Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is a 2003 film directed by Peter Weir and starring Russell Crowe as Jack Aubrey, with Paul Bettany as Stephen Maturin. It is adapted from three novels in the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian.
Cast
Captain
Jack Aubrey - Russell Crowe
Dr. Stephen Maturin - Paul Bettany
First Lt.
Thomas Pullings - James D'Arcy
Second Lt. William Mowett - Edward Woodall
Captain Howard, Royal Marines - Chris Larkin
Midshipman William Blakeney
- Max Pirkis
Midshipman Boyle - Jack Randall
Midshipman Peter Myles Calamy
- Max Benitz
Midshipman Hollom - Lee Ingleby
Midshipman Williamson - Richard
Pates
Mr. Allen, Sailing Master - Robert Pugh
Mr. Higgins, Surgeon's Mate
- Richard McCabe
Mr. Hollar, Boatswain - Ian Mercer
Mr. Lamb, Carpenter
- Tony Dolan
Preserved Killick, Captain's Steward - David Threlfall
Barret
Bonden, Captain's Coxswain- Billy Boyd
Joseph Nagle, Carpenter's Mate - Bryan
Dick
William Warley, Captain of Mizzentop - Joseph Morgan
Joe Plaice,
Able Seaman - George Innes
Michael Doudle, Able Seaman - William Mannering
Awkward Davies, Able Seaman - Patrick Gallagher
Nehemiah Slade, Able Seaman
- Alex Palmer
Mr. Hogg, Whaler - Mark Lewis Jones
Padeen Colman, Loblolly
Boy - John De Santis
Black Bill, Steward's Mate - Ousmane Thiam
Young
Sponge-Kostas Kurelias
Captain of the Acheron - Thierry Segall
Private
Trollope - Aidan Black
76th Academy Awards
Won, Best
Cinematography, Russell Boyd
Won, Best Sound Effects Editing, Richard King
Nominated, Best Picture
Nominated, Best Director, Peter Weir
Nominated,
Best Art Direction
Nominated, Best Sound Mixing
Nominated, Best Costume
Design
Nominated, Best Film Editing
Nominated, Best Visual Effects
Nominated,
Best Makeup
Spoiler
Plot Summary
In 1805, in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy frigate, HMS Surprise, commanded by Captain "Lucky" Jack Aubrey, is off Brazil, on orders to intercept and capture or destroy the French privateer Acheron, bound for the South Seas and the Pacific. In the opening scene, the Surprise is bound by fog and low visibility. Midshipman Hollom sees a shape, resembling a three-masted ship, but it vanishes into the fog. Hollom hesitates and the deputy watch officer, Midshipman Callamy, orders the crew to beat to quarters.
Aubrey is unconvinced by Hollom’s description of the ship, and sends the men back to their posts, but does not stand them down. The Surprise is suddenly raked by cannon fire. Luckily, Aubrey had noticed the flashes in the fog moments before, and shouted to the crew to lie on the deck. The enemy appears out of the fog, a large three-master flying the French tricolore flag. It is immediately obvious that the Surprise is outmatched by this larger ship. The Surprise raises her own colors, the Red Ensign, and Captain Aubrey orders his ship into battle.
The battle goes badly for the Surprise. She is hit by enemy fire before her own guns are in range, injuring a number of the crew. When Surprise is finally in range, the French ship’s hull appears to be impervious to gunfire. Meanwhile the British ship is repeatedly hit with many casualties.
The Surprise is severely damaged by the French ship, now revealed to be the Acheron. With the hull pierced and water coming in, and the rudder damaged, Captain Aubrey orders the ship's boats to tow her into the fog. The ploy is successful, and the Acheron loses sight of the Surprise.
Later the Captain inspects the damage. The flooding is under control, but the ship is badly damaged. There are nine dead, and 27 wounded, including young Blakeney and the captain who has a splinter removed from his neck revealed by Maturin. Later in the Captain’s cabin, Sailing Master Allen informs Jack that the Surprise can make it back to Portsmouth with little more than basic repairs. Jack surprises his officers with his intention to carry out his orders, refit the ship as best they can at sea, and pursue the Acheron.
Over the next few days, the crew works to repair the ship. Blakeney’s arm turns gangrenous, forcing Dr. Maturin to amputate. The Doctor also trepans Able Seaman Plaice’s skull, which was fractured in the attack.
Once the ship is repaired, Jack is visited by two of the sailors, Warley and Nagle, who present him with a model of the Acheron, which Warley apparently witnessed being built in Boston. Jack shows the model to his officers; they could not defeat the Acheron through regular broadsides, as her revolutionary design allows her hull planking to be much thicker than usual, though Jack notes that she is still vulnerable at the stern, like all ships at that time.
A few days later, the Surprise receives her first news of the Acheron while taking on supplies from a Brazilian settlement. The French ship is more than three weeks ahead of them.
The next morning, the Captain is awakened by shouts from above that a ship has been sighted astern. It is the Acheron, which has an advantageous angle of attack. Jack orders every one of the sails set, in a hope to outrun the enemy until nightfall.
As night falls, Acheron has advanced on Surprise enough to begin firing ranging shots at her. By placing lights on a decoy raft, resembling the lights of the Surprise, they fool the Acheron while they make a course change.
By the time they reach Cape Horn, the Surprise is following the Acheron. As the Horn is sighted, the Surprise loses sight of the Acheron as she is forced to bring in sail to avoid capsizing. The mizzen topmast breaks in the wind, as Mr. Hollom is sent to assist in the lowering of the sails. Warley is taken away with the sail. The ship is threatened and Jack is forced to cut away the mast which was Warley’s only hope. He orders Warley’s best friend, Joseph Nagle, to assist him. The Surprise is saved, but Warley is lost at sea. Afterwards, Maturin suggests that the chase has gone on too long, and that Jack may have become blinded by his own pride.
As Surprise turns north, entering the South Pacific, Aubrey gives his officers the ship’s new destination, the Galapagos Islands, where he is certain the Acheron will be headed, given that it is the position of Britain’s rich whaling fleet. The Doctor later tells Jack that the Galapagos are legendary to Naturalists such as himself. Jack promises his friend that he will be granted several days of exploring on the islands.
When the Surprise reaches the islands, the Doctor engages young Blakeney in a viewing of the new species, visible from the ship’s deck. Jack spots wreckage, and then a raft flying a white flag. The men on the raft turn out to be the surviving crew of the Albatross, a whaling ship, burned by a “big, black three-master”, which also captured many of their crew, and stole their valuable cargo of oil. Jack orders all hands to make sail to pursue the Acheron. This annoys the Doctor, who protests that Aubrey is breaking his word to let him explore. Jack retorts that his ship is not a private yacht. Stephen's spirits are later raised slightly by young Blakeney, who presents him with a beetle he found on the deck, calling it a ‘Galapagos beetle’.
Some days into their voyage from the Galapagos, Surprise is becalmed in blistering heat. Nagle is disrespectful and insubordinate towards Hollom. Jack witnesses this and orders that Nagle be flogged for disobedience, and later chastises Hollom for failing to prevent this.
Finally, Hollom, believing himself to be cursed, commits suicide by jumping into the ocean. At his memorial service on the deck the next morning, Jack is subdued, and asks God to forgive his and the crew’s failure to respect Hollom. A silence ensues, all the crew bowing their heads, during which a faint wind begins to ruffle the sails.
A few days later, Marine Captain Howard accidentally shoots Dr. Maturin. The untrained surgeon's mate informs Jack that unless the bullet can be removed it will cause infection. Just hours after this incident, a sail is spotted on the horizon ahead. Most believe it to be the Acheron again. Jack is now faced with a difficult choice: follow the ship he has chased almost a quarter the way around the globe, or save his closest friend.
Stephen regains consciousness as he is being carried on a stretcher from the Surprise’s boat to a flat spot on the side of a hill, where a tent has been erected. He realizes with shock that they have returned to the Galapagos.
As he is now conscious, the Doctor refuses to allow his assistant to perform the surgery; he does it himself with the aid of a mirror. He succeeds and recovers quickly. He is astonished to hear that Aubrey has given up the chase, intending to remain at the islands for at least a week. Stephen now has the opportunity to explore the Galapagos. Traveling the island with Blakeney and Padeen, he makes many discoveries, including a type of flightless cormorant and an amphibious iguana. From the top of a hill, as he examines a beetle, Stephen notices a large three-masted ship sailing into one of the island bays flying the French flag. The Acheron has returned. During their hurried return to camp, Stephen's bullet wound slows him down, forcing Padeen to release the captive specimens and carry the Doctor back to camp.
Surprise is transformed to ‘Syren’, a whaling ship, a disguise that Jack knows will attract the Acheron when she sees them. The Acheron takes the bait, turning to chase the Surprise. As the battle approaches, Jack gathers the crew on the gun deck, outlining their plan, and reminding the men of their obligation and duty to their country, and that "Surprise is on our side!”
As the unsuspecting French ship comes alongside, cannon and musket fire strike the Acheron. The guns succeed in toppling the Acheron’s mainmast, they cross and fire into her stern, cannon shot raking the Acheron causing many casualties and upsetting her cannon.
Leaving the "Surprise" under the command of Blakeney, Jack and Lieutenant Pullings lead the boarding parties but are ambushed themselves as the French sailors defend their ship. Master Allen, Nagle and many others of the Surprise’s crew are killed. The tide is turned when Callamy, promoted to acting Lieutenant, succeeds in freeing the crew of the Albatross.
Jack searches the Acheron for her captain, directed to the infirmary by a French sailor. When he arrives, a man introducing himself as Docteur de Vigny tells Jack that the French captain was killed. More sad news awaits Jack, as he finds Stephen standing over the body of young Callamy. A funeral service is later held on the deck of the Surprise.
The Acheron and Surprise are repaired. Jack gives command of the Acheron to Pullings, naming him ‘Captain’ Pullings, ordering him to take the French ship to Valparaiso, while the Surprise returns to the Galapagos.
As the Acheron sails away, Jack tells of his meeting with de Vigny, becoming angry with himself when Stephen reveals that he was told de Vigny had died months ago. As Jack gives orders to pursue the Acheron, Stephen is again denied the chance to explore the Galapagos. Jack notes that since the bird he seeks is flightless, it "isn't going anywhere."
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