Great movie with lots of wood

[germdoc]

I finally rented "Master and Commander" last night. I'm upset I hadn't seen it in the theater or rented it earlier. Great flick!

It's the best movie I've ever seen set on the high seas. The camera gently rocks continuously to remind you where it's set. It's also one of the best war movies I've seen, and that says a lot. Lot's of manly men, swashbuckling, cannons, rum, etc. The battle scenes rival those of "Saving Private Ryan" or "Gettysburg" for intensity.

I don't know how they filmed the thing, but the thought of guys climbing to the top of the main mast during heavy seas makes me queasy just to think about it. I know there were a lot of special effects, but this is one of the most realistic action movies I've ever seen.

Oh, and the wood--beautiful sets and footage of real sailing warships. By the end of the movie I was almost ready to enlist in the British Navy. Almost.

The movie is based on a well-regarded series of books which I will now have to start on.

[atgcpaul]

"Master and Commander" is one of my favorite movies. When my wife is out
of town, I love to turn on the surround sound, get some beer, and watch it.
It really is a guy movie. Russell Crowe owns that movie. The soundtrack
really complements the movie well, too.

[LarryG]

Definitely a great flick.

The two-disc collector's edition (or whatever they call it) has a "making of ..." documentary that provides a lot of insights. It's been a while since I watched it, but IIRC they purchased a real sailing ship for the at-sea shots, and then built a duplicate in a big tank and controlled it with hydraulics.

I'm about halfway through the books. At times they are very good, at other times they can be a bit tedious. If you've read any of the Hornblower novels, the Aubrey/Maturin series is considerably heavier weather by comparison.

[williwatt]

Definitely a great flick.

The two-disc collector's edition (or whatever they call it) has a "making of ..." documentary that provides a lot of insights. It's been a while since I watched it, but IIRC they purchased a real sailing ship for the at-sea shots, and then built a duplicate in a big tank and controlled it with hydraulics.

Do you think the collector's edition is worth the extra $20? ($31.98 vs. $11.98) I tend to like watching the "how they made it" features in the supplements.

[Martin]

Master and Commander, life on the ship

in the scene where the chief is walking through the compartment of sleeping men, the pegs to hang the hammocks were 18 inches apart.
In the scene where the seamen were eating from the wooden plates called trenchers. The plates were seldom washed.
O'Brian also wrote: Men-of War, Life in Nelson's Navy which describes life in the navy based on his research to write the Aubrey-Maturin books.

[LCHIEN]

This is not only an awesome movie for the content but an extremely good sountrack for both impact and quality. When I have friends over and want to demo some theater, I usually put on this movie and go from the opening in which there's just the creaking sounds as the ship "wakes" up and goes to alert to the point where the cannon balls come flying in out of the fog, at full volume. I have an SVS subwoofer that's ported so its flat down to 16 Hz. Has some impressive LF effects.

[Popeye]

All you landlubbers should go to sea to read the series. Has a different effect when your bunk is rolling under you. We didn't get the same wonderful hull creaks on submarines but the bunks weren't much more than 18" from one to the other. We did wash dishes however.
Great movie, great music, and the books are a good read. Pat

[radhak]

Jeff, thanks for this thread. I bought the DVD almost 2 years ago, and never got around to watching it : did not want to waste it on LOML (she goes to sleep if it's not a chick flick ), and was waiting for 'company'; looks like I'd better break it open, based on all your recommendations !

[gerti]

Were it not on a WW related forum that subject line might have gotten you banned...

[LarryG]

Do you think the collector's edition is worth the extra $20? ($31.98 vs. $11.98) I tend to like watching the "how they made it" features in the supplements.

That's a tough call. I like watching the extra features, too -- I was in hog heaven with the "Lord Of The Rings" sets -- and I seem to recall the extras in the collector's edition of "Master & Commander" being fairly extensive. I don't know that they'd be worth $20, though, unless both the movie and the subject matter are particular favorites of yours.

And as I said, it's been a while since my last viewing. If you'll give me a few days, I'll review them again and will try to give you a better answer.

[LinuxRandal]

Anytime I think of navy shows, I think of this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8E8trKZGbE


Not in the same league, but I get a chuckle from it.

[poolhound]

A great movie, it really shows how tough some of those sea battles were.

[LarryG]

williwatt, here's my attempt at that "better answer" ...

The second disc of the Collector's Edition contains something over three hours of video features. There's a 70 minute documentary on the making of the movie, made especially for the two-disc set; another on adapting the books to a screenplay (20m); one on special effects (30m) and one on sound design (20m); and another about the making of the movie called "HBO First Look" that runs 30m and was apparently aired on HBO to promote the film when it was being released to theaters. Also about 20 minutes of deleted scenes plus the usual theatrical trailers and still photos (the latter contains some historical naval art and blueprints of the ship and film sets). The package also contains a little booklet and a small fold-out poster showing a map of the Surprise's journey.

My DVD collection isn't that large (40-50 movies) but I would rank this set of extras as probably the most extensive I have other than the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, and possibly the Star Wars movies (I can't recall what all those contained in the way of extras). But is it worth twenty bucks? As I said, tough call. As I quickly scanned through the features last night, I thought, "Hmm, I need to watch all these again." But then I read a fair amount of historical naval fiction (the Aubrey/Maturin series, plus Hornblower and Bolitho) and have a particular interest in the subject of the film. I'm also pretty interested in the craft of movie making, especially the areas of special effects and set design/construction. I received this title as a Christmas gift, but if I had to buy it myself, I'm sure I would -- for whatever that's worth.

Hope that helps!

[williwatt]

williwatt, here's my attempt at that "better answer" ...

Hope that helps!

Thanks, Larry, for the "better answer." If I decide to buy the DVD, I'll probably have to get the collector's edition. I guess I have a "thing" about pirate movies and other adventures on the high seas and really enjoy seeing what it took to make the movies. I really enjoyed the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" and watching the making of that movie. Another pirate movie that I like that didn't do well at the box office is "Cutthroat Island". It has one of the greatest musical scores ever.