Just got done watching it. I originally put it in while I was reading Sea of Glory (which is about the American Exploring Expedition of 1838-42 in the South Pacific/Pacific Northwest), but wound up getting caught up in the movie.

Peter Weir did an excellent job making it. Of course, it seems like all his films are excellent. He doesn't make popcorn movies, but he makes good movies that do entertain you. So far, I've only seen his earlier stuff like Gallipoli, The Year of Living Dangerously, and Witness, but all of those were really good. Someone would have money in the bank if they could somehow combine the way he directs and the way Spielberg directs. I'd say those two are my favorites and they both lack something that the other does well. For instance, Weir doesn't use music as well as Spielberg. Spielberg's characters don't develop relationships with each other as well as Weir's do. Weir doesn't storyboard as much as Spielberg does. It seems like every frame in a Spielberg movie is a picture perfect. For instance, in Jaws, when Roy Scheider's throwing out the chum and the shark jumps out of the water, there's a shot when he stands straight up, scared.



Weir doesn't really do that.

Anyway, back to M&C. It's a lot like Star Trek. Mostly Star Trek II, but you can relate a lot of the characters and relationships to ST.

--Captain Aubrey's love of commanding a ship, appreciation for the arts, and sense of exploration are like Captain Picard's.
--Both ships have Captain-doctor friendships, where both officers are accountable to each other.
--Both ships end with "-prise."
--Whales are involved (Khan quotes Moby Dick and the Surprise becomes a whaling ship).
--Both ships discover new life at locations starting with a G, and find the enemy ship on the other side of it.
--Both ships are attacked by surprise and crippled, injuring young crewmen that a high-ranking officer is close to. --Both ships' sight of their enemy becomes clouded due to the environment of the battlefield.
--Both friends of the captains suffer near-fatal injuries. (Star Trek III, folks...did he really die if he came back to life?)
--Both Kirk and Lucky Jack are hunted by their opponents.
--Both "engineers" are fat and white-headed.

Now...M&C is based off a series of books. So I'm wondering which came first...the chicken or the egg. Did Nicholas Meyer borrow from Patrick O'Brian or did Weir borrow from Meyer?

If I remember correctly, the ign review called it "the best star trek movie in a long time" for the headline.

And about them both involving whales...
Star trek IV. The one where they go back in time and get the whales and bring the to the future...you forgot to mention that. It's very much related to this movie (partial sarcasm).

No, in reality, I loved this movie because it was, very much, like Star Trek 2. A dogfight, between two ships. This movie had much of what I missed in modern movies, good everything, pretty much, in a 2 ship dogfight.

Jaws is one of my all-time favorite movies.

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is one of my all time favorite movies.

I can see how there is a strong correlation between M&C and ST, but I'd rather not think about it. ST bores the living crap out of me. The only relatively cool one was First Contact.

I loved the M&C soundtrack, but could never find it. Anywhere.

But I found the movie very enjoyable. And kudos to the British - they support equal opportunity for hobbits.

............

I meant in stores.

Check Barnes and Nobles. That's where I got mine, but I got it the day it came out so I only paid around $10, where now you'd can probably expect to pay around $18 because that's how they are there.

The first book, Master and Commander, was published in 1970. So that would be before the Wrath of Khan, or even the first Star Trek movie. I can't remember when The Far Side of the World was published, but it's the 8th book if I remember correctly. Far Side of the World is the one where they hunt an American Frigate which is preying on British Whaling ships around South America during the war of 1812. But due to this plotline being shifted to the first film chronologically, the British aren't at war with the Americans, so we get French privateers in an American-built ship instead, though they use elements from Master and Commander, like the diversion at night with the floating lanterns. Confusing.

Coincidentally, (bear with me) Jack Aubrey is to some extent based on and inspired by the real-life exploits of a Thomas Cochrane. C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower is also inspired by Cochrane, and according to Rodenberry, Captain Kirk is in turn inspired by Hornblower. So there is a slim relation.

Anyhow, errr. Yes, I enjoyed the film (finally a film where impacting cannon-fire impacts don't cause blooming fiery orange mushroom-clouds). I especially liked that little detail like when Aubrey looks through his glass at the pursuing Acheron, her captain is standing at her bow with the sun glinting off of his telescope I went ahead and started reading the books because of the film.

Here's hoping for more films. Supposedly they're making at least one, since the HMS Rose, the ship they used, was suspiciously absent from a Tall-Ships festival in France this summer.

I know they wouldn't start the next movie with the re-capture of the Acheron, but the way Weir ended it with Dr. Maturin telling Jack that the Acheron's doctor died several months earlier was unbeatable. Such a fitting ending. It's like "the adventure continues..."

I never really thought about the relationship between Master and Commander and Star Trek, but can I see it now. I also thought that Master and Commander reminded me a lot of Das Boot, a movie about a German U-boat during WW2.

Meh.. I dunno. It's was enjoyable, but not particularly great.

I first heard about Cochrane in the book Sharpe's Devil or something like that, one of the Sharpe's Rifles series. I thought he was made up for the book until I caught his name at a museum. Really interesting guy.

Hold on, wasn't Master and Commander a film about crazy merchants and ship battles with cutlasses?

I hated it, I liked nothing except for the music, which was fantastic.

Not exactly, no.

I really enjoyed the movie. It had great action, but there was a lot more to the movie than that. Captain Jack's relationships with the crew, officesr and sailors, were really hreat. And he just beamed confidence that that his men fed off of.