Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4344 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-04-05
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, French, Portuguese
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 139 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Aside from some gripping battles and a storm sequence to rival anything seen on screen, Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is as much about daily shipboard life during the Napoleonic era--especially the relationship between Captain Aubrey (Russell Crowe) and Doctor Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany)--as it is about spectacle. Aubrey is a powerful figure whose experience and strength of character commands unwavering trust and respect from his crew; Crowe seems in his element naturally enough. Bettany, though, is his match on screen as Aubrey's intellectual foil. Director Weir successfully translates their relationship from novel to screen by subtly weaving in their past history and leaving viewers--whether they've read Patrick O'Brian's books or not--to do the thinking.

Although the film's special effects ate up a huge budget they never overtake the drama, with careful characterisation and painstaking attention to historical accuracy taking centre stage. Matching action to detail, drama to humour and special effects to well-sketched characters, Master and Commander is a deeply satisfying big-screen experience, breathing a bracing gust of sea air into Hollywood megabuck filmmaking.--Laura Bushell

On the DVD: Master & Commander's single-disc edition displays the full glories of the big screen experience, with Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS sound options that make the most of the resounding battle scenes as well as the small but vital details of creaking planks and lapping waves, while the sweeping CinemaScope (2.35:1) photography anamorphically formatted for 16:9 widescreen splendidly reproduces Peter Weir's painterly compositions. It's a tad disappointing, then, to note the lack of a director's commentary (surely such an insightful director as Weir would have plenty to say) and the excessive promotional material--cinema trailers and plugs for Fox DVDs-- that plays even before the main menu screen appears: anyone who has bought this title for repeat viewing deserves not to be subjected to such a broadside of soon-to-be-out-of-date advertising. --Mark Walker

DVD Description
Based on the series of books by Patrick O'Brian and directed by Peter Weir (Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World follows the fate of the crew of the HMS Surprise - a British Naval ship on a frantic search for their adversary, the French Man O’ War Acheron during the Napoleonic war. Academy Award winner Russell Crowe (Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind) stars as Captain "Lucky" Jack Aubrey, renowned as a fighting captain in the British Navy. The charismatic Captain rouses the patriotism of the crew while wrestling with issues of honour, pride, duty, sacrifice and loyalty. With the true passion he holds for his vocation, he consistently employs ingenious tactics to engage his prey - a much larger and better-equipped French ship.

After the French ship almost sinks them in an early battle, the ship’s surgeon and Aubrey’s closest friend Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany – The Heart of Me, A Knight’s Tale) cautions him about letting revenge cloud his judgement. With the HMS Surprise badly damaged and much of his crew injured, Aubrey is torn between duty and friendship as he pursues a high-stakes chase across two oceans to intercept and capture his foe, refusing to accept defeat at the hands of the French at any cost. It’s a mission that can make his reputation – or destroy Lucky Jack and his crew. In the course of the Surprise’s epic journey, the crew travel the world – from the coast of Brazil to the storm-tossed waters of Cape Horn, south through ice and snow to the far side of the world and across to the remote shores of The Galapagos Islands. A true camaraderie develops between the men with the help of rum, music and the regaling of tall tales!

Special Features

• Running Time: 132 mins
  
• Language: English
  
• Subtitles: Hard of Hearing English
  
• Original Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (16x9)
  
• Audio: 5.1 / 5.1 DTS

Customer Reviews

Master and Commander
In many ways this is quite a curious film. Like many reviewers have stated below the composition of the film goes against all the rules that Hollywood have set up over the past few years and yet it still manages to come across and a most engaging and entertaining film.

Almost all the action takes place in the enclosed atmosphere of the ship, HMS Surprise, there are no sub-plots running in different locations, there is absolutely no romantic element in the film at all, in fact the only female appearance lasts less than a couple minutes. In some respects it cannot even be called an action film, as there are only two phases of action in the whole performance and these are filmed in a realistic horror fashion rather than a swashbuckling stunt-like fashion. The plot is simple in the extreme, bad ship attacks good ship - good ship chases bad ship for revenge, and yet for all this the film never gets boring.

What the film does very well, which may well be the reason it works so brilliantly, is that it mixes the factual documentary view of life on board a warship in the 1800s with the almost fly-on-the-wall story telling of the sailors' various lives extremely effectively. The attention to detail is extraordinary and it's the sort of film you'll watch for the umpteenth time and still find elements of the sets, costumes and props that you missed before.

Crowe does well as the inspiring captain but in an almost star-less supporting cast there are some fantastic performances which maybe even overshadow him. Look out for Billy Boyd as the Coxwain, that great character actor Robert Pugh and also Ian Mercer (he of Gary Mallet Coronation Street fame) as the Boatswain.

Gripping Film
"Imagine a movie that lasts more than two hours and during that time only shows the confrontation of two ships near the coast of South America. Sounds like a very boring premise, right? Wrong!"

When the film finished and I thought about it I realised the whole story had been set around just two ships, it's quite amazing that a film can include so much variety within a, from the outset, tight plot.

I think the realism of this film really makes it, you really can imagine two ships from great nations battling to take control of the ocean. Russell Crowe is the perfect casting for the part of Lucky Jack. He has that in command feel yet can be thoughtful when required.

If you are looking at this movie thinking it's a pirate-type movie, think again because it really isn't. O'Brian's books are based on real accounts and this is reflected in the film. There are no parrots or eye patches!

The special features offer a very nice insight into the creation of the film, I enjoyed watching them after I'd seen the film itself. I would strongly suggest you watch the Making Of featurettes after seeing the actual film otherwise the realism isn't quite so real...

This movie gets 5 stars from me, very hard to pull yourself away from watching even if nature calls!!

Even O'Brian fanatics love it!
Yes, even that strange, disparate group of people who are incapable of talking about anything when they meet other than weevils, soused pig's face and tincture of laudanum, even they love this film. I should know, I'm one of them and most of the people I know are too.

Having seen a couple of excerpts of Crowe as Aubrey, I was absolutely dreading this movie but was totally enthralled from the outset. In fact, it wasn't until near the end of the movie when Aubrey & Maturin were walking on deck next to each other that I noticed that Paul Bettany is almost a foot taller than Russell Crowe (stilts for Crowe were in order for that shot).

It's not a word-for-word rendering of the novel onto film by any stretch of the imagination (nor should it have been) but it absolutely captures the spirit of the books and conveys life aboard the Surprise brilliantly. The detail is breath-taking from the ship itself to the behaviour of the crew and on to the wonderful storm and battle action scenes.

To give you an idea of just how pedantic I was being, I was absolutley delighted to see Maturin - like the good Catholic that he is - stopping short of the line "For thine is the kingdom..." during the Lord's Prayer near the end of the film (yes, I know it's sad to actually expend mental energy on such minutiae but, clearly, someone else did too).

My only disappointment was that no allusions were made to Maturin's secret life as an intelligence agent but I guess there's a limit to how much character exposition one can expect in, what I hope, is the first in a series of films. However, other aspects of his character - as Aubrey's best friend, as a great physician and as a fanatical naturalist - are depicted to great effect and humour.

From the outset, I forgot that it was Russell Crowe (so all credit to him) and thoroughly enjoyed his depiction of Aubrey and, obviously, David Threlfall was born to play Preserved Killick (more of him in the next film, I hope). The casting was, in fact, faultless except for one thing: the actor playing Barrett Bonden - a role for a huge, burly, pigtailed pugilist - was given to a rather small hobbit.

Far Side of the World is destined to become a cinema classic as well as a much-cherished DVD in my collection.