Master And Commander: The Far Side of the World

Set during the Napoleonic Wars, Crowe is Patrick O’Brian’s Captain “Lucky” Jack Aubrey, renowned as a fighting captain in the British Navy, and Paul Bettany is ship’s doctor Stephen Maturin. Their ship, the Surprise, is suddenly attacked by a superior enemy.

With the HMS Surprise badly damaged and much of his crew injured, Aubrey is torn between duty and friendship as he pursues a high-stakes chase across two oceans, to intercept and capture his foe. It’s a mission that can make his reputation – or destroy Lucky Jack and his crew.

In the course of the characters’ epic journey, the movie travels the world – from the coast of Brazil to the storm-tossed waters of Cape Horn, south through ice and snow, to the far side of the world, to the remote shores of The Galapagos Islands (becoming the first feature film ever to film there).

The project originated over ten years ago when two legends – Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. and celebrated author Patrick O’Brian – had preliminary conversations about turning some of O’Brian’s Aubrey / Maturin stories into a film.

The film that resulted a decade later is based on the principal characters first introduced in O’Brian’s book Master and Commander, but employs the broad narrative outline of the tenth of 20 Aubrey/Maturin novels, The Far Side of the World.

Peter Weir believed the latter had a more direct, cinematic and adaptable story structure. (Our heroes are attacked by a superior foe who must be pursued; but how far and at what cost?)

From the splinter of wood in an attack to the heat of the doldrums, to rounding Cape Horn in a violent storm, Master And Commander puts the audience at sea as never before in film.

At the core of Patrick O’Brian’s works are the characters of Lucky Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin, and their “study-in-contrasts” friendship.

They are unique creations and very much the reason there are twenty Aubrey/Maturin novels. Jack is a fusion of the best traits of several real-life captains – a brilliant seaman and genius warrior, if a reluctant follower of orders.

He also is exuberant, loud and a connoisseur of bad jokes. Stephen is a brilliant surgeon, naturalist and “lubber” whose courage matches Jack’s.

Peter Weir’s body of work was a key draw for Russell Crowe, who plays larger-than-life Jack Aubrey.

“I’m a long-time fan of Peter’s movies,” says the actor, “and I had always wanted to work with him. I’d grown up with Peter’s movies. For instance, the most terrified I’d been in my young life was being in a cinema watching The Last Wave.” Crowe was also fascinated with the character of Lucky Jack. “He was a kind of man who doesn’t exist anymore; there’s no template for Jack Aubrey,” says Crowe.

“If you are talking about the British Royal Navy as his employer, he is a very unruly employee. However, in the broader sense of the mission with which he is charged as captain, he might not do it the way you want him to do it, but his results at the end of the day will be far more than you intended”.

Weir says Crowe was born to play Lucky Jack. “Russell has a natural energy and authority, and he took command of that ship from the beginning”.

Crowe appreciated some of the perks of “command.” “Every day between my trailer and the set, I would hear ‘Good morning, Captain’ about seventy or eighty times,” says the actor. “Actually, it was difficult giving up the uniform; I’d grown quite fond of it”.

Crowe was pleased to rejoin Paul Bettany who played, memorably, Crowe’s imaginary roommate in A Beautiful Mind. Their collaboration in film proved invaluable in helping the actors create their characters’ relationship in Master And Commander. Says Crowe: “We developed a kind of creative shorthand in A Beautiful Mind that I thought would serve us well in establishing quickly and effectively the Jack-Stephen dynamic”.

Bettany says two elements attracted him to Master And Commander: action and characters. “Any fan of Patrick O’Brian’s books knows them to be real page turners,” says Bettany, “and I see the film as an action movie within which is a richly detailed friendship that endures some life-altering situations. I found that really intriguing”.

A critical point in the friendship between Bettany’s Stephen Maturin and Crowe’s Lucky Jack comes after a surprise attack by the Acheron that leaves Captain Aubrey’s ship severely damaged and a number of his men dead or critically wounded.

Despite (or perhaps spurred on by) the odds against him, Jack is more determined than ever to complete his mission to best the Acheron. His single-minded focus on the enemy ship becomes a concern for Stephen.

“Stephen studies people the way he studies animals; he certainly studies Jack,” says Bettany. “I think what Stephen finds intriguing about Jack is that he is the exception to the rule that ‘power corrupts’ – Jack wields his power wisely. But that is really tested in this film. Stephen begins to think that Jack’s goal of catching the Acheron is turning into an obsession, which could be a detriment to his crew”.