November 23, 2003
Officers kick butt
I saw Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World on Friday night. A brilliant film with many things going for it. First, they didn't use many digital effects. I only noticed one, and it was something they really couldn't do otherwise (you can't really drown someone off the coast of Cape Horn for a movie). I'm told there were one or two others under similar circumstances.
As a boy, I read C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower series and thoroughly enjoyed them. The series follows the career of one Horatio Hornblower from Midshipman to Admiral during the height of the Age of Sail: the Napoleonic Wars. I've also played a lot of Avalon Hill's Wooden Ships and Iron Men, a superb board game simulation of Napoleonic era naval combat. Both of which were good, since I haven't read any of Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey-Maturin series. The Hornblower books - and my study of history both in and out of school - gave me an insight into the political situation of the film, which was really necessary. Why exactly Aubrey felt so strongly about finding the Acheron is much more apparent if you realize that if he hadn't, Britain would almost certainly have been invaded due to the damage the Acheron would have caused to the Empire's Pacific shipping. The board game taught me a little bit about naval tactics and exposed exactly how ballsy a lot of Aubrey's manuvers were, and exactly how devastating a stern rake can be.
So I was already really tuned into the context and detail of the movie. Both were portrayed fantastically. On top of that, the way they exposed the dynamic between the crew, especially between the enlisted and officers, was really dramatic. Today people tend to sneer at the kind of paternal care these officers had for the men under their command as condescending. Maybe. It it's also quite beautiful and I would argue that it's the only thing that kept those little islands of humanity from literally falling apart. I like noblesse oblige.
