![]() There are scenes at sea, including the rounding of Cape Horn, which are as good or better as any sea journey ever filmed, and the battle scenes are harrowing in their closeness and ferocity the object is to get close enough in the face of withering cannon fire to board the enemy vessel and hack its crew to death. For risking their lives, the men are rewarded with an extra tot of grog, and feel well-paid. It is a very small ship for such a large ocean, living conditions are grim, some of the men have been shanghaied on board, and one of the junior officers is 13 years old. Using an actual ship at sea and sets in the vast tank in Baja California where scenes from " Titanic" were shot, Weir creates a place so palpable we think we could find our own way around. The story takes place almost entirely onboard the Surprise, a smaller vessel outgunned by its quarry, the French warship Acheron. ![]() But his passion is biology, and he is onboard primarily because the navy will take him to places where there are beetles and birds unknown to science. Maturin is played by Paul Bettany, who you may recall as Crowe's imaginary roommate in " A Beautiful Mind." He's so cool under pressure that he performs open-skull surgery on the deck of the Surprise (plugging the cranial hole with a coin), and directs the removal of a bullet from his own chest by looking in a mirror. He doesn't go by the books his ability to think outside the envelope saves the Surprise at one crucial moment and wins a battle at another. There's a moment in "Master and Commander" when Maturin's hopes of collecting rare biological specimens are dashed by Aubrey's determination to chase a French warship, and the tension between them at that moment defines their differences.Īubrey, captain of HMS Surprise, is played by Russell Crowe as a strong but fair leader of men, a brilliant strategist who is also a student, but not a coddler, of his men. Each shares some of the other's qualities, and their lifelong debate represents two sides of human nature. Readers of O'Brian's 20 novels know them as friends and opposites - Aubrey, the realist, the man of action Maturin, more intellectual and pensive. Jack Aubrey and ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin. The film centers on the spirits of two men, Capt.
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