coke, a big bowl of crisps and put it on.

It doesn't get any better than this...

Dr. S.
 

dannybou

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Originally posted by Doctor Sinister
I missed this at the cinema, but my DVD copy turned up yesteday, so I think tonight's the night to settle down with my cats, a couple of cans of Coke, a big bowl of crisps and put it on.

It doesn't get any better than this...

Dr. S.
Ummmmm, female companionship?????
 
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Originally posted by dannybou
Ummmmm, female companionship?????
Well, one of my cats is female...?

Mrs Sinister will be in the other room, in bed. She doesn't like the sort of films I like, so she'd only talk all the way through it. I'd prefer to watch it on my own. She'd probably prefer that too.

Dr. S.
 

DropkickMolly

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Good movie, great book of the period

Master and Commander was a good film, i'm not sure of the historical accuracy. Howver, C.S. Forrestor's "Horatio Hornblower" series can make anyone want to sail off with the Royal navy.
 

ifeldman

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Originally posted by Doctor Sinister
Well, one of my cats is female...?

Mrs Sinister will be in the other room, in bed. She doesn't like the sort of films I like, so she'd only talk all the way through it. I'd prefer to watch it on my own. She'd probably prefer that too.

Dr. S.
Sounds like my house.
:)

I haven't seen the movie yet. Hopefully Netflix will get around to it soon.

However, having read the books, I tend to think that a film which combines two of them into one movie would be a bit uneven given that there are 8 books in between the two.

Irv
 

ifeldman

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Re: Good movie, great book of the period

Originally posted by DropkickMolly
Master and Commander was a good film, i'm not sure of the historical accuracy. Howver, C.S. Forrestor's "Horatio Hornblower" series can make anyone want to sail off with the Royal navy.
The Hornblower books and Obrian' series of books both cover the same era except that the Hornblower series starts in 1793 whereas Aubrey.Maturin series starts in about 1800.

Both are great fiction and there is much historical accuracy in both. However, there is more character development in the Aubry/Maturin books than in the Hornblowers. But that is probably because the first of the Hornblower books came out during World War II when Britain was standing alone and Forrester's intentions were to show that England had faced a similar crisis before. He as much as said so at the time he wrote the book.

O'Brian also seems to have a greater liking for Aubry and Maturin than Forrester did for Hornblower.

And the fact that O'Brian was able to complete his characte'rs stories before he passed on is also a significant fact.

I suggest that you read the books too. I think you'll find that both O'Brian's characters are more true to life than Hornblower.

Irv
 

SGT Long

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I had to give up the Coke (Dentist's orders,alas) and I prefer chocolate to crisps but I also wind up having the sofa with two cats. My wife will watch films with me but there is a price: I end up having to watch ones of hers at one point or another. Im dreading "love naturally" when i go home on leave in June......


Master and Commander was great IMO. Granted,I dont know a whole lot about the period but the action scenes were damnned good.
 
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Originally posted by SGT Long
Im dreading "love naturally" when i go home on leave in June......
Just turn off your brain and let it wash over you. I made the fatal error of buying the DVD for Mrs. Sinister for Mother's Day and we had to watch it together. If you turn off your brain, or leave it elsewhere reading a book or something, the time goes much quicker.

Dr. S.
 

SGT Long

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I made the fatal error of buying the DVD for Mrs. Sinister for Mother's Day and we had to watch it together.
My God,Why not just get her "Pretty woman"?? Being as Ive been seperated from my wife for four months,I must say the "moive set" scenes were interesting......
 
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Excellent Movie. I loved it. It really is a new Standard bearer in war movies. Crowe hasn't done this good since Gladiator. It truly showed te brutal nature of 18th century Naval conflict.
 

hogdriver

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Originally posted by Doctor Sinister
I missed this at the cinema, but my DVD copy turned up yesteday, so I think tonight's the night to settle down with my cats, a couple of cans of Coke, a big bowl of crisps and put it on.

It doesn't get any better than this...

Dr. S.
Dr. S.

Watch those cans of Coke don't jump out of your hands, we wouldn't want a repeat performance of the other day.
 
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Originally posted by hogdriver
Dr. S.

Watch those cans of Coke don't jump out of your hands, we wouldn't want a repeat performance of the other day.
Managed to get through the viewing without this happening. You can all scale back to DEFCON 3 now, there will be no Superweapon deployment tonight. Can’t promise anything for the rest of the week though. ;)

For what it's worth - I thought this was a truly excellent film, and without wishing to offend anyone here, it's nice to see a Hollywood picture where the heroes aren't Americans - with the double-bonus as far as I am concerned that they are actually British in this film.

The special effects and battle scenes in this film were amazing, with lots of shrapnel flying about whenever a ship took a hit. But also, the central story itself was superb - the relationship between the Captain and the Doctor was portrayed very well, and I can't fault a single performance amongst any of the cast.

Interesting fact - the French ship that is being hunted is supposed to have a revolutionary hull design - this is because (in the story) it was built in the USA. In fact, in the original book upon which this film is based, the ship WAS an American Frigate - hence the new design which allowed it to be faster and take more punishment. But this was changed for the movie because the Producers didn't want Americans to be seen as "the bad guys".

Despite previous complaints from me about Hollywood perverting history, for once I can forgive the poetic licence with the story in this instance. For a start, it's based on a fictional book anyway, and these are not real historical events. Secondly, we did, after all, spend years and years fighting the French at sea and so it's not exactly out of place in historical terms that we would be doing so here. The only slight problem presented by the change from a US to a French ship is the fact that the new hull design was a closely-guarded secret as far as the Americans who invented it were concerned, and it's extremely improbable that they'd give the secret away to the French.

In the circumstances, I think this could have been left out to maintain the complete suspension of disbelief - the simple fact alone that the British ship was facing a larger, faster and more heavily armed opponent would have been sufficient for the plot to work.

I shall be watching this again very soon.

Dr. S.
 

JMS

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Actually, it was something less of a secret as one of the crewmembers was able to assemble a model of the hull after seeing it being built.

The Acheron is obviously patterned after the large American frigates of the Constitution class, with a strong hull of closely spaced ribs which allow enemy shot to be stopped and capable of supporting strong masts, allowing for larger sails and more speed. Nothing secret about, just more expensive ships than the Royal Navy's, to which you must add that HMS Surprise is deemed (at least in the book) to have been a bit too long in the tooth.
 
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Originally posted by Txemapamundi
Actually, it was something less of a secret as one of the crewmembers was able to assemble a model of the hull after seeing it being built.
No more than a handy plot device. As I said, it's based on a book, a work of fiction.

Originally posted by Txemapamundi
The Acheron is obviously patterned after the large American frigates of the Constitution class, with a strong hull of closely spaced ribs which allow enemy shot to be stopped and capable of supporting strong masts, allowing for larger sails and more speed. Nothing secret about, just more expensive ships than the Royal Navy's, to which you must add that HMS Surprise is deemed (at least in the book) to have been a bit too long in the tooth.
Might not be a secret now, 200 years later, but it would certainly have been a state secret at the time wouldn't it?

Dr. S.
 
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I'd agree that "Master and Commander" sets a new standard for movies set in the age of sail. Its first 20 minutes does for 1805 warfare what "Saving Private Ryan" did for 1944 warfare.

The Archeron's details were made in scale by a sailor who said it was shown to him by a relative who worked in the shipyards of Philadelphia. I don't think this is that farfetched. The real secret of the "Constitution" class of super-frigates was their use of the relatively rare live oak.

What is farfetched is that the US would sell such a ship to the French. They had difficulty paying for those laid down for the US and consequently they were built in fits and spurts. Also the US and French had been in a "quasi-war" in 1797 so I doubt again the US would sell this technology to the French.

Probably the biggest suspension of disbelief is the "Surprise" as a 28 gun frigate with what appeared to be 18 pounders as it biggest gun defeating a "Constitution" class 44 gun frigate with 24 pounders. It could only happen if the "Archeron" was sailed with great ineptitude. Oh well, it is being sailed by the French so I guess it could have happened.
 
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Dr. S.,

I guess the UK got an earlier DVD release of M&C. I'm waiting for it to come out in the US next Tuesday. I've been waiting impatiently.

I'm glad you got to see some Brits depicted on screen, even if they're actually Australian..........:thumb:
 
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