“Master and Commander” is paced like the “Surprise” itself: deliberate and unhurried, yet persistent and inevitable in its forward movement. The movie is not over-run with action but shows very much of the day-to-day operation of an 18th century sailing vessel, scrubbing decks, cooking bad food, welding cannonballs, and then repeated from one day to the next. An intentionally silly movie like “Pirates of the Caribbean” would have us believe that operating the “Surprise” is no more difficult than driving a car. We get long takes of the ships at sea, floating past us mightily; we get long, steady pans across the islands of the Galapagos, and we get to dwell on the exotic faunae that is found there. We even get to take a twenty-minute tangent on the undiscovered island because, well, it’s interesting, and Weir trusts us as an audience to find it interesting as well.
In fact, Weir gives his audience a whole lot of credit. The sailors talk sailor talk, just like real sailors, and while I didn’t have too hard of a time figuring out the gist of the tactics and strategy, certainly the movie does not spoon-feed us. One of “Master and Commander’s” earliest shots shows a lantern-lit piece of wooden equipment with a strange phrase written on it. Then we see another with the different pair of words. And when we are finally aboard the French ship, we notice the same thing. After the movie, my wife asked me, what were those? I said I speculated that the crews had given each individual cannon a name. And we both agreed that we were glad not to have been hit over the head with this knowledge, but left to figure it out on our own.
“Master and Commander” does not take us back in time only to meet people who talk and act like sitcom characters (like, ahem, “Pirates of the Caribbean”). It shows us, without judgment, what life would be like if you were forced into a giant wooden barrel for months without end and sent to hurl metal balls at strangers until you could get close enough to jump onto their floating barrel and hack them to bits. Barbaric, yes, but it is part of our collective history as human beings. The effect is like Peter Weir went to a lot of recent big-budget movies and decided to use their special effects while leaving out all the crap. Yes, this is the kind of adventure movie where little kids will probably get bored and not understand some of what’s going on. It’s the kind of movie that people who can’t define words like “plot” and “story” will say has no “plot” or “story.” But if you’re a grown-up, why not treat yourself every now and then?
Finished January 19, 2004
Copyright © 2004 Friday & Saturday Night
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