Master and Commander: The Far Side Of The World - Special Edition
Based on the Aubrey/Maturin novels written by Patrick O'Brian and set during the Napoleonic Wars, this is the tale of Captain "Lucky" Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe), his close friend and ship's surgeon Dr. Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany) and their ship, the British frigate HMS Surprise. Jack is one of those Capta.....
Based on the Aubrey/Maturin novels written by Patrick O'Brian and set during the Napoleonic Wars, this is the tale of Captain "Lucky" Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe), his close friend and ship's surgeon Dr. Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany) and their ship, the British frigate HMS Surprise. Jack is one of those Captains that has the complete trust and respect of his crew and together, they form a well honed fighting machine.
When the tale begins, the Admiralty have discovered that the French intend to take the war to the far side of the world and have dispatched a Privateer, the Acheron, to the Pacific with orders to harass, disrupt and waylay all British shipping in the area.
Jack's orders are to seek out the Acheron and, if possible, to intercept her on route and either sink, burn or take her as a prize for the British Navy. However, their first encounter with the French warship proves that she is a far more formidable foe than first suspected and taking her will be no easy matter, assuming they survive the fight at all. So begins a journey that sees the Surprise chasing the much faster Acheron across the Atlantic, round the Horn and all the way up to the Galapagos Islands, all the time playing a game of cat and mouse and trying to outmanoeuvre each other…
Review
Given that The Far Side of the World is actually O'Brian's tenth novel in the twenty-strong series, Peter Weir does an excellent job of directing the story so that the audience grows to know the officers and crew and how they interact with each other aboard the small frigate and all of it as historically accurate as possible. Weir is not what you'd call a prolific director but he's got some good titles under his belt such as The Truman Show, Dead Poets Society, Witness and Picnic at Hanging Rock and this one adds yet another hit to his list.
The story here is focused on Jack and his crew of officers, sailors and Royal Marines and their lives on board as they chase the French warship. It also shows his friendship with Maturin, their love of playing violin and cello duets and the doctor's interest as a naturalist and scientist but there's no mention of the fact that, in the books, he is also a secret service agent. As a consequence of all this we, the audience, have very little contact with the enemy and with that I felt that this was a missed dimension to the story as we learn nothing of the French captain and his crew or what drives them.
That aside, the acting is superb and Russell Crowe gives an excellent performance as Jack, an excellent tactician and a man that knows his ship and its officers and crew inside out. Paul Bettany gives a strong portrayal of the ship's surgeon - calm among the blood and guts of his trade while showing a sensitive side with his other interest as a naturalist. The rest of the cast are all pretty good in their roles and you'll probably recognise Billy Boyd, who plays Coxswain Barrett Bonden, from his recent higher profile role as that "Fool of a Took" from Peter Jackson's "The Lord Of The Rings" trilogy. Also of note is Max Pirkis who makes a good debut as the young Midshipman Blakeney.
The picture is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and the picture is probably one of the best and flawless ones that I've seen so far in a DVD transfer. Given the varied weather conditions, and the cramped shots onboard the ship, everything looks detailed and solid with no signs of any kind of artefact or grain. Given the nature of the material, the colours are a bit limited but all are solid with excellent hues and shadings. On top of that, the cinematography, which won them an Academy Award, is superb as are the visual and CG effects during the sea battles, the storm and the action scenes.
The sound is no less worthy of praise, winning an Academy Award for sound editing and a BAFTA for Best Sound, and you're immersed into an astounding surround sound experience. You'll really think you're at sea and both DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks are excellent with the soundstage being filled with the constant creaks and groans of a wooden ship of it's time and the wind in its sails. Once battle commences it becomes an awesome experience with the excellent bass of the drums and cannons and the sounds of splintering wood as the cannonballs wreak havoc. The DD and DTS tracks actually decode to EX and ES respectively so if you have the capability to engage these, it's worth it for the extra dimension in sound. The DTS track has the edge but not by much and you'll love either equally well. In the battle scenes watch out for the cannonballs as they go past your head and on behind you.
As I said above, this is a story about the characters in it and not really just a high-seas adventure or historical drama. If it were just such it would be pretty run of the mill and could even have been eclipsed by an episode of Hornblower or even Sharpe. However, what we get is an excellent and historically accurate tale of life on one of His Majesty's ships, some brilliant character portayals and a fair amount of cracking action sequences. The ending is left open, well there are ten books to follow this one, and it's obvious that Jack has unfinished business with the French captain and crew that might just see a bit more involvement from them in a possible sequel.
Extras
This is the two-disc version so there are quite a lot of well-produced extras…
"I Robot" Sizzle Reel - This is a short, behind the scenes look at the upcoming movie adaptation of Isaac Asimov's classic sci-fi novel of the same name. Lasts just over two minutes and is composed mostly of sketches and drawings intercut with a few words from some of the production team and cast. Other than a promo link to the Fox web site, this is the only extra feature on disc one, if you discount the forced trailers at the start of the movie (and I do), and if you've bought the single-disc version, then this is identical to that.
Anyway, now on to the real extras, which are all on the second disc. All are shot in widescreen and come with a beautiful background score, so enjoy…
The Hundred Days - This is an entertaining "Making Of" documentary lasting about 68 minutes. It contains a fair amount of interview material with Peter Weir, Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany and other relevant members of the production team. It's split into nine chapters…- Introduction – Peter Weir talks about how he came to make the film, why they started in the middle of the series, how they bought a ship called The Rose and adapted it for the film and how they built a full size one for use in a tank.
- Characters and Casting – From how they cast the major players all the way down to the motley crew.
- Learning the Ropes – How they trained the cast to do the day to day work aboard the ship and how to perform during battle scenes.
- Principal Photography – This shows some behind the scenes material during the main shooting in Baja, Mexico.
- Make-up and Costumes – Covers the period costumes, make-up and the battle wound effects.
- Shooting at Sea – How they shot the at sea shots and some of the difficulties encountered.
- The Galapagos – Filming on the islands and in Baja as a substitute.
- Ram Her Bow – The excellent hand-to-hand combat scene when the crew boards the Acheron in detail.
- Music – This shows how Crowe and Bettany had to learn to play the violin and cello for the duets. It also discusses the film scoring.
Cinematic Phasmids - 30 minutes worth this time, covering the art and craft of visual deception explored in relation the movie. It's split into four chapters…- Tall Ships False & True - shows two methods by which the visual effects team recreated historical ships of the line.
- Fighting Sail - in which destruction is deconstructed. How they destroyed the ships with cannon fire.
- Storm Tossed Seas - or the manner in which the visual effects department participated in creating the storm sequence.
- The Galapagos - in which Baja stands in for the Galapagos and the Galapagos stand in for themselves.
Sound Design - This is about how they achieved some of the sound effects. This is split into two sections…- On Sound Design Featurette - Lasts just over 17 minutes and covers effects such as the cannon shots, gunfire, splintering wood, etc
- Interactive Sound Recording Demo - This is designed to demonstrate the varying qualities of sound achieved though microphone placement. You can pick from a selection of mics to hear the results of the gunfire shots.
HBO First Look - Another "Making Of" documentary lasting 25 minutes with more clips from the movie, behind the scenes shots and interviews with major cast and crew members. This is unlike other HBO documentaries of the same ilk and is actually quite good. There are too many movie clips and a lot of the stuff is covered elsewhere on the disc but there are a few extras such as how they rocked the boat, training, location choices, etc.
Deleted Scenes - There are six deleted scenes, lasting over 23 minutes in all, and they can be played individually or all at once. These are not final production quality and you can see they were left out of the final cut as they don't add a great deal to the main storyline. However, they are worth watching as they add even more detail to your knowledge of the characters and their life on the ocean wave…- Weighing Anchor – An extended scene showing them raising the anchor and heading off.
- Shipboard Life – At 10 minutes, this is the longest scene, detailing life on board, and includes things like tattooing, learning to read, bird shooting and an underwater inspection of the hull by the Captain.
- Superstition – Whale song in the night spooks the already jumpy crew.
- Dentistry – A little bit about shipboard dentistry.
- Articles of War – The explains the laws broken by Nagle, the carpenter's mate, before he is flogged.
- Galapagos – Extended footage of Dr. Maturin's exploration of the islands and their wildlife.
Multi-Camera Shooting - There are three sections to this…- Surprising the Surprise - This has a four-camera setup and you can view the scene from any of these, the B-roll or the split-screen composite. Lasts about two and a half minutes.
- The Final Battle - as above but much more complex as you can choose between two, three and four-camera setups. Lasts just over eight minutes watching all three composites.
- Split-Screen Vignette
a four and a half minute mix of split screen shots from various scenes.
Still Galleries - Four series of click through artworks and drawings…- Conceptual Art by George Jensen– 26 monochrome drawings, mostly of the ship interiors and costumes and some of the Galapagos camp.
- Conceptual Art by Daren Dochterman - 35 monochrome drawings, mostly concentrating on the ships and more of the camp on the Galapagos.
- Naval Art – 13 good colour paintings of ships.
- Technical Drawings – 47 technical plans and drawings of ships and parts of ships - not great quality though.
Overall
While the central plot of The Far Side Of The World is a pretty run of the mill period wartime seafaring story, O'Brian's characters and the artful script along with superb production, direction and acting raise it far above that and it should be a welcome addition to most DVD collections. If you're a fan of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels then this is probably a must buy as you'll recognise and appreciate the characters so much more because of it.
With the reference quality of the sound and video, if you're looking to update your system demo material then this disc is about as good as you'll get and probably worth buying for that reason alone. Besides, this two-disc version is not really a rental prospect as there's so much extra material, you'd never be able to watch it all comfortably even with a two-night rental.
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