Master and Commander turns 20

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, November 3rd. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Another movie celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Back in September, WORLD’s arts and culture editor recommended Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. That film won Best Picture of 2003, a movie commendable for its depictions of duty and male friendship.

EICHER: But another movie with similar themes debuted that same winter. The film Master and Commander: Far Side of the World is based on novels by Patrick O’Brian. The movie also features war and friendship, but is it as good as Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings? Here now is Collin Garbarino.

CALAMY: We shall beat to quarters!

COLLIN GARBARINO: The year is 1805, and England is fighting for its survival against Napoleon Bonaparte. The royal navy is the only thing keeping the French Empire from completing its subjugation of Europe, and naval battles are underway around the world.

Jack Aubrey is captain of the HMS Surprise, a small 28-gun frigate with a crew of 197 souls aboard. Russell Crowe plays the ship’s duty-bound captain, and Paul Bettany plays his best friend Stephen Maturin, the cultured ship’s doctor and naturalist.

Aubrey and his crew are tasked with intercepting a French warship making its way to the Pacific. But the French captain catches the Surprise unawares.

AUBREY: Down! All hands down!

SOUND: [Men shouting and wood splintering]

The film begins with a bang. The larger, faster French vessel tears into the English frigate. Whizzing cannonballs and splintering wood will quickly dispel viewers’ romantic notions about life on the sea.

So will the gruesome surgery scenes in which Dr. Maturin attempts to piece the crew back together.

SAILOR: Them his brains, doctor?

MATURIN: No, that’s just dried blood. Those are his brains.

CROWD: Oooh.

After that first encounter with the French ship, some officers think the Surprise should abandon her mission.

ALLEN: But even if we did catch up with her—I mean—to take her! She’s out of our class. She’s a 44-gun ship.

But Captain Jack of the HMS Surprise is a man of duty. He’ll follow the French ship at any cost. And the crew will follow their captain to the ends of the earth.

NAGLE: Captain’s not called “Lucky Jack” for no reason. Phantom or no, she’s a privateer, and Lucky Jack’ll have her.

The film depicts the indignities of a 19th-century life at sea, along with the horrors of the Napoleonic Wars. But the narrative rests on the bedrock of Aubrey and Maturin’s friendship. When they’re not figuring out how to defeat the French or save their own sailors, Maturin will play his cello while Aubrey accompanies him on the violin.

SOUND: [Aubrey and Maturin playing together]

But the two friends don’t always agree. The captain focuses on his duty, and sometimes he resents his friend the doctor for reminding him of the cost of that duty.

Master and Commander is such a special movie because these depictions of male friendships are so rare in Hollywood. Everytime I watch it, I’m still astounded that the filmmakers resisted the temptation to add some romance to the film.

AUBREY: Gentlemen, to wives and to sweethearts! May they never meet.

Women are scarce on the high seas, and we get the feeling that the Surprise might be Captain Jack’s one true love.

AUBREY: Surprise is not old. No one would call her old. She’s a fine seabird. Weatherly, stiff, and fast.

Master and Commander: Far Side of the World is rated PG-13 for its battle sequences and brief language. It’s definitely a manly movie, with plenty of action, but it’s probably suitable for teenagers who can stomach the violence. It’s instructive to see how many of the ship’s officers were merely teenagers themselves. The royal navy required young men to grow up fast.

There are so many reasons to recommend this movie. I love how the entire story is told from the perspective of the English. The devious French captain is out there on the water somewhere, but he stays off camera, ratcheting up the mystery and tension. When his ship appears on the horizon emotions run high.

AUBREY: Run like smoke and oakum!

ALLEN: We’ll have to bend every sail.

AUBREY: We’ll put up our pocket handkerchiefs if we have to! We must survive this day. Let’s get about it.

Despite getting excellent reviews from both critics and audiences, the movie underperformed at the box office. Why? Well, bad timing mostly. Another seafaring movie about a different Captain Jack debuted a few months earlier.

Master and Commander is clearly the better movie, but Pirates of the Caribbean ended up grossing three times as much on a similar sized budget. People must like fantastical pirate romances more than a historically accurate movie about duty, friendship, and love of country.

AUBREY: England is under threat of invasion. And though we be on the far side of the world, this ship is our home. This ship is England.

And then Return of the King, the biggest movie of the year, came out a month after Master and Commander, blowing Russell Crowe and his crew out of the water. It’s too bad.

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World clearly intended to set up a franchise that would explore the depths of the Aubrey–Maturin novels. But without big box-office revenue, a sequel floundered, leaving us with this single excellent movie… which, in my opinion, happens to be the best film of 2003. And since the film is available to rent or purchase on most streaming services, it could very well be your favorite film to watch in 2023.

AUBREY: So it’s every hand to his rope or gun. Quick’s the word, and sharp’s the action. After all, Surprise is on our side.

SAILORS: Huzzah!

I’m Collin Garbarino.

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