2003, Dir Peter Weir, Universal Studios and Miramax, PG-13, 138 mins
Sailors and fans of Patrick O Brian’s series of novels of the Georgian Navy love this film and it’s one to buy and re-watch every so often. The screenplay (by weir and John Collee) delivers a cracking storyline and draws from other novels in the series as well. Russell Crowe delivers a Jack Aubrey who is every bit the character the O Brian reader may have imagined. His confidante and close friend Stephen Maturin is quietly and brilliantly portrayed by Paul Bettany and the pair preside over a ship that brims with the confidence and professionalism of the late 18th century British sailor.
There’s interest in design, as Aubrey is shown a model of a French frigate, double-timbered to resist the English cannon shot, and shipboard life is presented almost as if the press gang had a benign interest in your welfare – though there is punishment and reference to impressment and the levels of discipline sailors endured.
By the time the battle comes you feel like you are part of the crew, and the realism permeates off the screen with some great touches such as the tension waiting for the battle to begin as the enemy slowly closes upon them; crewmates wishing each other luck and then the sound of a first warning shot as a cannon ball whistles by (the sound editing won an Oscar for Richard King). The action scenes are bloody enough but the violence does not get gratuitous and you will the lads on as they authentically fight through the ‘tween decks of the enemy – splashing water in the vents of the enemy cannon rendering them temporarily useless.
The film has more depth than this though as it heralds Darwin in scenes shot around Galapagos and shows a world that would have been as extraordinary to the common sailor then as the surface of Mars is to us today. DH
Battle scene: