#90 A movie worth seeing?

I don’t see many first run movies, and thus rarely look at what is available as promotion on the internet. But today I did look at the official site of Master and Commander; the Far Side of the World, starring Russell Crowe. The movie is based on the Patrick O’Brian series of twenty Aubrey/Maturin novels covering 1801 to 1815 which has a cult level following. Russell Crow plays Captain Jack Aubrey and Paul Bettany is the doctor, Stephen Maturin.

If the movie is as impressive as the site, it should be well worth the money. Music, video clips, a voyage you can start at any point on the map, background on the film, and links to other sites. The website is also available in Spanish, French, German, Chinese and Japanese. I read through the diary in Spanish (with a dictionary) just for practice, although the video clips of episodes were in English. If you’ve loved the book(s), usually the film version is a disappointment. Here’s what the author of the POB web page says about the film.

“Having waited ten years for the mills of Hollywood to grind out a cinematic interpretation of the novels I've spent so much time reading and listening to, I was anxious that the experience just not be too awful. As it turns out, it was a true delight; what Russell Crowe, Peter Weir and friends have done is an amazing accomplishment. They have grafted another branch on the evolutionary tree of the Aubrey-Maturin novels. The analogy is like chimps and human beings - they are different branches from the same ancestor, but we are not direct descendants of chimps, nor are we exact copies. The film is good, very good, but it is not the books brought to life, nor is it a logical progression of the series. It is two hours and twenty minutes of damned fine film, using the characters, settings and ideas created by Patrick O'Brian but molded by Peter Weir into something that stands on its own.” Tony Townsend.