I have seen this movie so many times it is ridiculous, and am a huge fan with the exception of one line (when Aubrey admits to having exceeded his orders ages ago, like a modern captain Ahab, which he never would have done for fear of being yellowed), and I think all the deleted scenes should be put back in as they ad much more detail from the book. And I am tickled pink that Russell Crowe recently mentioned that their is still the possibility of a sequel, though the first one pretty much bombed. I saw this film 4 times in the theaters while reading the books, and have since completed all 20 books by Patrick O’Brian  in the series, and would love to see at least one more film, and hopefully more than that. This film just rocks. Amazing effects, and such perfect accuracy to that time and world, with great characters, and such adventure, such a shame that Pirates of the Caribbean did so much better as this is such a superior film. An amazing adventure film, with great accuracy to this world of seafairing in the British Navy in the 1800′s. Russel Crowe is amazingly cast, as are the crew, though Paul Bettany is way too tall and good looking to play Maturin, though he does play the role well. This film does mostly follow the 10th book Far Side of the World with some changes (the villains being French in the film versus American in the book), and elements from many other of the novels to make a moving and powerful film, and one of my favorites. I have watched this many times, and was given the blu-ray disc by my lovely fiancée for Christmas, and the disc looks great with amazing blacks. Sure you can see some serious film grain, but this has not looked so good since the theater.

This is the tale of Post Captain “Lucky” Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe who matches the character absolutely perfectly) of Her Majesties Ship Surprise (strangely the ship used in most of the books, but not in either Master and Commander or Far Side of the World, but a perfect replica of the actual Surprise, which is actually down in San Diego at the Maritime Museum and which I have some photos of below). He and his ships surgeon Dr. Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany who does a great job, though is a bit too handsome for the role), who is Jack’s best friend, and not much of a mariner, but a fine surgeon. In fact they really only share their love of music, and their hatred of Bonapart, but does not make them any less best friends. In this adventure, they are out to stop a French Privateer (In Far Side of the World it was an American) from harassing their whaling fleet in the pacific, but they are caught off guard by the Privateer the Acheron in a fog, and the Surprise is badly crippled, and they have to do some major work and get provisions in order to repair and go after the ship again. They lose some crew, and one of the midshipmen Blakeney (Max Pirkis) loses an arm.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The second time, the Surprise is again surprised by the French vessel, and only manages to escape when they build a floating mast to lead off the Acheron, and are able to come up on the ship from behind. The damages surprise manages to start to catch up with the Acheron as they round Cape Horn, but they are going into a huge storm, and it breaks off the mizzen topmast with a crew member. The crewmember manages to alsmot get to the wreckage, but they have to cut it and him lose because it is acting as a sea anchor and is going to sink the ship. The ship is saved, but they lose the popular crew member.

Audrey tells them they are headed for the Galapagos, as it is the center of the English Whaling fleet, and where the Acheron will be, and he promisses to allow Maturin, who is a naturalist to explore the island which no real naturalist has been to. When they arrive, a small ship paddles out, and it is the crew of a whaling ship taken and sunk by the Acheron, so they head out to find it, much to Maturin’s chagrin.

Out from the galapagos, the Surprise is caught with no wind, and stopped completely. The ships crew begins to blame a master mate named Hollum (Lee Ingleby). He was on watch both times when the surprise was attacked, and when the ship hit the doldrums, and they believe he has cursed the ship, and is a Jonah. The crew gets insubordinate to him, and Aubrey must punish a crew member, but it doesn’t help, and finally Hollum commits suicide, and after Aubrey holds a funeral the wind picks back up, and they are on their way.

The Marine Captain Howard (Chris Larkin) accidently shoots Maturin when aiming for a bird that is following the ship, and the assistant is not capable, so Aubrey gives up his chase, and heads back to the Galapagos so the surgery can be done on land. Maturin ends up doing it himself, and making sure to get the shirt out so it does not fester, which he does, and then Aubrey gives him time with Blakeney to search around the island, but on the other side they spy the Acheron, and must give up their specimens and rush back to the Surprise, which quickly takes to see.

Maturin and Blakeney show Aubrey one speciment they got, a fasmid that has hidden itself as a stick to hide, and it gives Aubrey an idea to hide his ship. They camoflage the ship to make it look like a whaler and lead the Acheron in, and then spring their trap, quickly taking out the main mast, and then boarding and taking the ship.

Aubrey gets the captains sword from the ships surgeon, and he puts his second in command, 1st Leftenant Tom Pullings (James D’Arcy) in command to take the ship in to refit, and they will meet him and head out together.

Aubrey then plays his violin with Maturin and his chello, and learns that the ships Doctor was killed a month before, so the man must have been the captain. Aubrey cancels their trip to the Galapagos and goes after the Acheron ready to fight.

not once but twice by the much larger french ship, and when they get the upper hand they lose a mast and a crew member. Then they have a Jonah Lieutenant who kills himself and gets them out of the doldrums, then they must skip the Galapagos where Aubrey has promised Maturin time to chase the phantom, but when Maturin is shot a marine by accident, they return to the Galapagos where he must perform surgery on himself. And on an expidition he finds the phantom and they board and take it, sending 1st Lietenant Tom Pullings away with it, but when Aubrey talks to Maturin he realizes that the doctor who gave him the Captains sword was in fact the captain and they give chase, ending the film.

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The whole movie is very much the story of this ship and this crew, and never leaves it except a few shots of them from the perspective of the French, which really brings you on the adventure with this crew.

I love this film, and have watched it so many times. In fact I saw it 4 times in the theater and have watched it countless times on DVD. I love this film. My only complaint is the line when Aubrey says that he has exceeded his orders weeks ago, making him more of a captain Ahab figure, which Aubrey would never have done, he was too worried about being yellowed (made an Admiral with no ships to command, a desk job and a dunsel). That line bothers me more and more, sure it makes tension with the crew, but it just isn’t in Aubrey’s character, though the rest of the film sure is. And the deleted scenes are amazing, they are all little scenes from the books, that really should have been in the film, and would have made it better, and since the film bombed anyway they should have left it in for the fans. It really does depress me that this film didn’t do well because I would love to have seen a sequel or two with the further adventures of Audrey and Maturin. They have so many great stories, and this would have made an amazing series.

And I have some photos of the Rose, the actual ship used in the film which was reconditioned to the actual specs of the HMS surprise and you can ride it in San Diego. What an amazing vessel.