russell crowe, paul bettany
ian mercer, james d'arcy
john desantis
unfashionable observations rating: B+
Russell Crowe stars as Lucky Jack Aubrey, the Navy’s greatest fighting captain, who is commander of the Surprise, an aging but solid ship. When the Surprise is attacked and badly damaged by a formidable, superior ship, Aubrey becomes almost monomaniacally obsessed with chasing the enemy ship, intercepting it, and capturing his foe. This, of course, goes against the wishes of his advisors: the crew has already suffered some losses on account of the surprise attack, and the Surprise itself is no match for the size, structure, and design of the enemy ship. Facing a moral dilemma between duty to his country, and duty to his crew, Aubrey ignores the warnings and charges full speed ahead, blindly determined to prove himself the true “master and commander” of the high seas.
If the plot of the story were all that the movie had to offer, then it would be a very dull movie indeed. But like all Peter Weir movies, the action is always peripheral to the characters and their relationships. That is not to say that the action in this movie is not worthy of mention. Indeed, the battle scenes are thrilling and sometimes frightening. But the real battle is a philosophical, psychological one.
Here is where the ship’s doctor, Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany), comes into the fore. Stephen is a caring, humble, sentimental character who acts as the foil to Aubrey’s rough sense of machismo, control, and pride. And yet they are the best of friends. This makes for a genuine sparring back and forth between two people who respect each other, but who represent two distinctly different paradigms of social—and moral—values. While Stephen concerns himself with the health and safety of the crew, and with gaining knowledge in the field of natural science in general, Captain Aubrey concerns himself with the glory that could possibly attach to himself and his crew.
While in today’s rather self-complacent world, we would almost instinctively choose safety and knowledge over glory, philosophically there is nothing to suggest that that one value is better than the other. In fact, the Greeks and Romans differed on precisely this issue. For the Greeks, the ultimate goal in life was knowledge. For the Romans, the ultimate end was glory. This discord of essential values is aptly and sincerely played out in Crowe and Bettany’s commendable performances.
Although Russell Crowe received an Oscar for his performance in Ridley Scott's Gladiator, it was his performance in Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind which was truly Oscar-worthy. In Master and Commander, we get a more comprehensive look at Crowe’s talents, as his character demands that he waver between the brash, tough-guy roles which catapulted him to fame, and the gentler roles that have cemented his reputation as a great actor. This is Russell Crowe’s movie, there is no doubt about it. And it is a pleasure to behold.
I’d give Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World a B+.
