Master and Commander

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⭐ 8.5/10

(Originally written by Joseph)

This is a movie I took a lot of interest in after reading The Wager. It has a ton of similarities: a man-of-war is hunting enemy ships around South America, but then survival becomes paramount when things go south. It's a super authentic oceanic movie, and you can tell tons of attention was given to detail. It feels like they basically recreated a moment in history, and I doubt this kind of movie would be made today. Like, there are tons of real animals, and I suspect we'd be seeing that all replaced with cgi now.

So in terms of getting my boat fix, this movie was everything I could have hoped for. It was perfect. Lots of sails, ropes, grimy sailors, canon fire. It also has terrific costumes and dialogue that felt authentic to the time. It's the perfect gear-up for that Scorsese movie that's apparently in the works.

However, as an actual movie, I thought it left a lot to be desired. It was kinda just a meh story, with stakes I was never really invested in, and a character study that never really paid off. The movie was building up to a hard decision for Russell Crowe, but he never actually had to make it. So this score probably seems high considering this review, but I really just did love how authentic this boat felt.

Also, this movie features Billy Boyd. So that's good.

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