Master and Commander (Weir, 2003): Prince Charles Cinema, 8.45pm
This 35mm presentation from Animus magazine will feature an introduction by Elena Lazic. The film also screens on December 8th and 21st. Details here.
Time Out review:
'Off tacks and main sheet!' commands Russell Crowe's pony-tailed,
gimlet-eyed Royal Navy captain, 'Lucky' Jack Aubrey, in Peter Weir's rousing
1805 adventure, adapted from two of Patrick O'Brian's much-admired
seafaring novels. Aubrey's three-masted frigate HMS Surprise,
cruising the coast of Brazil on the lookout for Napoleon's allies, comes
under splintering fire from the fleeter French privateer Acheron
and lifts off in the fog. The sailing master (Robert Pugh) counsels caution,
but the standfast Aubrey, who fought with Nelson on the Nile, will have
his man, whatever the odds, come hell or high water. Thanks in no small
measure to Perfect Storm designer William Sandell, this handsomely mounted actioner exudes the authentic tang of salt, sweat and gunpowder. Cameraman Russell Boyd gives painterly expression to the ship's 'little world' and, as in Gallipoli,
Weir shows his adroitness at action and the psychology of men at war,
helped by a string of sterling performances, notably Bettany's
Darwin-esque doctor (Aubrey's friend, cello partner and obverse) and
young Pirkis as a heroic aristocratic midshipman. Nice too to hear
English accents in a major US production, especially Crowe's clipped
tones, and a well used classically oriented score stripped of bombast.
If there's a problem, it's the insistence on the warrior/man-of-science
dichotomy, which has the film meander off on a naturalist jaunt through
the Galapagos to tension-slackening effect. But in the main, a fine
old-fashioned Boy's Own yarn.
Wally Hammond
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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