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.
Awards
Russell Boyd won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on this film while Richard King won an Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing.
Plot Summary
The film is based on the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian and includes episodes from several novels in the series. The plot of the film, in which Aubrey in HMS Surprise chases an enemy frigate round Cape Horn into the Pacific, is based loosely on The Far Side of the World, but the American frigate USS Norfolk in the book becomes the French privateer Acheron in the film. The episode of deception of the enemy by means of a raft bearing lanterns is taken from from Master and Commander; the episode in which Maturin operates on himself to remove a bullet is taken from HMS Surprise.
The movie's success and the wide-open ending has led to credible speculation about a sequel, although it is not known whether Weir would wish to direct.
The film's DVD release contains behind-the-scenes material giving useful insights into the film-making process. Some of the filming actually took place at sea on board Rose (a reproduction of the 18th century frigate HMS Rose ), while other scenes were shot on a full-scale replica mounted on gimbals in a large tank. There was a third HMS Surprise which was a scale model built by Weta Workshop. A storm sequence was enhanced using digitally-composited footage of waves actually shot on board a modern replica of Cook's Endeavour rounding Cape Horn. All of the actors were given a thorough grounding in the naval life of the period in order to make their performances as authentic as possible.
Trivia
- The exploit of setting up a decoy a night by attaching lights to a small boat was executed by the French privateer Robert Surcouf to successfully escape the British frigate HMS Sybille. It was also used by Lord Cochrane and described in his Autobiography of a Seaman. The Autobiography was used by Patrick O'Brian as source material for his novel Master and Commander. The same ruse is featured in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, where it is the HMS Surprise which escapes the Acheron using this trick.
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