Review – Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

I’ve never read any of Patrick O’Brien’s novels, so I can’t say for sure how faithful the movie is to the book. However, I have seen enough “heart of oak” dramas to be able to place this somewhere in the middle of the pack. The attention to detail was impressive, but it was offset more than a little by the King-and-Country brand of machismo that pervades the production. Further, not since John Carpenter’s The Thing has a movie featured so few women. That’s appropriate enough to a drama that takes place entirely aboard a Nelsonian British Navy vessel, but aside from Russell Crowe shirtless in a scene or two that doesn’t leave much for the average female audience member. That notwithstanding, anyone who likes stories about the age of sail and battles on the high seas will get at least something of a kick out of this. Mildly amusing