Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World (2003, PG-13)

Directed by: Peter Weir

Grade: B

Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World is a movie that deserves much commendation for how authentic and real it feels and looks.  The film opens and closes with the camera panning over a vast expanse of ocean, dotted with a ship or two, and that, along with every camera shot in between, looks almost too good for cinema.  Director Peter Weir couldn’t have made his film appear, or feel, any better, and therefore, watching Master and Commander comes close, but not quite, to a true cinematic experience, simply because of a few issues I have found within the film.  I’ll get to those soon.

Master and Commander is really a movie about intersecting loyalties and friendships, and yet, the story becomes more complex as the film progresses.  We witness the interactions conducted by the crew of the ship, and the middle of the film is devoted to sporadic episodes aboard the vessel while the British pursuit the British across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  The incidents that occur on the ship are meant to show the harshness and discipline required of being a sailor: battle takes a heavy toll among the men by inflicting many casualties, as does the weather beating down upon them and the failure of a sailor to salute his officer, for examples.

However, the reasons I negate calling Master and Commander a true cinematic experience is because of a few adverse issues.  Something that I found difficult about the film is the pacing that Weir puts into the film (some scenes become either dangerously slow or even overextended), as well as the sometimes indirect feelings that we are supposed to procure from the supporting characters (which couldn’t have stood in any higher level of contrast to the well-defined leads).  As a result, the narrative isn’t as superbly told as one might expect from a film of this magnitude.

I wrote this review on the occassion of me just recently watching the film for a second time, and it was immediately after that rewatching that I decided we couldn’t ask Master and Commander to have looked any better; the film’s Oscar-winning cinematography was well-deserved, the battle scenes are brilliantly staged, and the film provides a true-to-the-core account of seafaring life for a sailor in the 1800s.  Yes, I sincerely do believe that there is still some work to be done on the film, and if the production team had tuned those problems, then Master and Commander could have gone down as an unmatched film achievement.  Instead, we are left with a reliable film that takes voluntary risks, the most of which I suppose turn out well for the film’s benefit.  B