# Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) | Ep. 38 - Part 1

An episode of [All The Right Movies](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1471502633), 12 Apr 2024, 1 h 10 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO9386608157.mp3

Peter Weir built a working replica of a 19th-century warship and put his cast to sea on it, because half-measures were never going to cut it. John, Westy, and Matt begin the story.In Part 1 we cover the film's opening, director Peter Weir, the cast, and the second act — including Russell Crowe's Captain Aubrey, Paul Bettany's ship's surgeon Maturin, and the extraordinary, immersive recreation of life aboard HMS Surprise.There's a cat-and-mouse chase across an ocean still to play out. Part 2 sets sail: crew, finale, reception, legacy. Out now. Connect with ATRM: To join our fantastic community of film fans, support what we do, access our archive, listen to exclusive episodes, and a whole lot more, become an ATRM patron: Join the ATRM Community We're available on any podcast platform: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify YouTube: Subscribe to our channelWe're across all major social channels too: Twitter: @ATRightMovies Instagram: @allthe_rightmovies Facebook: Join our movie group Bluesky: @alltherightmovies.com TikTok: @alltherightmovies Website: alltherightmovies.com

## Transcript

[0:04] All their movies. From three time Academy Award
[0:07] nominated director Peter Weir, Gentlemen to wives and to
[0:11] sweethearts, comes the epic story of all that you risk.
[0:16] Perhaps we should have turned back weeks ago.
[0:17] For all that you love, this ship is our home on November 14th.
[0:26] Academy Award winner Russell Crowe, Master and Commander at a
[0:32] beating 13 November 14th only in theatres.
[0:35] Master and Commander the Far Side of the World opened in
[0:38] 2003. An epic action drama set during
[0:41] the Napoleonic Wars. The film is an adaptation of
[0:44] Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey Mature and book series and has grown to
[0:47] be regarded A cult classic. My name is John and a couple of
[0:51] wily All Sea Dogs with me are Matt.
[0:54] Name a shrub after me, something prickly and hard to eradicate.
[0:57] And Westy. That's seamanship, Mr. Pullings.
[1:00] My God, that's seamanship. It's eighteen O 5 and all the
[1:04] right movies are in the East Pacific to talk stoicism,
[1:06] seamanship and the HMS Surprise. But First Lads beat the
[1:11] quarters. Hello and welcome to all the
[1:33] right Movies, Masters at Arms, Men at War, and the podcast on
[1:37] Classic and Hit Films. Yep.
[1:39] This time out, we're sailing the Seven Seas.
[1:42] We are, yeah. It's Napoleonic era naval
[1:46] warfare as we talk, Peter. We are Russell Crowe and their
[1:49] huge period film Master and Commander, The Far Side of the
[1:53] World. Indeed.
[1:55] Long title that yeah. Very long.
[1:58] Too long? Charlie Kaufman title.
[2:01] Really necessary caller. Before we find our sea legs,
[2:07] though, a quick word about Patreon, Shirley.
[2:10] Yeah, why not? So if you listen regularly to
[2:13] our ATRM Classic podcasts, and if you're listening to Master
[2:17] and Commander, I'm guessing you listen to anything that we do.
[2:22] Yeah. You can help support what we do
[2:24] by becoming an ATRM Patron. Patrons get access to our
[2:27] monthly Bonus Podcast episode called Double Feature, and
[2:30] access to our entire archive of Bonus Episode and ATRM Classic
[2:34] episodes. There's hundreds of hours worth
[2:36] of podcasts in there now, so if you like Russell Crowe, we've
[2:40] got Gladiator and LA Confidential.
[2:42] We do. If Peter Weir is your kind of
[2:45] filmmaker, we've talked about Witness.
[2:47] Yes, we did indeed. Lots more, too.
[2:50] So a treasure trove as deep as Davy Jones locker there, I
[2:53] think. Oh.
[2:54] Absolutely, yeah. Get the bends going all.
[2:58] Up all of the Radiohead references.
[3:00] Every time. Every time I can.
[3:03] I don't let you down. There's another one.
[3:04] I'm fitter and happier because of it.
[3:07] Are you finished? No, by a long stretch.
[3:12] So to find a more and sign up, please visit patreon.com/all the
[3:16] Right movies. Or if you're an Apple Podcast
[3:19] user, you can subscribe directly on there now as well.
[3:22] Just click the Subscribe button and you're away there.
[3:25] You go, he's using that. As for now, though, the business
[3:28] at hand is master and commander. It is, yes.
[3:32] Your choice this one, Matt. So why did you put it up?
[3:36] Because this is one of those films where I think even though
[3:38] it won the ports was obviously popular, it still feels
[3:42] underrated in a way. And not known or seen by enough
[3:45] people and we'll talk about this later I think.
[3:48] But obviously there was another big seafarer and adventure film
[3:50] that same year, another long title, another call on that one
[3:54] dominated the box office. But I think this one has thrived
[3:57] and people get really passionate about it.
[4:00] When you mention it, I wouldn't go quite that far with it, but I
[4:04] am a big fan of Peter Way in general.
[4:06] Russell Crowe is in his leading man prime here and it does have
[4:10] this real old fashioned sweep to it, which I really respond to.
[4:14] It's very grounded in the reality of that historical era
[4:18] in the some great behind the scenes stories to this one.
[4:22] Yeah, I saw this when it first came out. 2003 Bolden Cinema.
[4:26] You two guys old stomping ground NE.
[4:28] Oh. Yeah, we probably took your
[4:30] ticket. Probably, yeah.
[4:32] Well when I saw it there was a fight broke out in my aisle
[4:34] because some guy had his foot on the guy in front seat.
[4:38] I was waiting for what are you 2 to steam in and breaking up but
[4:41] never happened. Absolutely not.
[4:43] So that was too happen to fight. But maybe because of that I
[4:49] didn't watch the film again until my suggested it like 20
[4:51] years later, so I just remember it all that well.
[4:54] But I was pleased to do it because I mean the setting.
[4:57] I studied the Napoleonic Wars when I was a teenager and always
[5:00] found it a bit of a fascinating period.
[5:02] By choice. Yeah, my choice, Yeah.
[5:04] Wow, that explains a lot. I mean sailing around on huge
[5:12] wooden ships like powered by wind and firing lumps of metal
[5:15] each other while shouting Hazar every 5 minutes is insane
[5:19] behaviour, but a great setting for a film.
[5:22] Definitely. And as well as the interesting
[5:24] history, we've got Peter Weir, director Russell Crowe and Paul
[5:27] Bethany in the cast. So big names based on client
[5:30] novels as well. So loads to get stuck into.
[5:32] I mean, if we're talking Napoleonic warfare, it's no
[5:35] sharp, obviously not is no come on though, but that is one hell
[5:40] of a high bar. That that is too high, it is.
[5:43] Should have got Sean Bean in there.
[5:44] Bastards. You bastard.
[5:46] So let's do it. OK, you bastard.
[5:49] And Westy, how about yourself and M&CTSFOTW?
[5:53] I got that wrong. I got.
[5:54] That wrong. You've got it wrong.
[5:55] I was like, oh, let's study another window.
[5:59] Yeah. I mean, I'm brand new to this.
[6:01] This is quite rare for me. Matt put it up and he put their
[6:05] pulled up and I said I haven't seen that one.
[6:07] I hope didn't secretly hoped it wouldn't win.
[6:09] I mean, I was put off by it. I think it was overshadowed as
[6:11] well. Talk about by Return of the
[6:13] King, which came out the same time.
[6:14] And I think it's suffered a lot for that.
[6:16] But I was really put off by his hair.
[6:19] I was put up by the title. It just sounded really fucking
[6:22] boring. You know what it sounds like?
[6:23] You know the you know the games that you've got free with your
[6:25] PC before the Internet. It does.
[6:30] Feel like a little blip on a map and you have to like, blow them
[6:32] up and it was a shit game and it's free.
[6:35] It sounds like Master and Commander, the far side of the
[6:37] world. I'm not fucking doing that.
[6:38] Great art cover, but terrible game.
[6:40] Really great. Like Massive.
[6:42] Like Renee. Some style galleon.
[6:47] And that's how it felt like. When I saw the poster, I
[6:49] thought, oh, that's just like, that looks really boring and
[6:51] really kind of up its own ass. And now that I've watched it so
[6:55] much, duality in the film isn't as like man versus NHL will be
[6:57] versus. There's like science versus war
[7:00] and there's loads of this duality.
[7:02] There's all these twos all the way through the film and the
[7:04] title kind of lets it down. It should have just been called
[7:06] surprise, surprise. I would have been in there a lot
[7:14] to talk about. Like Matt said, lots of good
[7:16] behind the scenes stuff, lots of things that people might not
[7:18] know about. And this film is loved.
[7:20] If people like this film, they don't just like it.
[7:22] They adore this film and there's no middle ground.
[7:25] So am I in the middle? Am I one that thinks this is
[7:27] just a tiny film, or did I really enjoy it?
[7:30] Let's find out. Yeah, let's.
[7:32] So Master and Commander, the far side of the world.
[7:36] I'm not calling it all the way through, by the way, just Master
[7:38] and Commander from yeah. It was produced by Miramax
[7:42] Films, Universal Pictures and Samuel Goldwyn Films,
[7:45] distributed by 20th Century Fox and released on November the
[7:48] 14th, 2003. Filmed on location in the
[7:51] Galapagos Islands and Rosarito Beach in Baja, Mexico.
[7:55] It was written by Peter Weir and John Collie, directed by Weir,
[7:58] and it stars. Russell Crowe is Captain Jack
[8:00] Aubrey, Paul Bethany is Doctor Stephen Maturing and a host of
[8:03] British TV actors, some of whom we're going to talk about.
[8:08] Let's get in there, then, should we?
[8:09] Let's do it. Time to run like smoke and or
[8:12] come we're talking the beginning of Master and Commander
[8:30] April 1805. Napoleon is Master of Europe,
[8:33] Oceans are now battlefields and a series of title cards reveal
[8:37] our plot. The HMS Surprise, captained by
[8:40] Jack Aubrey, has new Admiralty orders incept the French
[8:43] privateer vessel Acuron in the Pacific and sink, burn or take
[8:47] her as a prize. Sounds about right, yeah.
[8:49] So the opening scenes of Master and Commander are straight into
[8:52] the action. We meet Captain Jack and his
[8:55] crew as they search for the Phantom vessel.
[8:57] It's thick fog, though, and the Acuron pounces in a preemptive
[9:00] strike. Yeah.
[9:02] So, Wesley, what's the butcher's Bill?
[9:05] What's the Butcher's great line? I'd love to be able to use that,
[9:09] but I never want to. Do you know what I mean?
[9:12] It's. I mean, it's a fantastic
[9:14] opening. It's exactly what you expect.
[9:16] Them titles are big. Wow.
[9:17] All right, Peter. Fucking Oceans of Battlegrounds.
[9:23] All right, Focus on what we're trying to tell you, because
[9:25] we've put so much work into this, so much effort into this.
[9:28] It is just to the letter, so authentic and I don't know how
[9:33] many times I'm going to use that word during this whole pod I've.
[9:35] Got it in mind if you as well that's.
[9:37] Probably going to be like more than Matthew's sick in Texas
[9:41] Chainsaw. I think Michael might break it.
[9:44] And columns looking through the telescope and you see that
[9:46] little glimpse that's so beautifully done because you see
[9:50] it but you don't know if you have.
[9:51] Yeah you just I've seen something but what was it?
[9:53] And then that's a hell of a way of called one introduction to
[9:55] the character of Jack when he's just yeah, it's like Commando
[9:57] isn't. It.
[10:00] And then I'm like, oh, there he is.
[10:02] Oh, there's he's here to fucking, Oh my God.
[10:05] The last two. The sound design when this boots
[10:09] off is just incredible. The sound just rips through
[10:13] everything, which we'll get into.
[10:14] But it's just so engaging. From the start.
[10:17] I expected this to be a really slow build.
[10:19] It's going to start in the port. You're going to see them all get
[10:22] on the boat, then they're going to go right.
[10:24] You dropped right in the middle of the action, like you said,
[10:26] John, you just automatically part of everything and you want
[10:28] to fight with them and you want to kind of go through it all
[10:31] with them. And that's how good Peter Weir
[10:34] is. It's just a recognizing humanity
[10:36] and companionship and how good people feed off each other.
[10:39] And he still does it from minute one.
[10:41] And when then cannons fire, I almost just dove off the setting
[10:44] with everyone else. I was like, right, get down.
[10:46] I was like, oh shit, Bruce and Cruz down.
[10:48] Just get down. I have to get down.
[10:50] That's that's how engaging it is and how authentic it is and how
[10:53] much you are pulled into this film immediately.
[10:55] I think it's just an excellent, excellent opening of the film
[10:58] and it just makes you want to sit and go, yeah, I'm ready for
[11:00] two hours of this. Yeah, those first shots we don't
[11:03] start with like music playing over the titles like you might
[11:06] normally do. We see in here like night time
[11:08] waves and then we're aboard the ship with just a bell ringing
[11:11] and the whole like creaking. We are set to really specific
[11:13] tone straight away. And I think he does it really
[11:16] well. And in those first shots that go
[11:18] around the ship, we'll see the cannons that are called like
[11:20] jumping Billy and sudden death. Those names are taken from the
[11:24] books. So a good way for we had let
[11:25] fans of the novels know. Don't worry, we have actually
[11:28] read them, which is always a good way to start.
[11:30] Yeah. Yeah.
[11:31] And I think it's a great build up to the battle.
[11:33] Midshipman Holland is on watch, thinks he spots something but
[11:35] can't decide what to do, raises the tension and also sets up
[11:38] Holland for his subplot later on, which we'll talk about.
[11:41] All the way through, yeah. Yeah, And then Captain Jack
[11:44] Russell Crowe just drives out on the deck.
[11:46] Balders brass with that golden mane.
[11:49] It's outrageous. Just, yeah.
[11:52] Russell Crowe, Maximus, I've got this on my head now.
[11:54] I'm not even going to mention it.
[11:56] It's just in there. Deal with it.
[11:58] Just give us a telescope and I'll just hold it out like a
[12:01] like a shotgun. I've never seen anyone so
[12:04] threatening with the telescope and we fuck it off.
[12:06] He's terrified. Yes.
[12:09] But it's a good setup of Jack as a character.
[12:10] He's reasonable and fair with Harlem, even though he's a bit
[12:13] of a douchebag. His Harlem and his instant
[12:15] reaction when he sings the gunfire in the fog lets us know
[12:17] that he knows his stuff. Yeah, and when the action comes,
[12:20] excellent. It's carnage.
[12:22] It's cannonballs, like rip through the hull of the
[12:23] surprise. There's a definite Saving
[12:25] Private Ryan influence when Jack goes down and it all goes slow
[12:28] motion for a few seconds and then kicks back in.
[12:32] The sound design drops and he's kind of, yeah, it's got that
[12:35] vibe to it, yeah, definitely. I would say it's not totally
[12:37] clear at all times to me where the ships are in relation to
[12:40] each other. That may be the intention
[12:42] though. Yeah, I think so.
[12:43] To make us the story. And that is the surprises.
[12:45] Yeah. So yeah, I mean, it's not quite
[12:47] Saving Private Ryan, but a very good action opener.
[12:50] But you know that bit that you've just kind of compared to
[12:52] Saving Private Ryan, and he's on the ground and he gets up and
[12:54] he's like, oh, his throat's knocking him.
[12:56] And then he, he screams and he's up to his feet and he just runs
[12:59] forward and grabs the telescope. Just go get a good and start.
[13:04] This is what I need to do. Just do like a remake of Rio
[13:07] Window with him like that with the seller.
[13:10] I'd be terrified, really threatened.
[13:13] You'd be the bad guy. It would be just saying you'd
[13:15] see a murder, but like you there.
[13:19] There's this real, like, painterly quality to it
[13:22] throughout which I love that shot of the surprise of sailing
[13:24] towards the fog bank and then that one of the two ships side
[13:28] by side just blasted away at each other.
[13:30] They could be portraits, so it looks incredible, the sound and
[13:34] chaos of it. I love those shots of the kind
[13:37] of balls ripping through the seals.
[13:40] And then Stephen, without a word of introduction, just unveiling
[13:43] all those surgical instruments like, you know, right, this is
[13:45] going to be bad. People won't get seriously heard
[13:48] here. And it's this sense that to gain
[13:51] victory, you've got you've got to get ridiculously close to the
[13:53] other ship and just hope you don't get blown to smithereens
[13:56] first. Yeah, but then it does get
[13:58] balanced out slightly with the tactical nature of it.
[14:00] Having a sail into the fog and keeping that silent, that's the
[14:03] only way to get out of it. So yeah, it's a great opening
[14:05] because it just sets up characters and everything.
[14:08] You're going to need no going forward.
[14:10] Yeah, yeah, basically you shoot the hell out of each other and
[14:12] you left standing at the end of it.
[14:14] Yeah, basically, yeah. To create the acron for the
[14:16] film, the production design team led by William Sundell and
[14:19] Robert Gould, based on the USS Constitution, a real ship
[14:23] launched in 1797. She was designed to be small
[14:26] enough to be fast, have a 2 feet thick hole, and carry more guns
[14:31] than ships of the same size, which is how Orbit describes the
[14:34] Actron. Yeah, yeah.
[14:36] The Constitution was famous for a battle it won against the
[14:38] British ship called the Guerriere in 1812.
[14:41] And the Constitution is still an officially commissioned US
[14:44] warship to this day. Imagine that.
[14:47] She's a beauty, but I wouldn't fancy going to war and nowadays
[14:50] wouldn't last five minutes. Yes, the Akron is fictional but
[14:54] the HMS Surprise That is a real ship from 1796 and it was made
[14:59] by the French but captured by the British who then renamed it
[15:02] Surprise. And the ship in the film was
[15:04] originally built in 1970 is a replica of a 1757 ship called
[15:09] the HMS Rose. And 20th Century Fox bought the
[15:12] Rose for this film for $1.5 million and it was then modified
[15:16] to match the real surprise. And that took 3 1/2 months to
[15:19] do. Wow, expensive ship.
[15:22] Yeah, I mean, Surprise is a terrible name for it.
[15:24] It's rubbish. It's very.
[15:26] Rubbish, isn't it? And since the film wrap, the
[15:29] surprise has been on display at the San Diego Maritime Museum,
[15:32] and it was also used in Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger
[15:35] Tides. Yeah, of course.
[15:36] It was alright. Yeah, had the budget for it.
[15:37] Half a billion, yeah. And the experts at that museum
[15:41] said the production design team's work on the Surprise is
[15:43] unmatched in its authenticity and attention to detail.
[15:47] They are. And you can book a narrated
[15:48] cruise on the surprise of $42.00 as well.
[15:51] Cruises that might go around. Yeah.
[15:53] Oh, wow. Yeah.
[15:54] Yeah, you go out. How much $42.00 worth?
[15:57] Let's go. It's all right.
[15:58] Next Christmas do. Next Christmas.
[16:02] So that's the intro to the film, an action-packed opener.
[16:05] Should we learn more about what goes on inside the surprise?
[16:09] Why not? Let's go.
[16:10] Let's do it. After being given a bit of a
[16:14] battering, the crew of the surprise assume they're headed
[16:16] for home. But Jack has other ideas,
[16:19] ordering a refitted sea so the pursuit can continue.
[16:22] That's mental. In the scenes that follow, we
[16:27] get to know the crew a bit better At a shipman's dinner,
[16:30] and after the surprise is caught in a storm off Cape Horn, Jack
[16:33] is forced to leave a crew member behind to drown.
[16:37] To wives and sweethearts, may they never meet.
[16:40] That's your favorite saying, man, isn't it?
[16:42] It is because that would definitely be anarchy if those
[16:45] two got together. So.
[16:47] Definitely goes about. I'm going to talk about that
[16:49] dinner scene though, because what I love about this scene is
[16:52] it just shows you nothing changes like hundreds of years
[16:55] ago. You get all the lads together,
[16:57] they have a few drinks and out come all the same old stories
[17:01] they've been told so many times. All the crap jokes come out as
[17:04] well, but you've had a few so everyone thinks it's hilarious.
[17:08] It's just totally lads being lads back in the day.
[17:10] They should have done the podcast, shouldn't.
[17:12] They? Should have done.
[17:14] But like, Can you imagine being back then on seeing 2 weevils on
[17:17] your food and just being like, yeah, that's fine, Grooves
[17:20] crawling all over your food and we're going to freak out about
[17:22] that the slightest. Not really.
[17:23] Absolutely disgusting. I just empathize with Stephen in
[17:26] this scene so much, though. Like, he knows he's being set up
[17:29] for something here with this question about the weevils.
[17:32] He knows it isn't a serious question.
[17:34] Well then, if you're going to push me only to get that
[17:37] punchline thrown in his face, John, it's like when Main Westy
[17:40] sat here and we know you're lining up some joke.
[17:43] We know what's coming and there's nothing we can do to
[17:46] stop it. Yeah.
[17:47] He's going to steamroll over it. I didn't know what a Weevil was.
[17:52] It took some third watch of this to go.
[17:54] Oh. This is crazy.
[17:57] Yeah, I mean, this dinner we get to meet and know the crew a bit
[17:59] better, so it's important. But some of the banter inverted
[18:03] commas, Jack's joke about the weevils is abysmal.
[18:07] It is. It's abysmal do.
[18:09] You know who loves it the most? Jack.
[18:11] He loves it. Yeah, loves his own.
[18:13] Smoke is cross delivery, but as we have two weevils, it's awful
[18:19] and it's Lord Nelson I do. What about passing the salt
[18:21] isn't much better? No, the second one about Nelson
[18:24] not needing a cloak does work, as it defines the kind of values
[18:27] the men have. Nelson's Yeah for King and
[18:28] country. Captain Warm.
[18:30] Which reminds me of you, Bestie. Yours is for king and country
[18:32] keeps you warm, doesn't it? Absolutely.
[18:34] Yeah, 100% When the guys love Nelson nearly as much as the
[18:38] lovers Sing song Building out the sea shanties, I do like the
[18:42] Sing Spanish Ladies, which Quint also sings in joy Oh.
[18:46] Yeah, yeah. Imagine him in there drinking
[18:48] cans, getting his scars out. Telling massive stories.
[18:52] Arm wrestling everyone. Yeah.
[18:56] So yeah, it's a good scene, and that's important in establishing
[18:58] the kind of characters the men are, But the execution of some
[19:01] of the Gargas could have been a bit better for me.
[19:04] Right, that's fair enough. We did mention the toast, and
[19:06] the film never tells us. But if you know your naval
[19:09] history, you'd know what day this scene takes place.
[19:11] On the toast Aubrey gives to wives and sweethearts, may they
[19:14] never meet. That was the traditional toast
[19:16] for Saturdays in the Royal Navy. All right.
[19:18] And for Matt as well. Yep, Matt, it is.
[19:23] Matt It's all right for fighting.
[19:25] There it is. Wow.
[19:28] And we see a portrait in Jack Squatters of a woman who we
[19:31] assume is either the wife or sweetheart, and that was created
[19:34] for the film but is based on Eliza Izzard, which is real
[19:38] miniature portrait by Edward Green Malbourne from Eighteen O
[19:41] 1. Right, nice.
[19:42] Again, authentic. Not Eddie Izzard.
[19:45] Thank you. Eddie Izzard.
[19:49] Yeah, it's a pretty well known painting.
[19:50] Apparently we also see a letter written by a jacket dress as
[19:53] somebody called Sophie, and in the book, Sophie's the name of
[19:56] Jack's first ship. So that's where they got that
[19:58] name from. Yeah, it's his wife, presumably.
[20:00] OK, he's not writing a letter to a ship, is he?
[20:03] Wouldn't surprise me. He wants the way he talks about
[20:05] the surprise. She's in her prime.
[20:09] I'm going to go for the first bit of real peril in the film,
[20:13] like peril where you think, OK, we're on site, Jack's got a hold
[20:17] of this, he knows exactly what he's doing, we're really with
[20:19] him. And then all of a sudden this
[20:21] storm comes in. And this is the first time that
[20:24] we really explore this duality. And he's already said the joke
[20:28] that we've talked about the Lester of two weevils, which is
[20:30] meant to be Lester of two evils. And this is the first time he
[20:32] has to make that decision, and he does it all the way through
[20:34] the film. Do you let one man go out?
[20:36] Does the whole crew go down? And not a second.
[20:39] But this feels safe at all. I mean, the continuity and the
[20:43] editing is just outrageous, the way that this is just so
[20:46] visceral and just so real. And there's such a conflict of
[20:49] emotions that one hand it's it's one after the other in the
[20:52] dialogue, now it's an anchor, it's pulling us down.
[20:55] And then the next bit of dialogue is he's going to make
[20:57] it. He's going to be all right.
[20:59] It's just so, so good. And the fact that like there's
[21:02] not one bit of water gets on the lens, nothing gets the camera
[21:07] and you're like, how on earth is that possible?
[21:09] You never, ever brought out of that world.
[21:11] You don't feel like you're watching this through a camera.
[21:13] You feel like you're watching it through your own eyes and this
[21:16] bit you really experience. You like swim back.
[21:20] Who's swimming in that I? Know Michael Phelps?
[21:25] Butterfly. But I mean, it's just such a
[21:29] brilliant, brilliant moment in the film where you realize that
[21:33] maybe Jack's not in control of everything, maybe he's ambition
[21:36] is going to be the downfall here, so it kind of puts you on
[21:38] the back foot. It's a really, really pivotal
[21:40] scene and really important. Yeah, I think this might be the
[21:43] best action scene in the film for me.
[21:46] The guy who Jack cuts loose. What do you think?
[21:48] Yeah, possibly. William Wally, he's called, he
[21:50] set up earlier. He's the guy who creates a model
[21:52] of Yakaran and gives it to Jack. So we know him and it's a
[21:55] classic moment from a film set. See, I think they're having to
[21:58] leave somebody behind the drown. Bit of a trope, but I think they
[22:01] do it really well. The effects work on the shot of
[22:04] the mass as it collapses into the ocean, Taking Wally with it.
[22:06] That's excellent. That's seamless, isn't it?
[22:08] Yeah, really good. And it is genuinely sad, That
[22:11] shot of Wally just in the waves as he watches the surprise sail
[22:14] away. What an awful way to go that is
[22:17] beautifully shot and sitting here at night mixes up the
[22:19] visuals really well. It's a great sequence for me
[22:22] and. Makes it harder to do.
[22:23] Yeah, exactly. Well, it's got to be authentic
[22:27] this Sunday, OK? Fine.
[22:29] Shit. In those effects for the Storm,
[22:31] they were a combination of practical and digital effects
[22:33] which were handled by ILM and the effects supervisor Stefan
[22:37] Fangmeyer said, Where you told him their work had to be
[22:40] invisible and the best on screen Storm ever created.
[22:44] No pressure then. No pressure.
[22:45] Yeah, that's. Good.
[22:46] That's about high. Yeah, Stephen Fangmail was hired
[22:48] to oversee things because he'd worked on The Perfect Storm in
[22:51] 2000, which is a pretty good experience when you want to
[22:54] create a storm, I think. Thankfully, we don't have that
[22:56] superimposed face at the end of this God and.
[23:01] Then the ship that was in a tank on a gimbal to make it rock as
[23:04] if in motion and the dumped 8000 gallons of water from tanks onto
[23:09] the ship and used wave and wind machines to create a storm
[23:11] effect. And he also used real footage
[23:14] and that was from the storm filmed at Cape Horn by a Natural
[23:17] History cinematographer called Paul Atkins.
[23:19] And he had filmed around the world trip on a replica of
[23:22] Captain Cook ship, which was the HMS Endeavour.
[23:25] Wow, right. Better name.
[23:27] Yeah, definitely a bit unoriginal, if they call it
[23:31] that. Yeah, fair enough.
[23:34] Well, yeah, Paul Atkins was brought in by We Are and he said
[23:36] there's ADP when they shot this storm sequence.
[23:39] Yeah, right. And.
[23:39] ILM did the CGI work as well, like when the mast snaps.
[23:42] I suspect that's why they probably said the night quite
[23:44] early CGI, so that blends the footage together probably a bit
[23:47] more easily. I would, yes.
[23:49] I think it works really well. Looks great.
[23:51] Oh, it does. I mean, I couldn't tell. 3-4
[23:53] times watching, I'm still finding it hard to differentiate
[23:56] between the practical and the digital effects.
[23:58] And that's the best way to use them, I think, Yeah.
[24:00] Absolutely. And that is the beginning of
[24:03] Master and Commander naval warfare, tragic death, sing
[24:06] alongs and huge effect sequences.
[24:08] It seems to have it all so far. Yeah, we've only just started.
[24:12] Terrible jokes as well. Yeah, don't forget that.
[24:18] The director. The director of Master and
[24:23] Commander was Peter Weir, a leading figure of the Australian
[24:26] New Wave movement of the 70s and 80s.
[24:29] We are also had a number of well known Hollywood films under his
[24:31] belt at this point, including Witness, Deadpool Society and
[24:35] The Truman Show. Yeah, a very experienced head by
[24:38] this point. Then Matt, how is Peter?
[24:40] We have direction on Master and Commander.
[24:43] I think it's excellent and I think it's what Peter Weir does
[24:45] best. He creates worlds and he takes
[24:48] his ego out of the equation and makes every choice the right
[24:52] choice to serve the story. So I can witness the most
[24:54] filling sequence, not film. It's when they build a bond, and
[24:57] that sounds ridiculous. That's true, yeah.
[24:59] But it's right for that film. You love.
[25:01] We are like. I do love we like.
[25:03] Absolutely. I.
[25:03] Just love the vibey beings. I just love the vibey beings so
[25:07] much. I really do and I think Master
[25:08] Commander has so many right choices.
[25:10] In a similar way, it's not back-to-back action sequences
[25:13] because that's not what it was like back then.
[25:15] It was a long tiring journey, months if not years at sea, and
[25:19] I think we appears as it to get that across.
[25:22] Like when the surprise is being pursued by the Akron, it
[25:24] obviously can't be a high speed pursuit, but disguising that
[25:27] smaller board as a distraction to throw the Akron off the scent
[25:31] again, we understand. Well, that's what they would do.
[25:33] And he makes that sequence really work.
[25:35] And little touches, like the fact that the camera does tilt
[25:38] side to side ever so subtly on the surprise, not so much that
[25:42] it's distracting and actually makes you seasick, but enough so
[25:45] that you don't look at it and go well.
[25:46] The camera is so level and still they're clearly not at sea.
[25:49] It's just a little touch, but it serves a story.
[25:51] So it does have these big action sequences, but it's all the
[25:54] little touches along the way that build this world.
[25:56] Like, as we've said, Pirates of the Caribbean came out the same
[25:59] year as this, which is really fun film, but only one of those
[26:03] films feels like a real journey back in time and it's this one
[26:06] and I think that's to ease credit that it does feel like
[26:08] that. Yeah, I mean you can see why the
[26:10] studio were keen and we are directing I think.
[26:13] Oh yeah. When he was younger, he'd spend
[26:15] 5 weeks out at sea himself, so he had some real experience.
[26:17] OK, he'd made a classic book adaptation in Picnic and Hanging
[26:21] Rock already. He made a classic war drama in
[26:23] Gallipoli. And you already had big
[26:25] Hollywood successes like we mentioned and Green Card as
[26:28] well. It pays off because directing
[26:33] wise this feels like a film in very safe hands.
[26:36] There's some big effects LED action scenes here and the
[26:38] spectacular and well put together, there's some character
[26:41] drama. We handled that really well too.
[26:44] It looks beautiful. We'll talk about that more when
[26:47] we get to the DP. Russell Boyd in the crew
[26:48] section. The work from the costume and
[26:50] design departments is brilliant too.
[26:52] Lots of very different skill sets on this film, all
[26:54] delivering great work. And the thread that links them
[26:56] all is Peter Weir. He's overseeing everything and
[27:00] does all of it successfully. It feels like an accurate
[27:02] depiction of early 19th century naval life.
[27:05] I mean, I don't know for sure. I wasn't there, but it feels
[27:08] authentic. Yeah.
[27:10] I mean, you know better than we do.
[27:11] You study it, Yeah. We'll take your word for John.
[27:14] But I feel pulled into the world.
[27:16] I think periods can sometimes be a tough setting for a film to
[27:18] connect with an audience like Barry Linden or Age of Innocence
[27:21] or Classics. But both among the least loved
[27:24] Kubrick and Scorsese films? Probably.
[27:26] Yeah. Doesn't seem to have that
[27:27] problem, though. This is engaging, and he builds
[27:29] the world in a way that I think most people can relate to.
[27:32] Yeah, which when you're making a film with a $150 million budget,
[27:35] you kind of have to do. So yeah, it doesn't quite come
[27:38] up with The Truman Show as my favorite Peter we are, but
[27:41] Martha and Commander, I think it's a top quality director in
[27:43] action for me. Yeah, I mean, it definitely is.
[27:46] And like you said, they're John with period pieces.
[27:48] People automatically just take that as a given, right?
[27:50] It's a period piece. So we, that's it.
[27:53] It's a character in itself. I don't really have to do much
[27:55] work because you understand the history and I'll just put them
[27:57] in that cost you and then that's it.
[27:59] But I think what we had did is he just went deeper with that
[28:02] and I'm going to mention authenticity again and I'm going
[28:04] to mention it again and again and again.
[28:06] But it just feels like everyone's on the same page.
[28:08] It feels like everyone's turning around and looking to Peter,
[28:10] We're going, what do you want us to do?
[28:12] And I will do it. He's just got some of the best
[28:15] performances out of these, some of these actors.
[28:17] I mean, everyone's totally believable in their role.
[28:19] And I think there's a lot of respect for Peter Weir and how
[28:23] real he wants to make it. And he doesn't just want to make
[28:26] it a period drama, he wants to make it almost like a
[28:29] documentary in a really grand scale of things, with a story
[28:34] and an emotion behind it. It's the realism is just as
[28:37] important as the narrative, and everything works to that degree.
[28:41] It just gives me a headache to think of how much thought and
[28:46] effort went into every single aspect of this.
[28:49] Attention, the detail is insane. Mind blowing, you could punch in
[28:53] on a close up in any one of these shots and you're not
[28:56] making any mistakes. You could spin the camera around
[28:58] 360° and you're not saying anything that takes you out of
[29:01] that world. It's just done so well.
[29:04] You're inspired by the film and I honestly think because of
[29:07] Peter Weir directing this, This is why people adore this film.
[29:10] You know, the amount you put into something is what you can
[29:12] take away from it. And I think he's just poured a
[29:13] lot of his soul into this and people walk away from this
[29:16] going. I've seen something really
[29:17] special and that's down to Peter Weir.
[29:20] Well, the person with the original idea to adapt Patrick
[29:22] O'Brien's Aubrey mature and series in the film was wasn't
[29:25] Peter Weir. It was Tom Rothman.
[29:28] He was an executive at 20th Century Fox, and when he became
[29:31] chairman and CEO, he immediately put forward the idea of adapting
[29:35] these books. OK, do you know much about that?
[29:38] No. Yeah, when Rothman worked at the
[29:40] Samuel Goldman company in the mid 90s, he tried to get Master
[29:43] and Commander off the ground. There's an adaptation, and he
[29:46] had wandered way to direct, but he said no.
[29:48] And then in 2000, we came into the Fox studios to talk about
[29:52] what projects might have for him.
[29:54] And Rothman pitched the idea again, and he gave Way a mock
[29:57] Captain Sword, and said what I think you should do is take
[30:00] command of the surprise. Bit cheesy from Rothman, that
[30:04] isn't it. Really cheesy.
[30:06] You fitted well the shipment dinner with that sort of Banda.
[30:10] Of the sword and everything. Well, we, I did see we do at
[30:13] this time on some conditions. First, he said the studio had to
[30:17] buy the HMS Rows that we talked about and refit it as a
[30:19] surprise, a bit demanding. Second, he said they had to base
[30:24] the script on the 10th book in the series, not the first one.
[30:28] And he said he wanted to keep the sword the Rothman gave him.
[30:32] You said yes. Would you kind of have to after
[30:34] giving him that speech? Well, yeah, you can't dig it
[30:35] back, can you? I'll have it back please.
[30:39] So as we've mentioned, we are one of the film to be as
[30:41] authentic as possible to what life would have been like on a
[30:44] 19th century man of War. The costume designer was Wendy
[30:47] Stites, Peter Weir's wife. She won an Oscar for the film
[30:50] and her team made 2000 costumes, 2000 hats, 1900 pairs of shoes,
[30:57] 400 lbs of hair for the actress to wear.
[30:59] That's just Russell Cruz way. And they brought in a watch
[31:04] company called Bridget, who have been around since 1775, and
[31:07] they've been all the watches for the actors that like actual kind
[31:10] of PE. Yeah, authentic is the word.
[31:13] It is definitely. I know as well that when we are
[31:16] researching for the film, you studied lots of paintings of the
[31:18] time and that made him want to find people with 18th century
[31:21] faces, as he put it. Just weathered them.
[31:26] And he gave Mary Selway, the casting director, these
[31:28] paintings and photographs of fishermen from the 1840s.
[31:31] And he said, find people for the crew who look like this.
[31:35] And they needed 130 people to man the surprise.
[31:38] And she saw over 7000 people. A lot of work.
[31:42] She just come to like South Shields.
[31:44] Everyone looks like that. I've got a couple of boats there
[31:47] as well. Yeah, exactly.
[31:49] And this is my favorite bit. The production team made about
[31:52] 27 miles of rope for the rigging on the surprise.
[31:55] But most of the rope had to be made, especially because on
[31:59] modern rope the strands have a right hand lay.
[32:02] Back in the early 1800s, it would have had a left hand lay.
[32:06] I mean, that's ridiculous. Who's going to know that?
[32:08] Yeah, you can't notice. I was thinking the second time
[32:11] watching this. That's a left hand.
[32:12] Later thank. You for your Wesley.
[32:15] Big fan of rope. We are also brought in a guy
[32:19] called Andy Ray Ellis to be on hand through the shoot as
[32:21] ceiling master. He'd worked on refitting the HMS
[32:24] rules after Fox bought it and we have wanted him there.
[32:27] As I give technical advice and try out to train the crew and
[32:31] how to basically be the crew on board, yeah.
[32:34] Yeah, he said that his role kind of evolved and everybody would
[32:37] come up to him with questions during the shoot.
[32:39] He said that Russell Crowe would examine every word in the script
[32:42] and ask for advice on like how to deliver certain words or who
[32:44] we should say to in the crew. Looked at shouting, Hazar went
[32:48] on. It seems.
[32:50] But that all works because, I mean in terms of how real it
[32:53] seems, it just stands up so well, I think the film.
[32:56] Yeah, 170 people are asking you questions every fucking 2
[32:59] seconds. Andrea Ellis must have been
[33:01] like, I'm just going to grab a cannonball and fucking dive.
[33:06] Well, Master and Commander was nominated for 10 awards at the
[33:09] Oscars, including Best Director and Best Picture.
[33:12] Lost out to both for the same film.
[33:14] You remember what? Return of the King.
[33:17] Peter Jackson for Director and The Lord of the Rings Return of
[33:19] the King for Best picture For us though some impressive work from
[33:23] Peter Weir and Master and Commander as Director.
[33:25] Yeah, it's a wonderful thing. Very much so, yeah.
[33:31] The cast. There's a large casting master
[33:36] and commander, mostly comprising the HMS Surprise, ranking
[33:39] officers and enlisted sailors or foremost jacks.
[33:43] It's a big old crew and we're going in the detail on our two
[33:46] leads, OK One of those is Paul Bethany as ship surgeon, Doctor
[33:49] Stephen Mature. And we're starting with the
[33:51] Master and Commander himself, or?
[33:53] We are. Wesley.
[33:57] Don't put me in charge of anything.
[34:01] So Ian W plays Captain Jack, Captain Jack, Aubrey, Lucky Jack
[34:08] to some. Hazar.
[34:11] Captain the surprise. He leads us through most of the
[34:13] narrative, taking the mission to catch soccer on personally,
[34:16] having one or two fallout with Stephen, and ultimately
[34:19] capturing the French vessel. And he's like Vanessa May on
[34:23] that fiddle Westie. Oh, beautiful, isn't he?
[34:26] How is Russell Crowe as Lucky Jack?
[34:29] He's great, isn't he? Such a demand and presence on
[34:31] screen. It's just so believable.
[34:33] Fills the screen with just this huge ego and this huge
[34:37] confidence. And he is the authenticity that
[34:39] I've been talking about. He just absolutely owns the
[34:41] role. He lives it and he's absolutely
[34:43] into it. You can tell he's into it.
[34:44] To wear that V-neck and to pull that off with that chest and
[34:48] just with that, you know that command.
[34:51] Imagine that. Impossible.
[34:53] But he does it like you take him seriously at the same time.
[34:57] But when he gives somebody a compliment, you feel warm.
[35:00] When he doesn't have a goal at Holland at the start and he says
[35:02] he did the right thing, you feel completely relieved because he
[35:05] just commands respect. And I think Russell Crowe at
[35:08] this point was just so good at that.
[35:10] You can tell he's bonded the whole crew.
[35:12] He got everybody together, they visited the set, they visited
[35:15] the ship, they got everybody involved and he was just part of
[35:18] everything. He just gives everyone space and
[35:21] he's just so kind, I think in this film as an actor and you
[35:24] watch him and you just think, wow, that's just so like
[35:27] genuine. It's genuinely good.
[35:29] There's none of this is Hammy, none of it.
[35:31] I mean, some of the lines you've just been like, get back to your
[35:33] Sexton just wanted Russell cross his Sexton, let's be honest.
[35:39] And he. Goes.
[35:40] With the plume, beautiful. But he just absolutely owns this
[35:45] role. And for every second he's off
[35:47] the screen, you want him on the screen.
[35:49] That's how good he isn't this. Yeah, I agree.
[35:52] I think Crow was very good as Jack, I would say, without quite
[35:54] hitting the heights of what we know he's capable of.
[35:57] I mean, we've just seen him as Maximus a couple.
[35:59] Of years, yeah. This way, he's massive.
[36:01] But this character, the he hits the heights of what this
[36:03] character needs, Yeah, he's not. He's not massively heroic going
[36:06] it by himself. He needs to be part of a crew
[36:08] and he is that. He's like a leader.
[36:11] Yeah, yes. I think my favorite moments of
[36:13] his here are the parts where we see him as Jack Aubrey, the man
[36:16] that mostly comes in the scenes with Stephen as their friends,
[36:19] particularly the two or three times The Clash kind of
[36:22] ideologically argue about the best course of action to take.
[36:25] Talk about those things a bit more shortly, but I think crows
[36:27] really good in those where I'm not a massive fan of the moments
[36:31] where he's playing like Lucky Jack, the captain of the ship.
[36:34] His persona is a bit different, which I like, but he's a touch
[36:37] theatrical at time is for me. He's always like, well done
[36:40] lads, extra Russian of grog for all of you.
[36:43] That's great Do. You know what Grog is, by the
[36:46] way? Booze, isn't it?
[36:48] Well, yes, I don't mind lungs. Booze.
[36:52] It's water down rum. Which doesn't sound all right.
[36:55] No, it doesn't. Doesn't, yeah.
[36:57] I think Jack and Maximus have a lot of similarities.
[36:59] I mean, Jack's not in quite as good nick as a Spaniard, is he?
[37:02] No. No, definitely not.
[37:04] Jackson is crawl. Looks like he's just beyond two
[37:07] over this band. 30 odd photo. Grunts remember them. 30 odd
[37:11] photo grunts for Jesus Christ. But Jack and Maximus are both
[37:15] stoic, brave, both reasonable, got a strong sense of duty.
[37:19] But what Jack's missing that we do get with Maximus for me, I
[37:22] think, is vulnerability. We'll see Maximus breakdown in
[37:24] tears at one point in Gladiator. We don't need that necessarily,
[37:27] but there could be some kind of Arc or learning.
[37:30] I mean, Jack gives advice to Holland about how to deal with
[37:32] the foremost Jacks, which is clearly terrible advice because
[37:35] within minutes Holland was throwing himself off the ship.
[37:38] But yeah, yeah, we don't see any real remorse or even
[37:41] acknowledgement from Jack that he had the chance to save home
[37:43] but didn't. Yeah, I would have liked it if
[37:45] Jack had learned from that and used that new learning, whatever
[37:48] it was in defeating the Acuron. I mean, there's your rock.
[37:51] But in terms of cross performance, aside from the
[37:53] blonde ponytail, which I could do without, he used to work
[37:56] smart. He is a leader.
[37:58] Which I think you're right, Wesley, is everything the script
[38:00] calls for, really. Yeah.
[38:01] I mean, you mentioned Saving Private Ryan earlier on.
[38:03] I think he could have learned something from that.
[38:05] Like when after Wade's death, you know, when you see Hanks
[38:07] breakdown, he needs something like that.
[38:09] Just be like, right. OK, yeah, I get that.
[38:11] I get that, definitely. I think he's just got the
[38:13] natural authority this kind of role needs, doesn't he?
[38:16] Like the man who has to lead everyone else in the potential
[38:19] death, but they'll follow him anyway and do anything he says.
[38:22] And because he has that natural authority, he can't pull off
[38:25] that hair. I think he gets real with it.
[38:27] He he doesn't care that he's packed on a bit of timber for
[38:29] this role. He doesn't have to look great
[38:31] because he is great. That just comes from within.
[38:34] There's not many actors I think could pull off that shot where
[38:37] he's at the top of the mast when the pursuing the acron and the
[38:40] camera just pulls back and he's. Standing there on it.
[38:43] And he doesn't look ridiculous. It's only Russell core at this
[38:47] point in his grade could pull that off and.
[38:48] He is fucking beaming at that point.
[38:51] Smile loves. This he's having the best time
[38:57] ever. And you know, I think the
[38:59] Maximus comparison isn't in restaurant, because what I would
[39:01] say about that is that Maximus in that film, his arc is fuelled
[39:05] by quest for vengeance. Here Jack is just doing his duty
[39:08] and he doesn't want to be outsmarted by the Akron again,
[39:11] which is fine in the works with film, but it's not as personally
[39:14] as engaging as what he gets to do with Maximus.
[39:17] But Crowe is just such a natural fit for this role.
[39:20] He takes you with him every step of the way.
[39:22] Yeah, Crowe said. He wasn't sure about the first
[39:25] draft of the script, but it was the chance to work with Peter
[39:27] Weir that made him sign on to play Jack.
[39:29] In the books, Jack is described as being quite stout, which is
[39:33] why Crow put the weight on for the role.
[39:35] There's your real reason he signed on.
[39:37] No worker regime for this one. Just get the band back together.
[39:41] Exactly. Just have loads of McDonald's
[39:43] and look like I've got a melted Milky bar on your head.
[39:48] And Speaking of Gladiator, actually I know that Crow had a
[39:50] mini break during production, a master and Commander so he could
[39:53] fly to London for the funeral of Richard Harris.
[39:55] Harris. Aurelias and Gladiator.
[39:57] Yeah, they were good friends, weren't they?
[39:58] They were. Great friends, great drinkers,
[40:00] yeah. Absolutely.
[40:02] In the cast, they themselves. They spent two weeks in a boot
[40:05] camp before filming started, and that's where they learnt how to
[40:08] sail, how to fight with pistol and a cannon, and how to fight
[40:11] with the cutlass. But Crow turned up a few days
[40:13] before everyone else because he felt as captain.
[40:15] He should know more than the crew, and he also spent three
[40:18] months learning to play a violin, and he called that the
[40:21] hardest thing he's ever had to do for a role.
[40:24] Well, those jumping sessions do look great.
[40:27] Legitimate. To be fair, they're both really
[40:29] good. Yeah, that is outrageous.
[40:31] Calling them German sessions a jump.
[40:37] Fiddly, diddly, diddly did. I'm with you before West.
[40:42] You live on like. That I know, but it's it's a
[40:44] little bit more intense than that.
[40:45] I'd like to say I'm in session. Crew said that the first violin
[40:50] they gave him for the part was a German violin.
[40:52] He said Jack should play something more refined, but they
[40:55] had no budget for anything more expensive.
[40:57] So Richard Tognetti, one of the composers, tracked down a violin
[41:00] made by Leandro Bisiak in Milan in 1890 and Crow paid for
[41:05] himself. He said the play in that
[41:07] specific violin is an extraordinary experience.
[41:10] Well, Yorkshire did in 2018 for $104,000.
[41:14] Jesus should have played itself. Very nice.
[41:17] Indian production, because so much of it was on water, they
[41:20] built a recreational field nearby, which is where the cast
[41:23] and crew go to just let off some steam and crow organised the
[41:27] game of rugby between the crew with the surprise and the crew
[41:29] of the Akron. Of course he did.
[41:31] And to no one's surprise, the surprise won.
[41:34] I bet they fucking did. Yeah, of course he did.
[41:37] He's absolutely tons of fun at this point.
[41:38] He's plowing into everyone. I will have my vengeance.
[41:44] Yeah, I saw some behind the scenes footage of the Ruby match
[41:46] and beforehand Crow did the hacker.
[41:48] You know the kind of war dance to the news yourself.
[41:52] Wow. To everyone.
[41:54] He's the one team as well. And for his performance is Jack
[41:57] Aubrey. Russell Crowe was nominated for
[41:59] a Golden Globe and for us, not his very best maybe, but he is
[42:02] very good in the film. Yes, everything.
[42:05] The role needs him to be, I think, and that's the most
[42:06] important thing. Our second lead is Doctor
[42:10] Stephen, mature and played by Paul Bettany, the surgeon aboard
[42:14] the surprise. Stephen is a close friend of the
[42:16] captain that will often a loggerhead with him, perform
[42:19] surgery on himself and has a love of Natural History.
[42:22] Yes, we do not have time for his damned hobbies though.
[42:25] Matt. We don't.
[42:28] What do you think of Doctor Stephen and Paul Bettany playing
[42:30] him? I think he's brilliant.
[42:32] Stephen is such a key role because if it wasn't for him, I
[42:35] don't know how much he could take of Jack because he's so
[42:38] duty bound. He's so focused on the job and
[42:41] pursuing that Akron at all costs and it is a deliberate choice.
[42:44] But he can be infuriating. See, you need someone like
[42:47] Stephen almost as the conscience on his shoulder.
[42:50] You need the character that that can't see him.
[42:53] Why are we doing this? Are you sure this is the right
[42:55] thing to do? Have you thought about doing
[42:57] this differently for the men? And I'll go back to the scene
[43:00] where they're talking about Nelson, Zeal for King and
[43:02] Country. It's a really important shot be
[43:05] get that reaction trot from Stephen where he's almost
[43:07] rolling his eyes at that idea. Because Zeal to him means nine
[43:11] men have been killed and he's had a amputee at the arm of a 13
[43:14] year old boy. And Bettany sells all that
[43:17] cynicism and rationality beautifully.
[43:19] But it's always combined with that sense of knowing how much
[43:22] he and Jack trust each other despite these disagreements that
[43:25] have like Stephen can say things to Jack no one else would dare
[43:28] to on that ship. And you get the sense Paul
[43:31] Bettany could probably say things to Russell Cole.
[43:33] No one else would dare to when they were making this like, you
[43:36] know, calm it down a bit, Ross. Come on.
[43:39] And I think those like 2 performances, I think they just
[43:42] dovetail together so effectively.
[43:43] And I think Bettany is the real heart of this film.
[43:45] It's probably the best performance in the film, I think
[43:47] for me. Yeah, in the books apparently.
[43:50] I've not read them, but in the books Stevens described as being
[43:52] 5 foot 6 odd looking and distorted, whatever that means.
[43:57] Wow. OK.
[43:58] Where I mean Paul Bettany's 6 foot three in a fairly handsome
[44:01] fella, but from what I've seen, even die hard fans of the book
[44:04] don't question his casting and I think that's just because he's
[44:07] excellent. I mean he's a very good actor,
[44:09] always brings dramatic way to a role and I think he nails the
[44:12] part of Stephen Stephen's the audience window into the world a
[44:16] lot of the time. He doesn't understand a lot of
[44:18] the naval terms like us. So when Jack or the crew are
[44:20] explaining things to Stephen, they explain them to us really.
[44:24] So for him to be that kind of connection between the film and
[44:26] the audience, I think Stephen has to be likable and betting he
[44:29] can do that in his sleep. To be honest.
[44:32] He brings a great realism and a groundedness to the film, which
[44:35] I think is very much needed to counter the kind of pomposity in
[44:38] bravado of Jack. And I think he and Crow work
[44:40] very well together. Like I said, Stephen has kind of
[44:43] an arc. I think initially he wants Jack
[44:45] to basically torpedo the whole mission so he can go iguana
[44:47] spotting, which was never going to happen.
[44:50] But by the end he says subject to the requirements of the
[44:52] service when his trips been cancelled.
[44:54] So he seems to have changed a bit.
[44:56] I need a bloody quick worker, isn't he?
[44:59] When he's operating on blame you to start after that first
[45:01] battle, he saw his arm off in about four seconds.
[45:04] Off with. That, yeah, I mean, there's a
[45:07] word here that strikes me that neither of you guys said.
[45:10] Which is you can see authentic. I'm not is that is the humanity
[45:17] in this the version of of sense and intelligence?
[45:21] And Jack does have an intelligence, but it's very much
[45:23] based on conflict. Go straight out them don't have
[45:27] any tactics. That's of what Nelson would do.
[45:29] Whereas Bethany is mature and is is got that sense of
[45:33] intelligence of like maybe we should use tactics here.
[45:36] Maybe you're just wrong mature and has the rule that Jack can't
[45:40] do. He could do any other role on
[45:42] that ship but he couldn't be the Doctor because he doesn't have
[45:45] that humanity with people. He doesn't really know how to
[45:47] talk to the kid. He just he automatically
[45:49] mentions Nelson. He automatically mentions
[45:51] warfare. He's really awkward around him,
[45:53] isn't he, When he injured. He tells what he understands,
[45:56] which is just conflict. Whereas what Bettany brings to
[45:59] this is a real sense of that duality between the two, that
[46:03] real common sense, that lack of ego, and he plays it really well
[46:07] and I think he knows what he's doing with it.
[46:09] There is nothing on this that is just over the top.
[46:12] And even when Jack's asking him and makes a fool out of him at
[46:15] the dinner table, nothing's then taken personally.
[46:18] It's just OK, that's what he needs to do.
[46:20] He needs to make a fool out of me, to make himself seem more
[46:22] intelligent. When in reality, Stevens answer
[46:26] to that joke is factually perfect.
[46:29] It's so intelligent. I would have that one because of
[46:31] this, this, this, and he's like who we will do.
[46:33] It's this. Which is kind of what warfare is
[46:36] with medicine, isn't it? He wears some outrageous gear.
[46:39] That's not what I would wear on the silence.
[46:42] Not at all. Too many layers at some points.
[46:45] Ridiculous glasses, Ridiculous guy.
[46:48] But he's the heart of the film. He's not the one that you
[46:50] notice, but he's the one that you need to add texture and
[46:53] depth in humanity. So Paul Bettany is very good,
[46:57] but he wasn't issuing for the part of Stephen and a couple of
[47:00] other well known actors were concerned by we're.
[47:03] OK. Right, Heath Ledger was one.
[47:05] Right. And the other was Ray Fines.
[47:08] Fines would have been good. Yeah.
[47:09] Both would have been very good, I'm sure.
[47:11] Yeah, Yeah. Crow and Bethany had worked well
[47:13] together in A Beautiful Mind just before this.
[47:15] So I wonder how it would impact that hard on we are casting
[47:18] Bethany. Yeah.
[47:19] And Bethany had been a member of the Sea Cadets when he was a
[47:22] kid, right? And he said This is why he was
[47:24] one of the only members of the cast who didn't get seasick at
[47:26] all during production. And then as part of his
[47:28] preparation for the part, he went to the Royal College of
[47:31] Surgeons in London to learn how to use 18th century medical
[47:34] instruments. And before filming, Bethany and
[47:36] Core visited the HMS Victory in Portsmouth.
[47:39] Because that's a real 18th century ship.
[47:41] Wow, 18th century medical instruments in the game of
[47:44] cello. No, no, no, no.
[47:47] The knives are not no, no. Yeah, the Victory was Nelson's
[47:51] ship in the Battle of Trafalgar, and apparently on that visit to
[47:54] the Victory, Crow turned up with the rest of his band as well.
[47:58] Absolute carnage. That one.
[47:59] Like he loves that one. Beer and burgers everywhere.
[48:02] Yeah, and Matt mentioned the field where the cast and crew
[48:05] played rugby. But something that was created
[48:08] just for the cast was a special club that was like an outhouse
[48:11] that had a pool table, Internet and some drinks.
[48:13] It was nicknamed the Monkey Bar on set.
[48:17] And yeah, apparently Crow brought in some guitars and the
[48:19] drum kit as well. Of course he.
[48:21] And the rest of the barn. This just a big jolly for crow,
[48:25] isn't it? It is absolutely loving it.
[48:28] Pile on the beef and just rip out the country songs.
[48:32] Before we finish on Paul Bethany, it's time for our first
[48:35] a TRMP. One question.
[48:36] OK. OK.
[48:37] So one of the benefits of signing up as an ATR and patron
[48:40] is that will answer your questions on the show.
[48:42] And we have one now on Paul Bethany.
[48:44] OK. So, Gary Proctor.
[48:47] Hello, Gary. He's asked what are your views
[48:50] on Paul Bethany? Is he better as a supporting
[48:53] actor IEA beautiful minded Knights tale, MCU films Master
[48:56] and Commander or as a leading actor IE Wimbledon Priest,
[49:00] Legion or Gangster #1? Right.
[49:03] What do you think, Matt? Well, I always enjoy Paul
[49:07] Bettany performance, but I think he does have a career where it
[49:09] feels like he's never found the leading role that could propel
[49:13] him to being an absolute star. They saw that he probably should
[49:15] be to be fair. So I would say I do think his
[49:17] best roles are in support because yeah, you got this.
[49:20] We'll just mention a beautiful mind.
[49:22] I think he's a real stand out in that.
[49:23] He is. You can tell.
[49:25] I think that's where that friendship with Crow did start
[49:27] and we didn't mention it and I haven't seen it in a long time,
[49:30] so I can't make any claim whether it's any good or not,
[49:32] But I do remember thinking he was really funny in a Knights
[49:36] tale where he plays Chaucer. Good film.
[49:38] Yeah, when it comes to leading roles, I do struggle to think of
[49:41] one from him, so and that's not a reflection on him.
[49:44] I just don't think someone just used him right yet in the
[49:46] leading role. Yeah, I mean the examples given
[49:50] there a Beautiful Mind, The MCU and Master and Commander in
[49:53] supporting roles versus Wimbledon and Priest is the
[49:55] lead. Yeah, I think Gary's kind of
[49:57] answered his own question, to be honest.
[49:59] Kind of. I thought he was typing that.
[50:00] Outgoing, yeah. Yeah, Wimbledon.
[50:04] I mean, yeah, I do think Paul Beckman is a very good actor,
[50:06] but I'm not sure he has the presence to lead huge films.
[50:09] He's not Russell Crowe, is he? No.
[50:11] No, I do like him in Journey's End as well.
[50:13] The World War One drama, and he's a pretty good bad guy.
[50:16] And Solo. The Star Wars Story, I thought,
[50:18] yeah, yeah, yeah, nice. I mean, being pretty good in the
[50:20] Star Wars film nowadays, there's no mean feat.
[50:23] So yeah, I do prefer him in supporting roles for sure.
[50:26] Yeah, I mean, I've got to agree. I saw this question.
[50:28] It was like, and the MCU. I was like MCU, like, I'm not
[50:31] that out of touch with the Marvel Cinematic, you know?
[50:33] Who the fuck's he and I in, man? I was like, I'm gonna have to
[50:36] have a look at this. But he's the voice, yeah, of the
[50:38] computer, right? And he's vision as well.
[50:40] Yeah, right. OK.
[50:41] But for me, the standout performance was The Da Vinci
[50:44] Code. He makes that film actually
[50:47] legible. Yeah, silence.
[50:48] Yeah. It's like, wow, somebody's
[50:50] taking this seriously. Yeah, yeah, because I love that
[50:53] boot. If it hadn't been for Bettany in
[50:54] that film, it would have been an absolute cartoon.
[50:57] But he really kind of grounds it and makes it into something.
[51:00] And that's that's my most memorable performance is Da
[51:02] Vinci Code and A Beautiful Mind. I've don't think I've seen any
[51:06] of the films that he's been a lead man in.
[51:08] Watching a film called Wimbledon for me is an absolute
[51:13] impossibility. I wouldn't watch Wimbledon, the
[51:17] actual sporting event. So for me, 100% support
[51:21] nightmare. 100%, yeah. Yeah.
[51:24] For his performance as Stephen Mature and Paul Bettany was
[51:26] nominated for a BAFTA and for us a very good supporting turn from
[51:30] him. Yeah, he's.
[51:31] Great. Definitely, yeah.
[51:33] There is a much wider cast too. Of course, we'll talk more about
[51:36] Lee Ingleby as Harlem and Max Perkins as Blakeney, but also
[51:40] anybody who watches a British TV will be familiar with the faces
[51:43] of James Darcy as Pullings, Robert Pugh was Alan David
[51:46] Thrill fall as Killick, Max Bennett's Calamy and Billy Boyd
[51:49] as Bonden. And our two leads, Russell Crowe
[51:52] and Paul Bethany, They carry things well.
[51:54] Oh, I. Definitely do, yeah, 100%.
[52:03] All the right movies will be back shortly.
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[54:40] The middle. Into the middle of Master and
[54:45] Commander and the death of Wally has dampened spirits aboard the
[54:48] surprise. Yeah, the tragic scenes
[54:50] revolving around Holland. The Jonah are coming.
[54:52] But first, it's more lucky Jack and Doctor Steve it.
[54:56] Is it is? So after the action-packed, Act
[55:00] One We Are brings us back to work with some character drama
[55:03] and friction between the Captain and the surgeon, Jack and
[55:06] Stephen disagree. Firstly over Jack's stubborn
[55:09] pursuit of the Acuron and then Stephen's obsession with the
[55:12] Galapagos Islands. Yeah, yes.
[55:14] So what you want me to talk about?
[55:16] I'm going to talk about the argument to have afterwards.
[55:19] He's gone overboard because I think this is a really important
[55:23] character moment for these two here and for the film in
[55:25] general. It's the first time we really
[55:27] see a flaw in Jack. He was warned about the ability
[55:31] of the mass to stand up in that storm, but he's so single
[55:33] minded. On he went and pursued the
[55:35] course anyway, which is his duty as he points out.
[55:38] But it's come with the cost of a man's life and obviously none of
[55:41] the men can say anything to remember about it.
[55:44] But Stephen Khan, and I think Bettany plays the scene so well.
[55:48] You can see he's treading so carefully.
[55:50] You know, I'm talking to you as a friend or as the captain, you
[55:53] know, he wants to establish what ground they're on.
[55:55] And it's not that Jack doesn't care.
[55:57] You can see how guilty he feels, and Stephen isn't trying to
[55:59] guilt trip him. But Stephen is the only one who
[56:02] can ask these questions. You know, Shouldn't we have
[56:04] turned back weeks ago? Isn't this just about your pride
[56:06] now? And I think if there is a theme
[56:08] in the film, it's about what is the cost of duty when you placed
[56:12] it above everything else. And I think this is probably the
[56:14] best scene in exploring that. Yeah, I agree.
[56:17] I said earlier that I think Crow's best moments, acting wise
[56:20] anyway, come in the debates between Jack and Stephen.
[56:23] I think Crow and Bettany bounce off each other really well and
[56:26] this is the first time that happens.
[56:28] From what I understand, the friendship of Jack and Stephen
[56:30] is the kind of bedrock of Patrick O'Brien's books.
[56:34] And we are clearly understand that by making that relationship
[56:37] a key part of the film as well. Jack's a man of pride and duty,
[56:40] Stephen a man of science. And where they kind of meet is
[56:44] in art. They bond over music, which is
[56:46] kind of a middle ground. Yeah, that's a nice bit of
[56:48] writing. And those music scenes are
[56:50] especially important for Jack. I think it's like he expresses
[56:52] with a violin ball the things his position as captain stop
[56:55] them doing with words sometimes. Yeah, good point.
[56:58] And this particular argument is really good.
[56:59] Where Stephen sees they should have turned back weeks ago.
[57:02] It's well written and well acted and is the first time we see
[57:04] anybody question look EJ's opinion.
[57:07] So it was much needed from that point of view, I think, yeah.
[57:10] Definitely, very much lucky jail like.
[57:14] Wouldn't call him that was fierce.
[57:15] Yeah, too right. I'm going to go for another
[57:17] disagreement between the two, because these are, like you
[57:20] said, John. It's some of the best character
[57:22] moments and some of the best act moments in the film, and it
[57:24] really does carry it along. And the argument about Pheasant,
[57:26] the Calabacus Islands, is just so on the nose almost.
[57:31] It's kind of just ridiculous where he's just like haven't got
[57:35] time for your damned hobbies, Sir.
[57:38] Put that. I'm going to put that in your
[57:39] place with that. It really, and that's the most
[57:41] brutally can be to him though, isn't it?
[57:43] It's like and belittles him and makes him believe that what he
[57:47] believes in isn't important and what is important is the colours
[57:51] and everything else is just. If we have time to do it then
[57:54] that's fine. But what I found out through
[57:56] multiple watches of this is that these islands save them both
[58:00] eventually. That's the whole point.
[58:02] It's the safe haven. It's the place that they need to
[58:04] get to. It is the place where he steps
[58:06] off the ship and thinks about himself and you know, you're
[58:09] gonna hold this with somebody and they just want to go off and
[58:11] get pissed, but you want to go to the beach and just have a
[58:13] nice time, you know what I mean? I just want to go to the
[58:16] restaurant and just have something nice to eat and just
[58:18] have a bit of a chilled out and it's like, no, no, no, we're
[58:19] going out. We're getting absolutely
[58:21] smashed, man. I said, well, you're going to
[58:22] regret that in the morning if we just went somewhere nice.
[58:25] And it's just, it has that kind of there's almost a relationship
[58:28] here, but this really highlights the characters.
[58:31] And again, shows how determined Jack is.
[58:34] But again, is that to everyone's expense just so he can be
[58:39] Nelson? Almost.
[58:40] Do you know what I mean? Stevens trying to say you are
[58:42] this person, you're not who you think you are.
[58:45] Let's take everyone's opinion on board and it really works.
[58:49] It does. I mean, I think the reason the
[58:50] Galapagos Islands are used as a setting of these like scientific
[58:53] discoveries is probably because of Charles Darwin.
[58:56] Lots of it. Understanding of evolution came
[58:58] from the Galapagos Islands. That gives the setting a lot of
[59:01] period relevant weight, so it works really well.
[59:03] And these scenes aren't just well acted, I think they're
[59:06] really well written to The way the conversations develop
[59:09] naturally from innocence into like yelling at each other is
[59:11] really good. And after the opening, where the
[59:13] film's told us Yep, we know how to film action sequences, it's
[59:17] now telling us we know how to write as well, which is
[59:19] impressive. And film dialogue.
[59:21] Exactly, yeah. But Stephen's argument, Yeah,
[59:23] definitely needs some work to aboard an HMS ship and he
[59:27] suggested the captain England that they abandoned their orders
[59:29] so we can go off and freeze from swimming iguanas.
[59:32] He's got no chance. I just feel sorry for Stephen,
[59:36] like he's seen iguanas that can swim.
[59:38] No one's ever seen that before and he's all dressed up pro he's
[59:41] got a sun hat on and ever then. Just need a deck chair.
[59:44] Looks like he's wearing like a dressing gown as well.
[59:46] It's really weird. Yeah, it is weird.
[59:48] He just needs like you know that sunblock where they cover the
[59:50] whole nose? It's all white.
[59:53] But there is a child's Darwin reference in the film here, when
[59:55] the watch in the iguanas, one of the crew says disgusting, what's
[59:58] all over it, right? And that is apparently what
[1:00:00] Darwin said when he first saw them.
[1:00:02] Yeah, that turned me stomach that bit.
[1:00:04] Yeah, a man of science there. So the pursuit continues, and
[1:00:10] the film takes a turn into some good dramatic writing.
[1:00:13] Oh, absolutely. Yeah, some of the best.
[1:00:17] From there even more intense character drama Things have been
[1:00:21] brewing between the non commissioned crew and Midshipman
[1:00:23] Holland for the whole film and it comes to a head now Yeah
[1:00:27] branded a Jonah and curse on the ship, Holland goes above deck in
[1:00:30] the middle of the night and hurls himself into the murky
[1:00:32] ocean depths, killing himself. Yeah, he does.
[1:00:36] The night's dog is just before the dawn Westie, apparently.
[1:00:39] So your favorite scene? Yep, a little bit misery.
[1:00:43] But my is Nagle disrespects Holland on the deck.
[1:00:47] But I mean, has he got good reason to?
[1:00:49] Does the film actually support what he's saying is true?
[1:00:53] Is he a bad influence? The morning of the Batley didn't
[1:00:56] have the guts to beat the quarters.
[1:00:57] Fair enough. His entire gun crew was killed
[1:01:00] except for him. OK.
[1:01:02] As soon as he went up, the losing will falls.
[1:01:05] He was responsible for that. And it was his watch.
[1:01:07] When the loss of the wind, I mean, that's enough.
[1:01:09] That's enough for me in this century to be like he's bad news
[1:01:14] bears and he's just, he's just not good to be there.
[1:01:17] And I think it's one of the best moments from Crow as well, when
[1:01:21] he's trying to just gear him up and say, look a man, this is
[1:01:25] what you need to do. You need to be an asshole
[1:01:27] basically. And I've been a manager in a
[1:01:30] couple of jobs that I've done and you do not expect to have
[1:01:32] any friends. And that's, I think Holland's
[1:01:35] too soft for this. He's too soft for the world.
[1:01:37] He's like Paul Kosoff and free like he's too soft.
[1:01:41] There's a reference for you. Wow.
[1:01:43] Look it up. That's the whole place is too
[1:01:45] nice of a guy to be in a rock band.
[1:01:47] You know what I mean? It's just too much emotion.
[1:01:49] He thinks too much. And the great thing about the
[1:01:52] film and the great thing that Peter We're does is a ways an
[1:01:54] audience feel really sorry for him.
[1:01:56] And then it's rectified itself and the wind comes back and you
[1:01:59] go, ah, right. And you believe in superstition.
[1:02:03] You start to go, well, what is actually real in the world?
[1:02:06] And this is a Wesley theory, but I think the whole surprise is
[1:02:09] just an algorith about the moon Lantern.
[1:02:16] It's a great moment and I think it's great from cruel when he's
[1:02:19] just straight in there and he's like you climb an irons and
[1:02:22] flogs him and this really highlights that.
[1:02:25] Yeah, the crew blame Holland for Wally's death, but the first
[1:02:28] time we see tension between them is when the crew was singing
[1:02:30] Spanish ladies earlier on. And oh God, it's so painful.
[1:02:35] God. Steven's like, what do you?
[1:02:37] Wonderfully true voice Mr. Holland, But the crew are
[1:02:39] furious about it. Yeah, change the song, don't
[1:02:42] they? Imagine being Quinch, he'd
[1:02:44] interrupted. Oh, imagine just eating an apple
[1:02:46] with a massive knife. But I don't like Nagle.
[1:02:51] The guy who disrespects Holloman gets fogged for his troubles.
[1:02:54] I don't like him either. I don't think it's a
[1:02:56] particularly great performance, to be honest.
[1:02:58] I think it's one of them. Once you go, he's trying too
[1:03:01] hard. Yeah, Brian Dick, the actor is
[1:03:03] called. He also played Ernie Wise in
[1:03:06] ABBC. Drama about Morgamin Wise.
[1:03:07] OK, he's obviously more likeable than he is, yeah.
[1:03:10] Yeah, much more. And Holland is played by Lee
[1:03:12] Ingleby from the Northeast Set TV show Inspector George Gently.
[1:03:16] So nice to see him in there. Oh, there you are.
[1:03:19] No wonder killed himself. Yeah, I mean, when Holland does
[1:03:25] kill himself, I mean, he's been so out of place from the
[1:03:28] beginning, like at the start, omen and on about what to do
[1:03:31] when he first sees the Akron, to the point where, you know,
[1:03:34] people below have to urge him to do something, make a decision,
[1:03:38] Yeah. And as you say, when having that
[1:03:39] sing song and dance on deck and he starts long, just like tap it
[1:03:42] along to the beat so awkwardly. Oh God, so painful.
[1:03:46] It's like you have been at like a wedding reception in
[1:03:48] someone's, like, stone cold sober because they're the
[1:03:51] designated driver. Yeah, they're trying to get in.
[1:03:53] It's just like don't even attempt.
[1:03:55] It I know, you see. It's awful.
[1:03:57] He's just like a lost kid in a man's world.
[1:03:59] Like Blakeney has more leadership qualities than he
[1:04:01] does in Blakeney's 13. He's half his age, yeah, and
[1:04:05] that friendship that they do have, Holland and Blakely, I do
[1:04:08] think that's been really nicely develops.
[1:04:09] He feel Blakely squeef when Holland does jump overboard, and
[1:04:13] unfortunately for him, it just gets that really haunting moment
[1:04:15] where he just descends into the depths.
[1:04:18] It. Yeah.
[1:04:18] I mean, it is quite jarring for me to watch it because it just
[1:04:21] pulls on the heartstrings a little bit.
[1:04:22] It's just, he's not right. No.
[1:04:24] But I would imagine there's so many people in that period where
[1:04:27] they weren't prepared for what it was like.
[1:04:29] Oh. Absolutely.
[1:04:29] Again, that's the authenticity of it.
[1:04:31] It's just it's superbly done. He's a man with a fork in a
[1:04:34] world of soup. But yeah, I think it's really
[1:04:39] sad and all that stuff with Holland.
[1:04:40] It comes at the right time. And the film needs it, though,
[1:04:43] because Jack's posturing and Stephen banging on about
[1:04:45] blizzards and bugs. Tiny beetle as well.
[1:04:48] Tiny. That'll do.
[1:04:50] All right. Great.
[1:04:52] But Stephen and Jack argue again about whether Nagle should be
[1:04:54] flogged, which is 1 disagreement.
[1:04:56] Too many for me to be honest. At this point, all Jack and
[1:04:59] Stephen seem to do is argue. Just get the cello out, I'll
[1:05:02] sort it out. Yeah, exactly.
[1:05:04] Home killing himself. What a way to go That is
[1:05:06] Cannonball in your pocket, straight down to the hot place.
[1:05:09] Yeah, I mean, you need business when you do that really needed
[1:05:12] sequence, I think from the film's point of view.
[1:05:14] Yeah, and for anyone that doesn't know, Jonah comes from
[1:05:16] the Bible. Because there's the book of
[1:05:18] Jonah, and in that Jonah disappears a command from God
[1:05:21] who sends a storm to attack the ship that Jonah's on, and the
[1:05:24] crew throw Jonah overbought so the storm will stop.
[1:05:26] And since then, that's where the sailor's superstition has come
[1:05:29] from. A Jonah is a person who brings
[1:05:31] bad luck to a ship. Right.
[1:05:33] OK. That makes sense.
[1:05:34] Yeah, he was also a character in the Bino Jonah, a sailor, where
[1:05:38] he was like this gormless, chinless clutz who would
[1:05:40] accidentally sink every ship he was on like uncle.
[1:05:43] Albert. Everyone listening to this good
[1:05:45] please squeeze a be no reference in that.
[1:05:48] Don't. Yeah.
[1:05:49] Oh, this is great. This is great.
[1:05:51] Fact, in the novels, Holland doesn't commit suicide.
[1:05:53] He's murdered by a character called Horner.
[1:05:56] He's not in the film, but Holland gets Horner's wife
[1:05:58] pregnant. So Horner kills them both and
[1:06:01] then hangs himself. Great facts.
[1:06:04] Isn't it? I'm not going to read these
[1:06:05] books. These something.
[1:06:08] Yeah, I mean, I see why they changed it.
[1:06:09] It's nice and simple in the film, I think.
[1:06:11] Yeah. Although it might have been nice
[1:06:13] to have like a woman in there at some point, yeah.
[1:06:16] Also when home jumps overboard, the witnesses.
[1:06:19] William Blaine, you mentioned the 13 year old officer played
[1:06:21] by Max Perkis. He has quite a bit to do in the
[1:06:24] film, I think. Yeah, he does, Yeah.
[1:06:25] What do we think of him in there?
[1:06:27] I think it could have gone really badly wrong this role
[1:06:29] like a posh 13 year old running about the deck.
[1:06:32] Sounds awful. Just sound awful.
[1:06:34] Could have been really irritating.
[1:06:35] I mean, I have seen better child performances, but I think
[1:06:38] considering how many of his scenes with Craw and with
[1:06:41] Bethany, I think he holds his own.
[1:06:43] But then he does a good job. Yeah, apparently like 13 year
[1:06:46] old midshipmen did exist at the time and we're tracked no
[1:06:48] differently on the ship. So we want to show that in the
[1:06:51] film. And I like how blatant these
[1:06:53] kind of a protege of both Jack and Stephen.
[1:06:56] He's an officer like Jack, with an interest in Natural History
[1:06:59] like Stephen. Yes, yeah, should.
[1:07:01] Have got him in the band The Missing Piece.
[1:07:03] He's got one arm. Definitely.
[1:07:08] Beat the quarters just. Want to be?
[1:07:10] Just on the two and the four, if you don't mind.
[1:07:13] And we've mentioned a few members of the crew now, so it
[1:07:15] seems like a good time to ask our second day TRM Patron
[1:07:18] question, seeing as it is about the crew.
[1:07:20] OK, let's do it. So amon kidding.
[1:07:23] Hello, Amon. He's asking who would be your
[1:07:25] ultimate movie crew captain, first mate, doctor, slash
[1:07:29] science guy, shipwrecked lady, young plucky kid who dies and
[1:07:32] evil guy who tries to do mutiny. And initially it works, until it
[1:07:36] all goes tits up. Now you talk like an Irishman
[1:07:39] even. Nice.
[1:07:41] I assume he's Irish. Might not be.
[1:07:43] Well, yeah. So, Wesley, yeah, your ultimate
[1:07:46] movie crew. All right, Well, I've gone for
[1:07:49] people that would be available now.
[1:07:50] Lovely without any more bullshit.
[1:07:52] OK. Catherine Anthony Hopkins.
[1:07:56] Lovely. Very nice, right?
[1:07:57] He'd be massive, wouldn't he? You would love that first mate,
[1:08:00] Kelly Murphy. Lovely underneath.
[1:08:03] That'd be nice. Doctor.
[1:08:04] Science Guy Mark Ruffalo. Bow tie.
[1:08:08] Shipwrecked lady Emily Blunt, obviously.
[1:08:10] Obviously she would be wonderful young kid who dies Barry Cuban.
[1:08:16] Give me 30. We can play any age, you know,
[1:08:21] stick some Milky bar in his head, an evil guy who does the
[1:08:24] mutiny. I was thinking, well, who could
[1:08:25] be really, who's really popular now?
[1:08:26] It's really good. But he's like play against type
[1:08:30] and I would have Bradley Cooper in there.
[1:08:32] Right. Oh, yeah.
[1:08:33] Yeah, that could work, Yeah. Yeah, that's my crew for me at
[1:08:35] the minute if I was to make it, but I haven't got the energy, so
[1:08:38] someone else is going to have to make it.
[1:08:40] I'm not Peter Weir. I'd watch our Westie for sure.
[1:08:44] Yeah, Nice. Thank you.
[1:08:45] Well, I read Eamon's question slightly differently.
[1:08:48] I thought he was meaning like established captains, etcetera
[1:08:51] from previous films. You can take it that way if you
[1:08:53] like, yeah. Wow, that's going to take you
[1:08:56] about a couple of weeks. Well.
[1:08:57] It took a while. I mean Captain, Obviously Kirk.
[1:09:01] No other choice but get Kirk. John's loving that.
[1:09:03] The shot? Lovely.
[1:09:05] Yeah, yeah, first mates, I've gone back to Zulu and Nigel
[1:09:08] Green, who plays colour Sergeant Bourne, very.
[1:09:11] Nice. He's.
[1:09:11] Just awesome. And that he's the guy you want
[1:09:14] in every battle back in your piece.
[1:09:15] Amazing. Absolutely, You're alive.
[1:09:20] Got along now, lads. That's what you want from him,
[1:09:23] Doctor. Science guy.
[1:09:24] Gandalf, obviously. Shipwrecked lady.
[1:09:26] I've gone through Ripley from the beginning of Aliens.
[1:09:28] I think she fits the bill. OK.
[1:09:31] Lovely, young plucky kid who dies mute.
[1:09:33] Nearly in three, unfortunately, which we'd all like to forget
[1:09:36] but just happened. Yeah, I'm confused by this.
[1:09:39] Well, just wait, you hear me? Last one.
[1:09:40] Mute in the sky. Billy's in in Titanic.
[1:09:43] OK, right. OK, Got you.
[1:09:44] I have a child. I have a child.
[1:09:46] I'm all she has in the world. Like, so you're taking the
[1:09:50] character that they played in that film and then you're
[1:09:52] putting it into the new film. Yes.
[1:09:55] Right. OK, I'll get you.
[1:09:56] I'll listen back to that when it comes out.
[1:09:58] Hopefully it'll make more sense then.
[1:09:59] Wouldn't count on it. John, you're not doing one.
[1:10:05] Just be the fucking cast of the Enterprise, wouldn't it?
[1:10:09] OK, yeah, and go for that. I never got another chance to do
[1:10:12] this again. My all time Star Trek crew.
[1:10:14] Oh. Amazing.
[1:10:16] You know this just off the top of your head.
[1:10:18] Save it, Save it for parent because people are paying money
[1:10:20] for this. So, Captain, Yeah, I've gone for
[1:10:25] my story, took Kirk, so I've got to go for Captain Picard.
[1:10:28] Four on my loads of speeches, Yeah.
[1:10:30] First mate, his number one Will Ryker will have sex with any
[1:10:34] alien, OK, Which is always a good thing.
[1:10:36] Take your word for it. Doctor, I've gone for Doctor
[1:10:39] Bashir of Deep Space 9. No, actually, scratch that.
[1:10:42] I'm going for the Doctor from Star Trek Voyager who was a
[1:10:46] hologram. So that's pretty cool.
[1:10:48] Brilliant. Shipwright Lady Jazzy Edax,
[1:10:51] obviously. Have a look at her and you'll
[1:10:53] see why. OK, right.
[1:10:55] Plucky kid who dies? There's got to be Wesley
[1:10:57] Crusher. Got to be.
[1:10:58] Not too much of his pluck. But if he dies, that annoying
[1:11:00] little shit is definitely going in there for that.
[1:11:04] And the guy who tries to mutiny is Data Also start.
[1:11:10] What A twist. Wow.
[1:11:11] Because there is never. So where we just mutiny?
[1:11:13] And there's a bloody good one. OK, nice.
[1:11:16] Honest to God, I did not expect that at all.
[1:11:18] And that was fucking joy to listen to it.
[1:11:21] Was wonderful. I've never seen your face light
[1:11:24] up so much. You like Oppenheimer of Star
[1:11:26] Trek. It's outrageous.
[1:11:29] Destroyer of worlds, yeah, And that is the end of the middle.
[1:11:33] We get to the heart of the film with some tough character drama.
[1:11:36] Holland's gone, and Jack and Stephen decide to stop
[1:11:39] bickering. There's a ship to catch, after
[1:11:41] all. There is.
[1:11:42] The Enterprise. Surprise, surprise, the crew.
[1:11:51] Films with huge budgets usually have huge crews.
[1:11:54] That's the case on Master and Commander.
[1:11:56] And if the team is behind the scenes we're talking about now,
[1:11:59] that is the composers on the film as well as the visual teams
[1:12:02] in terms of both cinematography and visual effects.
[1:12:05] But first, as we usually do, we're kicking things off with
[1:12:08] the screenwriters. OK.
[1:12:11] So the credit of screenwriter as a master and commander are Peter
[1:12:13] Weir and John Collie, with someone credited work by Akiva
[1:12:16] Goldman. We are.
[1:12:18] We know about a director who often wrote as well.
[1:12:20] This was his eighth writing credit.
[1:12:22] John Collie, though this was only his second screen writing
[1:12:25] credit after Paper Mask in 1990, an adaptation of his own novel.
[1:12:29] Right, right. He also wrote four episodes of
[1:12:32] Bergerac, John Collie. Oh.
[1:12:35] So great work there, obviously. Obviously.
[1:12:38] How about Master and Commander Westy?
[1:12:40] I mean, it's the right and it's just the backbone of the film,
[1:12:43] isn't it? There's no ad Lib in this at
[1:12:45] all. No, no.
[1:12:46] Can you just ad Lib anything now?
[1:12:48] You can't needs to be on the page because we've talked about
[1:12:51] the accuracy, we've talked about the authenticity and it is
[1:12:54] really authentic. The dialogue really works.
[1:12:57] It's not good. You want it to be now because
[1:12:59] it's so colorful and it's so entertaining.
[1:13:02] And for them to find all of this information from the source
[1:13:05] material and make it make sense. And how fans of the book applaud
[1:13:10] this, Yeah, I think it's just a real credit to Peter Weir and a
[1:13:13] real credit to John Collie as well, just to come together and
[1:13:16] say we are sticking to this source material.
[1:13:18] We are not going to add anything into it to make it popular.
[1:13:22] We're going to be very true to the source material.
[1:13:25] And it's one of the very rare films where you go, they've
[1:13:27] stayed true to the source material and it's absolutely
[1:13:30] worked. There's a real confidence in the
[1:13:32] writing and they know what they're going to do and they
[1:13:34] know what they're going to say and they know what they need to
[1:13:35] address. And it's all on the page for me.
[1:13:37] I think it's fantastic writing. Yeah, I agree.
[1:13:40] Like I said earlier, I think the scenes between Jack and Stephen
[1:13:43] are where I start to really notice the writing, and that
[1:13:45] carries on from there. For the rest of the film, yeah,
[1:13:48] I think the narrative chasing the superior enemy vessel is
[1:13:51] very good. You'd probably expect a good
[1:13:52] plot from a book adaptation. The two lead characters are very
[1:13:55] good and well actors like we talked about.
[1:13:57] I would say the secondary characters aren't massively
[1:14:00] memorable for me, which I imagine is not the case in the
[1:14:03] books judging by how popular they are.
[1:14:05] So I think they might suffer a bit.
[1:14:07] Where the film does excel in the writing for me is in the
[1:14:09] research. We talked about how we are
[1:14:11] wanted authenticity from the design teams and that's
[1:14:14] definitely there in the writing as well.
[1:14:16] We and colleague and Patrick O'Brien clearly know the subject
[1:14:19] matter very well. I like all the old Sea dog style
[1:14:22] dialogue that we hear all the way through the film and I
[1:14:24] really like how they really explain what it means.
[1:14:27] Like yeah, beat the quarters. They never explain it.
[1:14:30] The audience is intelligent enough to figure out that it
[1:14:32] kind of means battle stations basically.
[1:14:35] I think this is a great example of historical fiction.
[1:14:37] It's respectful to the reality and feels like a look into the
[1:14:40] past without sacrificing the narrative or entertainment.
[1:14:44] Really good screen writing for me.
[1:14:45] There's. A real respect there isn't there
[1:14:47] and they're not changing it for anybody and that really works.
[1:14:49] Yeah, for the books and for the time as well, I think.
[1:14:52] No, definitely, yeah. Yeah, you can absolutely tell
[1:14:55] that this is an adapted screenplay in the source
[1:14:57] material has been written by someone who lives and breathes
[1:15:00] this subject in the sea, right? I don't care how much research
[1:15:04] you do by yourself, unless this is something you're passionate
[1:15:07] about, it's never going to come across as well as it does here.
[1:15:10] Like you guys, I love the dialogue because as you say, it
[1:15:13] doesn't over explain it. When Jack realises they're being
[1:15:16] chased by the Akron and he says run like smoke and oakum, I
[1:15:19] don't know what oakum is. I don't understand That phrase
[1:15:22] is a series of words, but in this world and in the context, I
[1:15:26] know it's serious and that's all you need to know immediately.
[1:15:28] Let's go fast. You don't need it explaining.
[1:15:31] And it's the same with how well the hierarchy on the ship is
[1:15:34] portrayed. You can see the various levels
[1:15:36] of men. Some of them can't have a joke
[1:15:39] with Jack or Shaw, a bit of cheek like Alan or Killick, but
[1:15:42] some absolutely can't. And you can see the mini
[1:15:44] hierarchies on there, like who's the Boston's maid, Who's the
[1:15:47] carpenter's maid? Who answers to who?
[1:15:49] And what's good for me is that Stephen questions these
[1:15:52] hierarchies. You know, when Jack says the men
[1:15:54] must be governed, Stephen comes back to him.
[1:15:57] Well, that's the excuse of every tyrant in history.
[1:15:59] So there's depth in there as well.
[1:16:01] I think it's very detailed and very convincing writing.
[1:16:05] Very nice. The first book in the Aubrey
[1:16:07] Mature and series was published in 1969.
[1:16:11] The film is mainly adapted from the 10th book Far Side of the
[1:16:14] World, but also takes elements from Master and Commander, the
[1:16:16] first book and one called HMS Surprise.
[1:16:19] Yeah, it's like a compilation of highlights, I think, from the
[1:16:21] series. Yeah, I think that's where the
[1:16:23] title comes from as well, isn't it?
[1:16:24] Because the honor in both books. Exactly, yeah.
[1:16:26] On the title of like the far side of the world is smaller
[1:16:29] font, it's like the same. Exactly.
[1:16:31] I think Master and Commander works great as a film title as
[1:16:34] well as a book title. Yeah, I do think the title let
[1:16:37] it down though. Just call it Master and
[1:16:38] Commander. Yeah, that's.
[1:16:39] Fine. Oh yeah, you don't.
[1:16:41] Need to go to the far side of the fart.
[1:16:44] Yes, as you might expect, there's quite a few references
[1:16:46] to lots of the other books. You know, for the fans, they get
[1:16:50] them. So one is the book is set in
[1:16:52] 1812, but the film takes place in 1805.
[1:16:55] And that's because in the book the ship, The Surprises hunting
[1:16:58] isn't a friendship called the Acron.
[1:17:00] It's AUS ship called the USS Norfolk, and they set it early
[1:17:03] to make the bad guys French instead.
[1:17:06] Right. Yeah, we are said the change is
[1:17:08] probably obviously because American studios were never fun
[1:17:11] to film where they were the enemy.
[1:17:14] Definitely not. And changing it to the French,
[1:17:16] the Battle of Trafalgar was 1805.
[1:17:18] After that, the French were in such a naval force, so to be
[1:17:20] realistic and authentic, they had to move it before that so
[1:17:23] they could make the French the bad guys.
[1:17:24] Right, OK. I mean search is paying off
[1:17:27] there, Johnny. Imagine that on your first date.
[1:17:33] I've tried, it doesn't go down well.
[1:17:35] Do you know what I know, know about?
[1:17:39] And then at one point Stephen says to Jack, the French have
[1:17:41] their spies in England and elsewhere, as do we, and then
[1:17:44] the book. Stephen is an intelligent agent
[1:17:46] who infiltrates the French. Oh wow.
[1:17:48] Really? That'll be cool.
[1:17:49] Yeah, I wonder if that meant something, because it's
[1:17:51] something he doesn't need to say and it goes nowhere in the film.
[1:17:54] So it's something very much like kind of nudge, nudge, wink wink
[1:17:57] book readers. Yeah, it does.
[1:17:58] Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then talking of Stephen,
[1:18:00] before he plays the cello, he flexes his fingers.
[1:18:03] And that's the reference to the books where Stephen is captured
[1:18:06] by the French and the torture and the break all his fingers.
[1:18:09] Right. If they didn't take his dry wet,
[1:18:13] that would have been a big mess, no?
[1:18:15] How do you take that? You can't take me fingers.
[1:18:17] But you'll never dig me wet. Exactly.
[1:18:20] And then if you look closely, Jack has a scar.
[1:18:22] Do you? It's never mentioned, but in the
[1:18:24] books Jack was shot in the ear by a musket ball, which is where
[1:18:27] the scar comes from. Nice.
[1:18:29] Right. She didn't shave that hair off.
[1:18:33] Just the ponytail got hit with the musket ball.
[1:18:35] Probably fine for me. I think those things aren't like
[1:18:38] touches or fans of the novel, though.
[1:18:39] They'll say that I know what it means.
[1:18:41] Yeah, I love that. I would love that.
[1:18:43] You know, being an avid reader of 10 novels and you're going,
[1:18:46] wow, they're not even explaining that.
[1:18:47] I know that. Yeah, that would be great.
[1:18:49] Yeah, brilliant. And like Matt just said, the
[1:18:50] name of the enemy ship in the book was the Norfolk.
[1:18:53] The name of the Acron comes from Greek mythology.
[1:18:55] It's the name of a river in Hades, the underworld, where you
[1:18:58] go after you die. Yeah, Hades is the Greek God who
[1:19:02] has the dog with three heads. All right, nice.
[1:19:04] Yeah, that river could only be crossed by boat and if someone
[1:19:07] touched it they'll lose their memory.
[1:19:09] I think also would just sound really cool.
[1:19:10] Is the name of the bad ship. Is that where you have to like,
[1:19:12] pay the ferryman as well you have to like?
[1:19:14] Yeah, that's the one. Yeah, I.
[1:19:15] Think that's why? Yeah, right.
[1:19:17] And also at one point we and Collie toyed with the idea of
[1:19:20] adding a love interest for Jack. They decided not to go that in
[1:19:23] the end, but apparently we was considering Keevin Knightley for
[1:19:26] that part of the went with it. Oh, wow.
[1:19:29] Wow. Lucky Jack, all right.
[1:19:33] She would have been a bit young, though, wouldn't she?
[1:19:34] She was only about 18 would. Have thought so, yeah.
[1:19:37] There is actually one woman in the film, if you've noticed.
[1:19:39] Yes, when the company port isn't it.
[1:19:42] Yeah, they're getting supplies. She was one of the natives.
[1:19:45] That's right, yeah. It's when the surprise comes in
[1:19:47] to refit. At the South Sea Island we see a
[1:19:49] few locals. One's a beautiful young woman,
[1:19:51] obviously, and Jack gives her a lingering gaze.
[1:19:54] Obviously. Of course it does.
[1:19:56] That's all he needs. Beat the quarters lad and there
[1:20:00] was a real life inspiration for Jack as well.
[1:20:02] Patrick O'Brien, apparently based on a real life Navy
[1:20:05] captain, called Lord Thomas Cochran and he captured over 50
[1:20:09] enemy vessels and in badly disguised his ship which was the
[1:20:12] HMS Speedy as American to confuse the Spanish ship that
[1:20:15] was twice as big as his was. Right.
[1:20:18] That's unfamiliar, Yeah. Another terrible name for a
[1:20:21] boat. Speech speedy.
[1:20:22] You know, Speedy Gonzalez. I know.
[1:20:25] And the line the pulling says about the advice he got from
[1:20:27] Lord Nelson. Never mind maneuvers, always go
[1:20:30] straight at him. Yeah, that line was taken from
[1:20:32] Thomas Cochran's diary. It was something Nelson
[1:20:34] apparently said to him when they met.
[1:20:36] Which is pretty cool, right? It is pretty cool, but it's
[1:20:38] terrible advice. Yeah, plow straight in.
[1:20:42] Don't think about it on the open sea like it's the last thing I
[1:20:45] would do. Are you explaining how to do
[1:20:47] naval warfare? The Lord Nelson was.
[1:20:48] Yes, I am. Where's these columns?
[1:20:52] They're going to pull it down. Time for Peter on question #3
[1:20:57] now. And it comes on the historical
[1:20:59] fiction aspect of the film as we were just talking about, OK, so
[1:21:02] Burke Swanson. Now then Burke.
[1:21:05] Well, Burke says Master and Commander is one of my favorite
[1:21:08] films are depicting A historically accurate setting.
[1:21:11] Aside from changing the dates to make France the enemy instead of
[1:21:13] the US, Yeah, What are a few of you Jen's favorite historical
[1:21:17] films? OK.
[1:21:19] Historical or historically accurate?
[1:21:21] I've gone for historically accurate.
[1:21:23] I think it's probably because this film is so authentic and it
[1:21:26] has that accuracy that I've just have to go for Braveheart.
[1:21:31] There's a few. I mean, I was a real sucker for
[1:21:35] them, like, you know, Spartacus, Lawrence of Arabia, Sulu loved
[1:21:40] all them kind of big historical epics.
[1:21:43] But recently I've kind of had to think about and go, well, what's
[1:21:45] historically like, makes sense. And that was how it was.
[1:21:49] And it was like Apollo 13. I think it's one of them films
[1:21:52] where you go. Yeah, that's exactly what it was
[1:21:54] like. Or Black Hawk Down, Ridley
[1:21:56] Scott's film. But the one that stands out for
[1:21:58] me, and it is still in my top three films of all time and a
[1:22:02] very historically accurate film and a beautiful film.
[1:22:05] And one of the best films ever made is The Assassination of
[1:22:08] Jesse James by the covered Robert Ford.
[1:22:09] Lovely. That's a beautiful film, and
[1:22:12] that's historically absolutely spot on.
[1:22:14] I've never seen a gunfight in a bedroom that's been more
[1:22:17] accurate than that in my fucking life.
[1:22:19] You think any cowboy can just shoot somebody on the horizon?
[1:22:23] They can't. Them guns were shit.
[1:22:25] Yeah, I think he misses them from about 3 yards.
[1:22:27] Doesn't. He He does, yeah.
[1:22:28] And then they hits him in the arm and it's oh fucking hell.
[1:22:31] That's what a bullet was like. Yeah, it makes sense.
[1:22:34] I mean, historical covers, quite a lot of films, yeah.
[1:22:36] But if we're talking as in like hundreds of years or more, I'm a
[1:22:39] big fan of Gladiator, which we've already.
[1:22:41] Mentioned, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
[1:22:42] Again, not for its historical accuracy necessarily, because it
[1:22:45] just makes stuff up, but as historical blockbuster epic
[1:22:48] score that's right up there. For us, being in the Colosseum,
[1:22:51] that's pretty close. Fantastic.
[1:22:52] Imagine. Yeah.
[1:22:53] My favorite though, and finally I get a chance to mention, is
[1:22:56] because it's lost in about 400 of the polls we do when choosing
[1:22:59] episodes. Oh, here we go.
[1:23:01] We know what it's going to be. We'll go first, John.
[1:23:05] We'll get it in eventually, I promise you.
[1:23:07] Favorite Star Trek crew and Amadeus in one episode, yes.
[1:23:09] We've done it. We've done it.
[1:23:12] Fuck the haters, yeah? So Amadeus, the Mozart biopic,
[1:23:15] I'm going to say waxing too lyrical for the podcast.
[1:23:18] That will never happen. It will happen.
[1:23:19] We'll get it sorted. We'll like.
[1:23:21] But it is a magnificent piece of work in basically every aspect
[1:23:25] of filmmaking, and for my money, better even than One Flew Over
[1:23:28] the Cuckoo's Nest. Wow, wow.
[1:23:30] It's by the same director, Milosh Foreman.
[1:23:32] I'm not just randomly comparing it to a totally different film,
[1:23:34] yeah. OK.
[1:23:37] Yeah. So yeah, Amadeus, historically
[1:23:39] superb production design and costume design.
[1:23:41] And Amadeus is unbelievable. Yeah.
[1:23:44] Yeah, agreed. Yeah.
[1:23:46] Again, I tried to go down the accuracy route.
[1:23:48] I think Zulu is worth mentioning because that is fairly accurate
[1:23:52] to how that battle played out. They did do a lot of research.
[1:23:54] They did, obviously some details do change.
[1:23:57] I mentioned Nigel Green's character in real life.
[1:23:59] He was a lot younger, but by and large, in terms of how that
[1:24:02] battle went, it's largely accurate.
[1:24:04] Yeah, I mean, there's the French commissary.
[1:24:06] He had a lot more to do with it and he wasn't a coward.
[1:24:08] But you know, that would vote for it and we'll talk about it.
[1:24:11] But I think in terms of the strategy, the Zulus is the
[1:24:13] attacks and the strategy of the men on walks drift.
[1:24:15] That's all based on how it went. Yeah, absolutely.
[1:24:17] Yeah. The horns of the Buffalo and
[1:24:18] everything else, Yeah. Yeah, I also think Lincoln is
[1:24:21] worth mentioning here. You know that the film about the
[1:24:23] frame of the slaves where very little warfare in it.
[1:24:26] And it's all about like the backroom deals and the horse
[1:24:29] trading and the favours that had to be given out to various
[1:24:32] senators to pass that legislation to free the slaves.
[1:24:34] Or that I think is very, very historically accurate.
[1:24:37] I think that was quite shit on because it was Spielberg.
[1:24:40] Yeah, it's like, oh, but that's Spielberg.
[1:24:42] He doesn't know what he's talking about.
[1:24:43] He's fantastical. Is it right now?
[1:24:44] But he's Yeah, he did Schindler's List and everyone
[1:24:46] took notice of that, yeah. And then when he tries to do
[1:24:48] something else historical, they're like, not Spielberg.
[1:24:50] Yeah, I think he doesn't really. Yeah.
[1:24:52] It doesn't really make sense. Yeah, and the last one I did
[1:24:54] want to mention is the Titanic sinking in general, because
[1:24:57] obviously James Cameron's Titanic.
[1:25:00] The main correction he made was showing the fact that it's split
[1:25:03] in two before it sank, because previous versions of the film,
[1:25:06] they didn't realise that that had happened.
[1:25:08] But I would say if you want the really accurate version, it's
[1:25:11] the version from the 60s A Night to Remember, which I think it's
[1:25:13] just a much more accurate portrayal of life on the Titanic
[1:25:16] before it sank. Have a child.
[1:25:20] Yeah, doesn't have Belize and unfortunately doing that.
[1:25:23] For their work as right as a master and commander, Peter We
[1:25:26] and John Collie received no major award recognition.
[1:25:29] They just lost The Lord of the Rings anyway.
[1:25:32] Yeah, some excellent and authentic writing.
[1:25:35] It's wonderful writing. It's.
[1:25:37] Authentic. Yeah, it's that word again.
[1:25:41] From the writing, we're sailing onto the music and the composers
[1:25:45] and master and commander were IVA Davies, Christopher Gordon
[1:25:48] and Richard Tony Yeti. IVA Davies was known as founding
[1:25:51] member of Australian rock outfit Ice House.
[1:25:54] Fan of those guys, Matt? Oh, love them, Yeah, but all the
[1:25:58] albums. On vinyl.
[1:26:02] Christopher Gordon was known for his music on Australian TV, and
[1:26:05] Richard Tonyetti, we mentioned earlier, was an international
[1:26:08] violin soloist. All right, so Davies, Gordon and
[1:26:11] Tonyetti together at last. Yes, horrible.
[1:26:13] Like the music of Master and Commander Matt.
[1:26:16] It feels very, very subtle to me at first listen because it's not
[1:26:20] hugely or TT, it's not hugely bombastic.
[1:26:24] The only time it feels huge is when you listen to it on its
[1:26:26] own, which I've done a couple of Times Now in the last couple of
[1:26:29] days. Yeah, it has that huge boom and
[1:26:31] percussion sound to it. It's got the drums, it's got the
[1:26:34] whistles. But when you watch the film, I
[1:26:36] think the music is just interlaced with the visuals so
[1:26:39] well it underpins the action. It doesn't overwhelm it.
[1:26:42] Yeah, it's not maybe something you'd be humming afterwards,
[1:26:44] unless you've listened to it a lot, but it's definitely one of
[1:26:48] the elements of the film where the more you watch it, the more
[1:26:50] you realise just how good this music is.
[1:26:53] I agree. I think it's not until you come
[1:26:54] to talk about the music in the film that you realize is how big
[1:26:57] a part it all has to play. Not just the score, but it's
[1:27:00] part of the narrative. We talked about Jack and Stevens
[1:27:03] like dueling banjos and the crew bursting into song every 5
[1:27:07] minutes. It's like South Pacific.
[1:27:10] I like those moments though, especially the singing in the
[1:27:12] ward room where the officers think, don't forget your old
[1:27:14] shipmates, don't forget your own shipmates.
[1:27:27] That is brilliant green track and the score is excellent.
[1:27:31] The most obvious thing would have been for the right loads of
[1:27:33] swashbuckling cues and stuff. But no, it's mortar and bark at
[1:27:37] one end and then at the other. They've clearly taken
[1:27:39] inspiration from like old sea shanties of the time, and it all
[1:27:42] fuses together really well. I love that as a way to take us
[1:27:45] into that world using the music of the time.
[1:27:48] I think it's a big part of the world building and the way music
[1:27:50] is used all the way through different kinds of music as
[1:27:52] well. I think it's genuinely really
[1:27:54] impressive. Yeah, I totally agree.
[1:27:56] I saw this in the structure. I was like, this is there's a
[1:27:59] score to this, like this music is there.
[1:28:03] Like, I have to watch it again. It's like the third or fourth
[1:28:05] time I watched it, like you guys have said, and it really is
[1:28:08] interlaced with it. And I don't think that it was
[1:28:12] made to reflect that time. It is that time, yes.
[1:28:16] Just everything that we as looked at on this film, honest
[1:28:20] to God, it gives me a migraine of like, the level of detail.
[1:28:24] He's just went, oh, we're going to do this sea shanty from here.
[1:28:26] I'm going to have more talk and it's just going to blend.
[1:28:29] And he doesn't use it as an emotional cue.
[1:28:32] He doesn't go, look, this is a sad moment.
[1:28:34] There's the strings, there's the big soundtrack.
[1:28:36] It's on Hans Zimmer coming in, going way there.
[1:28:39] He doesn't need that. No.
[1:28:41] It really is a hand in hand with the visuals and intertwines.
[1:28:44] Even if you played this to me now, I couldn't go.
[1:28:47] Oh, that's from Austin Commander.
[1:28:49] Yeah. Yeah.
[1:28:50] I would say this sounds like it should be from Austin Commander.
[1:28:53] Yeah, yeah, that's what this is all about.
[1:28:54] And I think that considering how big this film looks, yeah, it
[1:28:57] could have a sweep and big score.
[1:29:00] Epic, massive. That's.
[1:29:01] What you would normally get, wouldn't you?
[1:29:03] Yeah, yeah. Exactly.
[1:29:03] But it's not there. It's beautiful throughout all of
[1:29:06] it. Well, something we don't always
[1:29:08] go into massive detail on, which I think maybe we should here is
[1:29:11] sound design. Oh yeah, the sound designer of
[1:29:13] Martha and Commander was Richard King.
[1:29:15] He won an Oscar for the film. It's outrageous.
[1:29:18] It's it's like everything else. It's subtle and it's grounded,
[1:29:21] but then it explodes when it needs to be.
[1:29:23] So just the bits that you don't notice until you really pay
[1:29:26] attention. Like the constant creaking in
[1:29:28] the background and the constant lap and really of the waves.
[1:29:31] Yeah, in the quiet moments, but then when the action comes on,
[1:29:34] it's just chaos and it's. Boom, boom, boom.
[1:29:37] And it just throws the end of the world again.
[1:29:39] And you know, we've mentioned him, Richard Kind.
[1:29:41] He was the sound designer and he worked closely with the film's
[1:29:44] lead historical consultant, a guy called Gordon Leacor.
[1:29:48] And they found 19th century Canon collectors who owned a 24
[1:29:53] pounder and a 12 pounder Canon. I mean, one in one Canon is
[1:29:56] outrageous enough. Imagine one in two.
[1:29:59] So they went to their studio and recorded the sounds of the
[1:30:02] cannons firing and also the squeaks of the cannonball as it
[1:30:05] flew overhead. And that's what they use in the
[1:30:07] film. It's outrageous.
[1:30:09] There's so many times I've said turn the sound off and watch
[1:30:11] this film and you know what's going on.
[1:30:13] Yeah, this film. Turn the visuals off and just
[1:30:15] listen to it and you'll know exactly what's going on.
[1:30:18] Yeah, that's how good the sound design is in this.
[1:30:20] It's absolutely outrageous. It is exceptional.
[1:30:23] I mean a 19th century Canon collector.
[1:30:25] I found my new hobby, yeah. Expensive.
[1:30:28] Probably. And to get the sound of the
[1:30:31] cannonballs actually hitting the ships, they went to an artillery
[1:30:34] range with those cannons, set up wooden targets, and blasted them
[1:30:37] with the cannons. Best job ever, that.
[1:30:40] Sorry. I love that.
[1:30:41] I love that. Shouting let fly at the time.
[1:30:43] Brilliant. And to create the sound of the
[1:30:47] wind during the storm sequence we're talking about, King
[1:30:49] created a wooden frame rigged with 1000 feet of line.
[1:30:53] He put it on the back of a pickup truck and drove at 70
[1:30:56] miles an hour. He mixed the sound of that with
[1:30:59] a BBQ grill. Like what?
[1:31:01] What? I've driven 70 miles an hour.
[1:31:03] I never thought I need to stick a BBQ grill on.
[1:31:05] This not sound like a storm, like it's never happened.
[1:31:08] I bet Russell Crowe was living the BBQ as well.
[1:31:10] It's. The only reason the BBQ Grill is
[1:31:14] in there? But I mean, the sound design
[1:31:17] stands out, doesn't it? All the way through.
[1:31:19] Definitely out to the film. It's so it's so good.
[1:31:22] So some great sounds, a master and commander, a great use of
[1:31:25] music, diegetic and non diegetic, and Richard King,
[1:31:28] sound designer deserving of that Oscar.
[1:31:31] Definitely. The sound design is the score of
[1:31:33] this film, yeah. That's how Master and Commander
[1:31:38] sounds. How about how it looks?
[1:31:41] Well, we're about to find out as we talk the visuals on the film
[1:31:43] by covering off the cinematography and visual
[1:31:46] effects work. The director of photography was
[1:31:48] Russell Boyd working with Peter Weir for the fifth time, and the
[1:31:51] effects studios were ILM Asylum and Wetter Workshop.
[1:31:56] Yeah, Cinematography for you, Is it Wesley?
[1:31:58] Every time. Normally I watch a film and go
[1:32:00] right, OK, what lens was that and how was that?
[1:32:03] This is one of the first films that I've seen recently where I
[1:32:05] didn't really care. I don't think anyone shot
[1:32:08] anything like this. A ship at sea and there's a real
[1:32:11] visual representation of science versus nature, of man, made
[1:32:15] structures versus the ocean, everything against you.
[1:32:19] Like, I mean the silhouettes of people just climbing down the
[1:32:22] fields of stuff. And it's a but it doesn't feel
[1:32:25] pretentious at any point. It doesn't feel like it's put in
[1:32:27] there to go. This is visually beautiful.
[1:32:29] I mean this Russell Boyd's didn't like Crocodile Dundee.
[1:32:33] One and two. But I mean he did Gallipoli as
[1:32:37] well and I think he's got a real close relationship with we're
[1:32:41] and knows exactly what we're. Once.
[1:32:43] Yeah, never once did I go, oh that's a 35, never wants to go
[1:32:47] all the punching on an 85 on a close up here it feels like
[1:32:49] we're just in the camera and it's just the same lens all the
[1:32:52] way through and that's the best thing that you can do.
[1:32:55] I think as a cinematographer is take people out of the mechanics
[1:32:57] of it, especially me. If I'm looking for the mechanics
[1:33:00] in it and I can't find them, it didn't pull us out of the story,
[1:33:03] it pulled us into the story. And Russell Boyd being like so
[1:33:07] overlooked as a cinematographer, I think he is the Stephen for me
[1:33:10] in this crew, no ego whatsoever. He's not putting shots in there
[1:33:14] that don't need to be in there. There's not these big massive
[1:33:17] sunsets. You know, like you mentioned
[1:33:19] that when Jack's on the mask and the camera comes round, there's
[1:33:23] a helicopter shot. And that's incredibly hard to do
[1:33:25] and incredibly fucking expensive in 2003.
[1:33:28] But it. Really, really works for the
[1:33:30] story. Like it's not doing it just to
[1:33:32] go or doesn't that look great to do any justice to?
[1:33:35] Russell Boyd's work in this film is that every shot that you
[1:33:39] watch feels as good as it looks. That's a cohesive piece of work
[1:33:43] and that's real cinema. Yeah.
[1:33:46] So an interview with Russell Boyd where we started off by
[1:33:48] saying Master and Commander Gee, that was a hard film to make.
[1:33:52] I'm not. Fucking surprised.
[1:33:53] And I wouldn't have said Gee either.
[1:33:55] It would be like, fucking me. And it's one of those films
[1:33:58] where the cinematography looks really hard to do at least as
[1:34:02] well as this anyway, because it's stunning.
[1:34:04] You don't notice it though, either, unless you really look
[1:34:06] and go Yeah, actually, yeah, that's beautiful.
[1:34:08] Yeah, yeah. I mean whenever we see a wide
[1:34:10] shot or establishing shot of the ship and there's quite a lot,
[1:34:13] it's just like wow, Not just because of how well framed and
[1:34:16] how well shot is, but because it's like, well, that's how it
[1:34:18] would have looked 200 years ago, surely.
[1:34:20] Yeah, Yeah. The helicopter shots of the ship
[1:34:22] are just jaw-dropping shots where we see the ships and
[1:34:24] silhouettes are equally brilliant.
[1:34:26] And that scene where Calamy goes out on the raft at night to
[1:34:29] create a decoy for the Acura on the chase, Yeah, yeah, the
[1:34:32] lighting of that scene is outrageously good.
[1:34:35] It feels like you're there. It's incredible.
[1:34:36] Isn't it? And it's just like 1 lamp.
[1:34:38] And then you still see it in the distance.
[1:34:40] And he creates depth in the frame.
[1:34:41] You know how the music moves, like the ocean moves.
[1:34:44] So is the camera. There's Dutch angles.
[1:34:46] Yeah. Yeah.
[1:34:47] Without it saying, oh, there's a problem here.
[1:34:48] That's incredibly difficult to do without someone going.
[1:34:50] All the cameras moved. It's.
[1:34:52] Brilliant. Yeah.
[1:34:54] And that decoy trick is something that Thomas Cochran
[1:34:56] did again in real life. The madman.
[1:34:58] All right, really. I think this feels like it's
[1:35:00] shot by a team who know exactly what they're doing, but also
[1:35:03] have the creative talent to be innovative, which gives you this
[1:35:06] great blend of being classically shot and also looking modern.
[1:35:10] I mean, the cinematography just feels timeless, maybe the most
[1:35:12] impressive part of the film for me.
[1:35:14] Absolutely, 100%. In 90% of the film is set at
[1:35:18] sea, but only 10 days of the shoot was spent about the HMS
[1:35:21] Rose replica out at sea. They spent 100 days shooting at
[1:35:24] Baja Studios in Mexico because there they had a 20 million
[1:35:28] gallon water tank. Wow.
[1:35:30] Yeah, no. And they created a replica of
[1:35:33] the replica mounted on a gimbal and shot most of the film there.
[1:35:37] That is an enormous tank. It's also where James Cameron
[1:35:40] shot lots of Titanic. Imagine.
[1:35:42] Yeah. All right.
[1:35:43] OK. Yeah.
[1:35:43] Yeah, seems to be the go to place where big productions now.
[1:35:46] Pirates of the Caribbean film there as well, so Baja Studios
[1:35:50] must be doing all right. Yeah, there must be.
[1:35:52] But then it's a testament to Boyd that all them films were
[1:35:54] shot there, and this one is the most believable.
[1:35:56] Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
[1:35:57] Yeah. We're and Boyd had developed a
[1:35:59] technique from other films where they would shoot scenes with
[1:36:01] multiple cameras, which save time on shooting, obviously.
[1:36:04] And he spent time research into the films that had been shot at
[1:36:07] sea so he could learn from the problems that the film makers
[1:36:09] come across. Jaws.
[1:36:11] One of those, surely. The shark works in this film.
[1:36:18] Well, I want to talk about the visual effects, because when I
[1:36:20] put my first notes together for these episodes, the first thing
[1:36:23] I genuinely wrote down was invisible, because that's
[1:36:27] exactly what they are. It's invisible effects,
[1:36:29] seamless. Like all logic tells you,
[1:36:31] there's obviously going to be visual effects in here, but
[1:36:34] they're blended in so well. There's not one moment where
[1:36:37] something is so clearly CGI or on a green screen.
[1:36:40] That it takes you out of the film.
[1:36:42] Whether it's a storm, the boats, the fog, the Gunsmoke,
[1:36:46] everything just blends together to be completely convincing.
[1:36:50] It does. I mean, I just said the
[1:36:51] cinematography might be the best part of the film, but the
[1:36:53] effects aren't far behind. No brilliant.
[1:36:55] Like I said, there were three effects studios, so there were
[1:36:57] two full scale shapes like you mentioned Matt.
[1:37:00] A replica of the HMS Rose and a replica of the replica of the
[1:37:03] HMS Rose. There was a scale model created
[1:37:06] the surprise that was done by WET a workshop who we are hired
[1:37:09] because they just don't miniature work on Lord of the
[1:37:11] Rings. Yeah, that's not a bad thing to
[1:37:13] have in your modelling portfolio, is it?
[1:37:14] Definitely not. Definitely not.
[1:37:16] Middle Earth and then Asylum created CGI automatics of the
[1:37:19] ships, and once those were approved, they were sent to ILM,
[1:37:22] who would then digitally composite the CGI ships into the
[1:37:24] real footage. In any shot where we see both
[1:37:27] ships at the same time, that always made sure at least one of
[1:37:30] them was real, either one of the replicas or the scale model to
[1:37:33] give it that real world weight the models can bring.
[1:37:36] I mean, it's all just exceptional.
[1:37:37] It looks fantastic today to me. Whether it's a replica, a model,
[1:37:41] or CGI, I don't question any of what we see ever in the film.
[1:37:44] No. No, definitely not.
[1:37:46] And when they were working on Lord of the Rings, whether it
[1:37:48] had coined the term pictures because their scaled models were
[1:37:51] huge and the scale model they made of the surprise was about
[1:37:55] 30 feet in length, and they spent five weeks filming the
[1:37:57] model as well. The level of detail they went to
[1:38:00] was insane on that as well. Yeah, whenever they use a
[1:38:03] different material to the real ship, like the sails, they would
[1:38:06] do calculations to make sure I'd still weighed exactly the same
[1:38:10] as the would have bought then. So the ship still moved in the
[1:38:12] same way in the water. Crisis, right?
[1:38:15] Can you? Imagine, Wesley, we're going to
[1:38:17] shoot a film on a ship. Do you want to be for.
[1:38:19] No, I don't. I don't.
[1:38:20] Want. To do this fucking hell.
[1:38:22] For their work on the film, the visual effects teams were
[1:38:25] nominated for an Oscar, but they lost out to you know who.
[1:38:28] Lord of the Right. The King, Return of the King of
[1:38:30] course. Whether yeah, so a huge behind
[1:38:33] the scenes team, a master and commander and the people have
[1:38:35] mentioned there John Collier's Co writer IVA Davies,
[1:38:38] Christopher Gordon, Richard Torn.
[1:38:40] Yet he is composers Russell Boyd as DP and what I workshop Asylum
[1:38:44] and ILM on the effects. Astonishing work all across the
[1:38:47] board. Absolutely.
[1:38:48] It couldn't have been any better, I don't think.
[1:38:51] No. The End.
[1:38:58] The final act of Master and Commander is all smoking dorkum
[1:39:01] as the Acuron makes a return for one final battle.
[1:39:04] Before that, though, we've got a bit of time to spend with the
[1:39:07] dock. We do.
[1:39:08] We do. So after all the arguments
[1:39:10] between Jack and Stephen, they finally start getting along and
[1:39:13] all it takes is for Stephen to get shot.
[1:39:16] That's all. Normally the kid.
[1:39:19] After a crew member accidentally hits the dock on the deck,
[1:39:22] Stephen performs a life saving operation on himself before
[1:39:24] getting his reward that trip to the Galapagos Islands.
[1:39:28] Yeah. The words physician here myself
[1:39:30] have never been more literalistic.
[1:39:32] I know, right? Yeah.
[1:39:33] I mean, this whole sequence is just incredible, isn't?
[1:39:35] I mean, from the moment that he gets shot.
[1:39:38] Because there's like an albatross, I believe.
[1:39:41] Yeah. And that's bad news for sailors.
[1:39:44] And that, again, is like this real superstitious thing.
[1:39:48] And it's it brought into it. And it's like, does the
[1:39:50] superstition work? Well, it did with Holland, and
[1:39:53] it did with the wind coming back, so they need to pursue
[1:39:56] that. But then they shoot the doctor
[1:39:57] because of that superstition. Again, a duality.
[1:39:59] Again, wonderful. That's just incredibly well done
[1:40:03] and incredibly well written. I mean, reading it in the
[1:40:06] script, a bird lands and then they shoot the doctor.
[1:40:09] How the fuck are you going to do that?
[1:40:12] And then it's the authenticity of just that bit of shit is the
[1:40:15] problem. Yeah.
[1:40:17] Yeah, and that is wonderful. Like, I've never ever really
[1:40:20] thought about something to be so realistic where you go, you've
[1:40:23] been shot, right? If that just went straight
[1:40:25] through, it'd be fine. But there's just this bit of
[1:40:27] shirt we need to get out. But the bring them onto the
[1:40:30] islands to save himself, That's where he's always wanted to be.
[1:40:33] It's a real poetry here and he's just like, he brings him on
[1:40:36] outside to stretch my legs. But you see Jack Winston, he
[1:40:39] can't do it. Are you OK?
[1:40:41] And the reaction shots from crew here are incredible.
[1:40:44] He's going to throw up at any moment.
[1:40:47] When it boils down to it, this is what you're doing to people.
[1:40:49] But you don't want to say that. You want to see the big picture,
[1:40:51] but this is the reality of it. So well done.
[1:40:55] I believe that this was done for real 100%.
[1:40:59] I believe Paul Bettany cut his stomach.
[1:41:03] It just went, yeah, that actually fits that bit of
[1:41:06] material. And this whole sequence to me
[1:41:08] hits home the humanity. Like I talked about with
[1:41:10] Bethany's character and the in Bethany's delivery, there's no
[1:41:12] strings come over the top where he's like cutting himself open.
[1:41:15] And it's not like, Oh my God, it's not like that at all.
[1:41:19] That's stripping away the ego. There's nothing more you can do
[1:41:22] than cut yourself open in front of people and go, this is how
[1:41:25] vulnerable I am, this how vulnerable we all are.
[1:41:28] But if people could see genuinely how vulnerable you
[1:41:30] are, they'll give you a chance. But you never get that chance.
[1:41:33] And it's a powerful, powerful moment.
[1:41:36] If you look at it from that point of view, when you go,
[1:41:38] look, I'm one of your best friends, this is how good I am
[1:41:40] at saving people. And from that moment, Jack has a
[1:41:43] completely different take on it. It's almost like God was
[1:41:46] emotional and I watched it and that's in the right, that's in
[1:41:49] the performances. That's just pure Peter Weir, and
[1:41:52] it's just an incredible, incredible sequence.
[1:41:56] That guy. He's aiming for the albatross,
[1:41:58] but just taking pot shots across the deck with his musket.
[1:42:02] You've ruined everything I've said The.
[1:42:05] Most heartfelt thing where she's ever said.
[1:42:07] All right. And he's John with his joke when
[1:42:09] all the jokes coming. And then during the operation,
[1:42:13] there's another guy not holding the nurse straight.
[1:42:16] You've got one job. I know, but that's the whole
[1:42:19] point. It's like nobody else can
[1:42:20] stomach this but Stephen. He's the most humane person in
[1:42:23] the world and the most humane person on the ship, so you have
[1:42:25] to listen to him. Yeah, I think with the
[1:42:27] operation, I think Bettany is just excellent.
[1:42:29] Conveys the agony that Stevens going through really well, makes
[1:42:32] look like a terrible thing to have to do, which obviously it
[1:42:35] is, Yeah. And it's an important scene, not
[1:42:37] as part of the narrative necessarily, but in terms of the
[1:42:39] relationship between Stephen and Jack.
[1:42:41] With Jack abandoned the mission to save Stephen.
[1:42:43] Yeah, this finally scene, they might actually like each other
[1:42:46] and it's massively memorable. Like I mentioned, I've not seen
[1:42:49] this film in over 20 years and the part I remembered most
[1:42:51] vividly with Stephen performing surgery on himself.
[1:42:54] Yeah, I've never seen a bit of material go into another bit of
[1:42:57] material where I've been so satisfied with the whole fucking
[1:43:01] life. Oh, it's fine.
[1:43:03] Yeah. Fuck for that.
[1:43:04] There's no other bits in there. Oh, God.
[1:43:06] Thank you. OK.
[1:43:06] It's just like a massive relief, isn't it?
[1:43:08] There was a scene that was shot for around this time in the film
[1:43:11] that was taken out of the final cut.
[1:43:13] The Surgeon's mate Higgins pretends to extract one of
[1:43:16] Stevens worms from the gums of a sailor and tells him that it was
[1:43:19] too thick. Steven tells him off for not
[1:43:23] being honest and then turns and bangs his head on a low beam.
[1:43:26] We took it out as he thought it'd be a little bit too silly.
[1:43:29] Again, the authenticity that would happen, right?
[1:43:31] Surely it would have. Surely that would happen all the
[1:43:33] time. Yeah, yeah, it could have been
[1:43:35] played in a way where it would have felt authentic and a little
[1:43:38] bit more humor. I wouldn't be against that to be
[1:43:40] honest. Yeah, just a touch as.
[1:43:42] Long as there's more Weevil jokes.
[1:43:46] Yeah, when they get to the Galapagos though, like Stephen
[1:43:49] has heard this moment, he really has.
[1:43:51] Like he's had to put up with Jack shit all throughout the
[1:43:54] film. Jack Shit.
[1:43:55] Brilliant. Yeah, he's being shot by one of
[1:43:57] his own men. How to operate on himself
[1:43:59] because no one else is up to it. So when he gets the chance to
[1:44:01] have some proper downtime here, you think, yes, this is so well
[1:44:05] deserved for this character. He's so happy for him.
[1:44:08] And it's one of those storytelling choices that I
[1:44:11] think in different hands it shouldn't work.
[1:44:13] But it really does, he. Because in amongst all the
[1:44:15] battles in the storms, you've got the sequence which really
[1:44:18] does get across what it must have been like to have been the
[1:44:21] first people to set foot in these places and draw pictures
[1:44:24] and capture specimens of these animals that no one has set eyes
[1:44:29] on before. And there's this wonderful sense
[1:44:31] of discovery in the sequence, like just that scene where they
[1:44:36] just sit next to the giant turtles in the measure of the
[1:44:39] necks, you think. It's lovely that it is.
[1:44:41] Lovely moment. It's a lovely moment.
[1:44:43] You think that would surely be the first thing you delete.
[1:44:45] But it's all pivotal to the film.
[1:44:47] Yeah. And I think it's where you say
[1:44:48] where, see, it's the humanity of it.
[1:44:50] Yeah. It's thinking, God, these these
[1:44:52] people are just discovering stuff.
[1:44:54] And it's so great and it's so happy for them it's.
[1:44:56] Like, did Terrence Malick direct this bit?
[1:44:59] It's very Terrence Malick all of a sudden.
[1:45:01] And because that's so genuine, I think when Stephen sees the
[1:45:03] Acron, it is a bit of a gut punch for him.
[1:45:06] But it's not too much because yeah, he has to leave the
[1:45:09] specimens behind. He, he, he doesn't get to spend
[1:45:12] as long there as he wants to. But he's still got his moment,
[1:45:15] he's still got to see them and he's he's still got to spend the
[1:45:18] time investigating. So he might not be as single
[1:45:21] minded as Jackie is when it comes to fulfilling his duty,
[1:45:24] but he still realizes in this moment what the right thing to
[1:45:26] do is. Yeah, definitely.
[1:45:29] Yeah, I think it's great being on the island, mainly in terms
[1:45:32] of mixing up the visuals a bit, but they get there and Stephen
[1:45:35] makes them walk 10 miles across the island, 10 miles there, 10
[1:45:38] miles back. No chance.
[1:45:41] But then it brings us right back into the overall narrative
[1:45:43] pretty expertly. Stephen's examining that bug,
[1:45:46] then a focus pull and suddenly the acurons in the background.
[1:45:49] That's really good. Stephen's good, isn't he?
[1:45:52] It's great, but it's it is predictable.
[1:45:54] Like the first time I saw it is that we're going to go to the
[1:45:56] other side of the island. I was like, you're going to see
[1:45:58] the Agaran, Of course. What's he going to do?
[1:46:02] What's he going to sacrifice? It's.
[1:46:03] Brilliant. It is doing really well and when
[1:46:05] he's chasing that book, I've never seen anyone more pleased
[1:46:08] with himself to catch your beetle.
[1:46:10] Maybe you're going? Oh, there it is.
[1:46:12] I knew that was. And this was the first feature
[1:46:17] film to ever shoot on the Galapagos Islands.
[1:46:19] And the moment Stephen sees the Akron that was filmed on one of
[1:46:23] the islands called Pinter. And don't know if you remember,
[1:46:25] but it was in the news a few years ago because that was the
[1:46:28] home of Lonesome George, who was a giant tortoise and he was the
[1:46:32] last of his subspecies and he died when he was over 100 years
[1:46:35] old. Wow.
[1:46:37] So who the measure? Well, yeah, Lonesome George.
[1:46:40] He'd been there by himself for about 60 years, which is pretty
[1:46:42] lonesome. And that is presumably why we
[1:46:44] get that scene where we see Stephen studying the creep of
[1:46:47] giant tortoises. One of them might be Lonesome
[1:46:49] George. Who knows?
[1:46:51] What a fucking brilliant life. Lonesome Levicus Island.
[1:46:56] Sunny. Someone just turns up after 90
[1:46:58] years and measures your neck and then you die.
[1:47:00] I love that. So a very brief visit to the
[1:47:04] Galapagos Islands Seems like a beautiful place though sure, but
[1:47:07] sweet. Oh yeah, Lovely, lovely.
[1:47:11] With Stephen finding the Acuron again, the hunt is back on, and
[1:47:15] after being inspired by one of Stephen's stick insects, Jack
[1:47:18] comes up with a plan. Nice.
[1:47:20] In one almighty Final sea battle, the surprise pretends to
[1:47:23] be a whaling vessel, ambushes the Acuron and takes the Phantom
[1:47:26] of Shame as a prize. Yeah, right, lads.
[1:47:29] I know there's not a faint heart among you, So how do we find the
[1:47:32] climactic showdown? I love it and I think it's
[1:47:36] tribute to, again, the authenticity of this material,
[1:47:39] because on the face of it, I wouldn't have thought you can
[1:47:41] disguise a ship that convincingly.
[1:47:43] But Patrick O'Brien says you can't.
[1:47:46] Then I absolutely believe him. I absolutely believe that it can
[1:47:48] happen in this film. And what I really like about it
[1:47:51] is, is it does bring together Jack's tactical acumen, along
[1:47:55] with Stephen's knowledge of nature, like they've always been
[1:47:58] clashing throughout the film, those two things.
[1:48:00] And now it's harmonious and it's done just right.
[1:48:03] It's not too on the nose, It's done just right.
[1:48:06] And he actually says it as well, though, doesn't he just?
[1:48:07] Yeah, I didn't think nature would progress warfare.
[1:48:10] It's it's wonderfully done. It is.
[1:48:11] I really like that. And the preparation does have
[1:48:14] one of the few moments that makes me laugh in the film, and
[1:48:17] it's when everyone's getting into disguise and taking off the
[1:48:19] uniform and Jack says to kill it.
[1:48:21] Come on, you 2, and it's just Killick's reaction.
[1:48:23] His attitude was basically fuck's sake, do I have to like
[1:48:28] I'm the chef? So I really like that just
[1:48:31] really nicely. Just comic moment.
[1:48:33] And then when Jack gives his speech before they go in the
[1:48:35] battle. I'll admit there's a lot of
[1:48:37] technical detail in there that I don't quite understand, but
[1:48:40] Cross sells it like 100%. No one gives an inspirational
[1:48:45] battle speech like Russell Crowe does.
[1:48:47] You know, by the end I'm practically shouting his tsar
[1:48:49] along with the rest of you. And then you get that bit let
[1:48:53] fly and the music kicks in and the cannons have blown the shit
[1:48:57] out of everything. And I love that shot of the mast
[1:48:59] falling into the sea. It's great stuff.
[1:49:01] Yeah, finally let his hair down. He.
[1:49:03] Does. Yeah.
[1:49:06] Well, again, disguising his ship is something that Thomas Cochran
[1:49:08] did in real life. But yeah, they changed the name
[1:49:11] to the Siren. Yes.
[1:49:13] As in, like the mythical creatures that would lure in
[1:49:15] sailors. Yeah, not the most subtle thing
[1:49:17] then. No, not at all.
[1:49:19] Yeah, it was so beautifully. Don't know how quickly they did
[1:49:21] that. It's taken me 5 weeks to paint
[1:49:23] me sitting room. And the percussive music and the
[1:49:27] score when we're building the battle is brilliant.
[1:49:29] It's like these low beating drums.
[1:49:31] Like bum bum. Yeah, yeah, sounds like the
[1:49:33] T1000's about to turn up. Imagine.
[1:49:36] Don't be fucking great. I have one double bass.
[1:49:41] Once the ball starts, it's massive.
[1:49:43] I know, dance know, the historian said about this
[1:49:45] battle. He's never seen a bad depiction
[1:49:47] of fighting at sea, right? Which coming from an expert,
[1:49:49] that's reason enough alone to watch it for me.
[1:49:52] The sound design again is incredible.
[1:49:54] The sound of the calm and fire and the holes being smashed is
[1:49:57] huge. Very much reminds me of James
[1:49:59] Cameron as a sequence, which is obviously a huge compliment is
[1:50:02] he's like a master when it comes to wine, the collection, and
[1:50:04] this is a level approaching James Cameron I think.
[1:50:07] Yeah, definitely. Yeah, and that's Sea Battle that
[1:50:09] took four weeks to film. And because there was so many
[1:50:12] stunts, not all of them were prepared in full, and that was
[1:50:15] to reduce the risk of stuntmen being injured before filming.
[1:50:18] So the shots of the boats were also a combination of CGI scale
[1:50:22] models and the full size replicas.
[1:50:24] That is mental. If it's not dangerous the
[1:50:26] economy practices, you might as well just film me for real.
[1:50:31] I'll go for when it really kicks off and it goes hand to hand
[1:50:34] combat and they get on there and there's just such deception.
[1:50:38] But the great thing about this film is that you don't leave
[1:50:41] that ship and you are part of it.
[1:50:43] And then when you do leave it, you are fucking terrified.
[1:50:46] Everything seems so foreign and so different and you have to
[1:50:50] just board this the ship and it has this kind of parody.
[1:50:53] Again, this duality where it's almost the same thing, but these
[1:50:57] action sequences are so visceral and so well done and so well
[1:51:02] shot, you just think, well where's Peter we as weakness in
[1:51:05] this film? He hasn't got one.
[1:51:08] He can do these big action sequences that have on a wide
[1:51:11] shutting and do them on a close up.
[1:51:12] We can do these incredible dialogue sequences into these
[1:51:15] great character moments. And again, he makes a sword
[1:51:18] fight into a character piece. If you watch this without
[1:51:21] watching the rest of the film, you go out.
[1:51:22] That makes absolutely no sense. But when you watch the whole
[1:51:25] film and you know exactly who everyone is, you know exactly
[1:51:28] where you are, loads of snidey grenades getting thrown in
[1:51:31] there, loads of snide. It starts with guns.
[1:51:36] You know, the guns run out. Again, we're talking about
[1:51:38] authenticity. We're talking about, you know,
[1:51:40] real. This is exactly what it would
[1:51:41] have been like, and how good it would you be if your gun runs
[1:51:44] out. You've got one shot.
[1:51:45] You got one shot, yeah. And the way that they go on tech
[1:51:48] nothing. Oh, that's it.
[1:51:49] It's done and there's just these great moments where it's just
[1:51:52] you don't trust anybody. There's a real level of anxiety.
[1:51:55] But these whole action sequences are fucking fantastic where you
[1:51:59] kind of like, totally believe it.
[1:52:02] And it's so well edited that I can't even begin because we edit
[1:52:06] in this film second to none. Look at the amount of shots that
[1:52:09] are put into these. It's just you've got a low shot,
[1:52:12] people running over the camera. You've got, like, lots of
[1:52:15] swipes, you've got lots of clothes, it's got lots of wage,
[1:52:17] got lots of you don't know what's going on, but you know
[1:52:19] what's going on and it's just such a joy to watch.
[1:52:23] Yeah, it is. I do enjoy a good swashbuckling
[1:52:26] Cutlass Jewel, don't we all? Although I'm not sure how the
[1:52:28] Acuron crew managed to orchestrate everyone playing
[1:52:31] Dead so quickly. And even worse, why did the
[1:52:34] surprise crew fall for it? Everyone dead.
[1:52:36] There's about 200 of them and I'm just like, well, the job's
[1:52:39] done, Sir. Especially when the surprise
[1:52:40] have just pulled these rules themselves.
[1:52:42] It's brilliant. There's because they called the
[1:52:44] surprise, but they get surprised, surprise, surprise.
[1:52:48] Well, yeah. But then Jack goes below deck
[1:52:50] and he falls for it again with the captain.
[1:52:52] He's dead. He has a sword.
[1:52:53] He does. Yeah.
[1:52:54] Ask me no questions. I'll tell you no lies.
[1:52:56] Get stabbed as well doesn't. He's like, I think the French
[1:52:58] horn is a little bit on the nose.
[1:53:00] I've got to say, the French horn is a little bit too much.
[1:53:03] You never, ever cut to the buddies board.
[1:53:05] You never see that. So it's just so beautiful to go
[1:53:08] on there and go, oh, they're the same.
[1:53:10] We're all humans. It's a great thing to do.
[1:53:12] Yeah, I mean the cinematography is still brilliant in the
[1:53:14] editing, like you say, where see all the quick cuts in the
[1:53:17] handheld camera work. It feels like absolute carnage.
[1:53:20] But it's always really clear what's going on as well.
[1:53:22] Just great filmmaking for me. And there's at least two Wilhelm
[1:53:26] screams in there. Obviously, obviously.
[1:53:29] Again, it's the realism of it. I love the fact that there's
[1:53:32] barely any room to move. So you don't have any of that
[1:53:34] kind of OTT, fancy sort choreography.
[1:53:37] It's literally just hacking and slashing away.
[1:53:39] It's whoever's near to you. I love seeing Stephen get stuck
[1:53:43] in there. Higgins the assistant surgeon.
[1:53:45] I love that little touch where he sticks his finger in the
[1:53:47] cannon trigger to stop going off.
[1:53:49] Lethal weapon, isn't it? Looks like that, and I love that
[1:53:53] bit with Blakeney when the ships are so close and they're in this
[1:53:56] battle to be the first to get the cannons ready to fire and
[1:53:59] they're right up against each other.
[1:54:01] Yeah, I love that bit as well. And then it's the den.
[1:54:04] You Mon. After it's all done pulling, the
[1:54:07] takes command of the Acuron to take it back to port.
[1:54:09] But then we find out the captain of the Acuron is still alive.
[1:54:12] Shock aura and the surprise is back in pursuit to the streams
[1:54:15] of one final duet from Jack and Steve.
[1:54:19] A good way to wrap things up. I think it is.
[1:54:21] I think it's like the Lord Nelson scene all over again.
[1:54:23] So it's the lads getting together, having a German
[1:54:26] session. German session.
[1:54:28] German session, he will go. This is why people assumed there
[1:54:31] was going to be a sequel, because it's right.
[1:54:33] Off we go again, next mission, let's catch them.
[1:54:36] But it's because these who were so good together, you do want to
[1:54:38] see them again. And I think ending it like this,
[1:54:41] I think it got people so off. So there's going to be another
[1:54:44] one of these. Yeah, I guess the point is that
[1:54:46] the adventure never ends for these guys.
[1:54:48] And that's fine, but I don't feel massively satisfied by the
[1:54:51] way it ends, to be honest. I mean, if it was a new mission,
[1:54:54] they're getting you waters and they're like, yeah, we go again,
[1:54:56] get the fiddle out, great, But with them still feeling the
[1:55:00] Acuron, get your fiddle out. There's still way the word, the
[1:55:02] start. It's just feeling the story
[1:55:04] isn't finished for me. Right, OK.
[1:55:06] Is this just their lives from now on, chasing the ship
[1:55:08] forever? The final shot's really cool,
[1:55:10] though, That white shot of the surprise.
[1:55:11] Turning it just on the horizon. Brilliant now.
[1:55:14] I think it's a wonderful way to end the film and I was
[1:55:16] completely satisfied by it. There's so many subtle movements
[1:55:20] in this in that I would have loved more from the French
[1:55:23] captain. He's in remorse.
[1:55:25] He's he hands it over and he's just like looking down.
[1:55:27] He's like, oh, for fuck's sake, that's definitely, he's got no
[1:55:30] blood in his hands. There's nothing you can
[1:55:32] definitely tell he's just handing, that's all over.
[1:55:34] But it's the way that the change the instruments that really hit
[1:55:38] home with me is that they're not following the score anymore.
[1:55:42] And Steven actually picks the cello up and plays it like a
[1:55:45] bass. And he's like, and then they
[1:55:47] play the violin and he plays it like a guitar and they're
[1:55:49] playing it in a different way. And they're just like they
[1:55:52] understand each other, very nice.
[1:55:54] And they're not sticking to the rules anymore.
[1:55:56] The German. Yeah, well, you know the best
[1:55:59] way to have you done it, but it's just this real
[1:56:03] understanding. And I got that because these are
[1:56:05] classical instruments and to turn them into something new.
[1:56:08] And for me it was like this story's going on to something
[1:56:11] else and they understand each other.
[1:56:12] And I felt really safe at the end of the film.
[1:56:15] And for me, that was incredibly satisfying and a really, really
[1:56:18] good way to end the film. And that music got the plane at
[1:56:20] the end. That's baccarini's String
[1:56:23] quintet in C major. And the uses this piece because
[1:56:26] it gets mentioned by the characters in one of the novels,
[1:56:28] the third one which is called HMS Surprise.
[1:56:32] Yeah, always going back the novels.
[1:56:33] Yeah, I agree, Wesley. I also like how the stars from
[1:56:35] their instruments like guitars and how they're In Sync.
[1:56:37] Yeah. And finally, Jax Barnett pays
[1:56:40] off. He looks like David seen Opens
[1:56:41] with Spinal Tap on that guitar. Just want big bottoms and then
[1:56:45] on the way. And with that final jamming
[1:56:49] session, the chase continues. The story might not be done, but
[1:56:52] the film is. Absolutely, and I love that you
[1:56:56] can play that in your head long after the credits rule reception
[1:57:03] under Ward. An epic behind the scenes story
[1:57:08] and after it was all done, Master and Commander released on
[1:57:11] the 14th of November 2003. How do they do?
[1:57:15] Well, our residents start Station Midshipman Matt has the
[1:57:18] info. So let's fly Matt.
[1:57:21] Let's fly. He will go.
[1:57:23] So, on a budget of $150 million, Master and Commander grossed
[1:57:28] $211.6 million. On release, it was nominated for
[1:57:32] 10 Oscars, as we've talked about, winning two, which was
[1:57:35] Richard King for Best Sound Design and Russell Boyd for Best
[1:57:38] Cinematography. And the other eight, as you
[1:57:41] guess, all run by Lord of the Rings.
[1:57:43] Return of the King. Wow.
[1:57:45] Yeah, the studio had talked about sequels, but those plans
[1:57:47] were scrapped with a disappointing box office return.
[1:57:51] And As for the critics, Roger Ebert, how did he rate Master
[1:57:54] and Commander do we think? I would say full marks me.
[1:57:57] Yeah, I reckon this would be something he really loved.
[1:58:00] You're right. It was the full walk from
[1:58:02] Admiral Raj. 4 stars out of four.
[1:58:04] And he said it recreates the world of the British Navy circa
[1:58:07] 1805 with such detail and intensity that the sea battles
[1:58:11] become stages for personality and character.
[1:58:13] It achieves the epic without losing sight of the human.
[1:58:17] He said everything we've said and it's taken us three hours.
[1:58:21] That's why he's the most famous critic of the last 50 years and.
[1:58:24] He probably got paid more than us as well.
[1:58:25] Exactly. Christopher Hitchens, though,
[1:58:27] gave a very mixed review. He said the action lives up to
[1:58:30] its fictional and actual inspiration.
[1:58:33] However, any cinematic adaptation of O'Brien must stand
[1:58:36] afore by its success in representing Doctor Stephen
[1:58:38] Maturin on this. The film doesn't even fall, let
[1:58:41] alone stand. It skips the whole project.
[1:58:45] Wow. OK.
[1:58:46] He's referring, I think, to the film, not going into the fact,
[1:58:49] like we talked about, that Stephen's also a spy for
[1:58:51] England. Right, OK.
[1:58:52] I'm not sure there's time for that though.
[1:58:54] There's no space. For that was not time.
[1:58:55] For that not at all. In the sequels they were doing
[1:58:58] that, I would imagine. Absolutely.
[1:58:59] That's where I think the sequels would have gone, yeah.
[1:59:01] Yeah, to end this film on that last line is like, the bird is
[1:59:04] flightless. It's not going anywhere.
[1:59:06] Yeah, like that's enough. And writing in the San Francisco
[1:59:09] Chronicle, Mick LaSalle said the friendship of the Captain and
[1:59:13] the Doctor seems schematic, as if all the positive creates.
[1:59:16] An individual could have were divided equally between these
[1:59:18] two guys. The interaction is reminiscent
[1:59:21] of the Star Trek characters four or five movies down the line.
[1:59:25] Oh, wow. They just slap in the face for
[1:59:27] you. Star Trek 5, anything but five.
[1:59:31] It's definitely not as bad as that.
[1:59:33] I'll take your word for it. Shutting that punches got in the
[1:59:35] face in Star Trek Five. Wow.
[1:59:37] Wow. I'm in.
[1:59:38] Yeah, I'm watching that tonight. Yeah, there is maybe one
[1:59:42] argument too many between Stephen and Jack, but the film
[1:59:45] recovers from it for me. Oh, definitely, yeah.
[1:59:48] Absolutely. That's not a barometer to judge
[1:59:50] the film. Missed the point there I think.
[1:59:52] And then today on Rotten Tomatoes, Master and Commander
[1:59:54] has a critics approval rating of 85% and 80% from audiences, and
[2:00:00] on IMDb it currently sits with a rating of 7.5 out of 10.
[2:00:04] Oh, big. It is well thought of today,
[2:00:06] still popular I think really is. So the response to Master and
[2:00:10] Commander was mixed on its release.
[2:00:11] A bit of a box office flop, but some success at the Oscars.
[2:00:15] Fairly popular with critics and over time the film has grown in
[2:00:18] stature and seems to have found an audience in recent years.
[2:00:21] Yeah, definitely has, yeah. It's one of those house legs.
[2:00:24] See legs. See Legs, Sequels, and
[2:00:31] Influence. Sequels to Master and Commander
[2:00:35] were considered, but like we mentioned, those box office
[2:00:38] returns led to the studio holding any plans in their
[2:00:41] tracks. Would you like to have seen a
[2:00:43] sequel? I think I would have to see
[2:00:45] where else that could have taken these characters.
[2:00:48] I don't think so, no. I'm I'm very, very happy with
[2:00:51] how this ends. I mean, it just has such a level
[2:00:54] of detail that I don't know that could do it again.
[2:00:57] It's would have been detriment of the first film and it would
[2:01:00] have just maybe seemed a little bit tired.
[2:01:02] Right. Yeah, there are 20 books in the
[2:01:04] Aubrey Mature and series with plenty of source material to get
[2:01:07] into. Yeah, the lead characters are
[2:01:08] good. I mean, it could be maybe a
[2:01:10] couple or a trilogy. I'd have been up for that if it,
[2:01:12] like tied itself up at the end. Yeah, but I think it would have
[2:01:15] had to have believed it would be a trilogy like Lord of the Rings
[2:01:19] had to be. I don't think you can get this
[2:01:21] kind of drive back to a sequel. I agree you need to have an
[2:01:26] endpoint, don't you? Yeah, I think this endpoint is
[2:01:28] exactly where it needs to be. Well, there was a push for
[2:01:31] sequel in 2010. There seemed to be a lot of
[2:01:33] traction online and fans on social media trying to get the
[2:01:37] point across that a sequel should be made and Russell Crowe
[2:01:39] responded to this on Twitter and he said if you want a Master and
[2:01:42] Commander sequel, I suggest you e-mail Tom Rothman at Fox and
[2:01:46] let him know your thoughts. Oh, they are.
[2:01:48] Yeah, I bet Rothman was loving that.
[2:01:50] Inundated with emails from furious Master and Commander
[2:01:53] fans. Nothing has came of the sequel
[2:01:56] talk, though, Peter Weir later said.
[2:01:58] I tend to like to do one film. It was a fascinating experience,
[2:02:02] but do I need to do it again? I don't think so.
[2:02:05] No, I don't think Peter has ever made a sequel as he No, he
[2:02:07] doesn't think that's his style at all.
[2:02:09] Fair enough. So it looks like that's that.
[2:02:12] How about the film's legacy, though?
[2:02:13] Did it have an influence? I think it's legacy is the fact
[2:02:16] that in a way it has no legacy, but people wanted to have one.
[2:02:20] Which is why we do get that talk of or if this had had a sequel,
[2:02:24] can we get a sequel? You know, we've got nine Pirates
[2:02:27] of the Caribbean films, or however many of the were, and we
[2:02:29] didn't get one sequel to this. So in that sense, I think it
[2:02:32] still feels underappreciated and it feels like it was the last of
[2:02:36] its kind, like an adventure film, but more serious, aimed at
[2:02:40] adults and not at a younger audience.
[2:02:42] Yeah. And that's how I think it's seen
[2:02:44] to do something quite distinctive that probably should
[2:02:47] have had more of an impact. And if it has an influence, I
[2:02:50] don't know if I'd say it directly, but I would group it
[2:02:53] in with something like Dunkirk or even if you rewrote stuff
[2:02:57] that was done practically films that went no, we're going to do
[2:03:00] this as practically in camera as much as we can, and that's where
[2:03:05] I kind of group this. Yeah, I mean, I think you're
[2:03:08] right. I don't think the film was big
[2:03:09] enough to have much of an influence, unfortunately.
[2:03:12] It's definitely far more of an audience over the years,
[2:03:14] undeservedly saw because it does lots of things well.
[2:03:16] So I think hopefully its influence might be yet to come
[2:03:19] on film makers. I think firstly it's a very high
[2:03:22] quality piece of historical fiction.
[2:03:24] Like I said, historians have praised its accuracy and the HMS
[2:03:27] Victory exhibition in Portsmouth apparently has a film showing
[2:03:29] footage of the battle scenes from Master and Commander.
[2:03:32] So they think it's realistic, right?
[2:03:34] Also, I've not read the novels but I've really seen an
[2:03:36] adaptation that fans of the source material praised so
[2:03:39] highly. The fans of the books generally
[2:03:41] think we are did a great job. So any film maker could do a lot
[2:03:44] worse than looking Master and Commander for inspiration in how
[2:03:46] to adapt the novel. Yeah, I think the only sad thing
[2:03:49] is that Patrick O'Brien passed away in 2000, so never got to
[2:03:52] see the world he created realized on the big screen,
[2:03:54] unfortunately. It's really OK.
[2:03:56] Yeah, it's a shame. But yeah, a lot of lyrics to be
[2:03:58] had from the filmmaking here. I think hopefully that will
[2:04:01] happen at some point. Yeah, I mean, I totally agree.
[2:04:03] I think there's there's a lot to take from this and how to just
[2:04:06] believe in a project and not care about how much it's going
[2:04:09] to make or care about what the audience is going to be.
[2:04:13] A lot of films now are just based on how much money it's
[2:04:17] going to make. Shall we do with this?
[2:04:19] Because it's popular and it was trouts that the box office
[2:04:23] because of Return of the King and because of I.
[2:04:25] Didn't help you. Didn't help at all.
[2:04:27] But again, I'm just really happy that I've seen this film as it
[2:04:31] is. And there isn't sequels and it
[2:04:32] hasn't been diluted in any sense.
[2:04:35] That's exactly what people need to say from a cinematic point of
[2:04:38] view. We're not turning this into a
[2:04:40] franchise. It is what it is.
[2:04:42] The books are the franchise. Yeah, so there is a franchise
[2:04:45] there. If you want to delve into it, go
[2:04:47] and read the books. If you want to see it on the big
[2:04:49] screen, this is all you need. No sequels to Master and
[2:04:52] Commander then, despite there seeming to be public interest in
[2:04:55] one, and the film probably wasn't a big enough hit to
[2:04:57] impact Hollywood generally. But we think there's still a lot
[2:05:00] to be taken from Peter Weir's film.
[2:05:02] There's so much to be taken from it.
[2:05:04] Yeah, it's such an accomplished piece of work.
[2:05:10] All the right movies ranking. And that is the story of Master
[2:05:15] and Commander. We're not done just yet, though.
[2:05:18] Bizarre. Now it's time for all summaries
[2:05:22] where we rate the film out of 10.
[2:05:24] Mark your choice. Would you want to kick us off
[2:05:26] your summary and score for Master and Commander, please?
[2:05:29] Yeah, absolutely. It's so easy to tell why people
[2:05:33] like, adore this film and get devoted to it because that
[2:05:36] historical accuracy and the fidelity to it is so remarkable.
[2:05:41] I can't do anything But prayers paid away for taking this source
[2:05:44] material and going that's it, that's the world.
[2:05:47] I'm not putting anything in there to placate a contemporary
[2:05:50] audience who wants maybe more jokes or the want a young
[2:05:53] romance story in there. You want that.
[2:05:56] You've got Pirates of the Caribbean, you're going to get
[2:05:57] that in that film. Instead.
[2:05:59] He nails the story, he nails the details, he nails the world
[2:06:03] building with such attention to the craft behind it.
[2:06:06] The only thing that stops this being an absolute all timer for
[2:06:09] me is that I would have liked a bit more of an emotional punch
[2:06:12] at the end in some way, yeah. But having said that, I really
[2:06:17] do love that old fashioned vibe that I said at the top that this
[2:06:19] has. It does feel timeless.
[2:06:21] I love Paul Bettany in particular.
[2:06:23] I'm so glad this kind of film exists and he did make it the
[2:06:27] way he absolutely wanted it to and like say I get why people
[2:06:30] adore it. I'm just not quite there with
[2:06:32] it, but I'm still giving it a nine out of 10.
[2:06:35] Big score, so well, yeah. As I've said, I hadn't seen this
[2:06:39] film since it was released at the cinema, so over 20 years I
[2:06:42] was looking forward to watching it again as I knew lots of
[2:06:44] people do love it and I wasn't disappointed.
[2:06:47] A simple story that's told really effectively to strongly.
[2:06:50] Performances from Russell Crowe and Paul Bethany.
[2:06:52] Brilliant cinematography, stunning sound design, costume
[2:06:55] design, production design, visual effects, exceptional
[2:06:58] filmmaking all round really. And the person pulling all that
[2:07:01] together is Peter Weir. He clearly had a vision from
[2:07:04] reading the books that he wanted to realize on the screen and
[2:07:07] watching the film. I think he seems to have
[2:07:09] captured that authenticity. It's clearly something he was
[2:07:12] going for and it is authentic. A piece of period set cinema as
[2:07:16] you're going to see. That alone makes it worth
[2:07:18] watching. Yeah, but he makes it engaging
[2:07:20] as well and we care what's going on.
[2:07:22] I would say the tone is a touch too relentlessly serious for me.
[2:07:26] I love the groundedness, but they are very few levity breaks
[2:07:29] and when they do come, let that weevils gag.
[2:07:31] I'd rather they didn't. Fair.
[2:07:33] Enough. The funniest thing about the
[2:07:35] film is Russell Crowe's hair, which I might be wrong.
[2:07:38] I'm fairly sure that's not meant to be funny.
[2:07:40] No. It's a film that I like rather
[2:07:42] than love, but I respected a hell of a lot and in total it
[2:07:46] gets 8.5 out of 10 for me. Oh.
[2:07:49] OK, and Westy to finish yourself your summary and score for
[2:07:52] Master and Commander, please. Yeah, I mean, I'm very similar
[2:07:55] and I think it's a mix of both of your opinions that is really
[2:07:59] resonated with me when I watched it.
[2:08:01] And it is a film that I really respect.
[2:08:04] It's not a film that I went, Oh well, this is incredible and I
[2:08:07] want everyone to check it out. It feels like I want to watch it
[2:08:09] by myself and I got a lot from that.
[2:08:11] That's good. And it's not one that I want to
[2:08:13] shout about. And that's weird because I don't
[2:08:15] know why I don't really want to put people on the way because I
[2:08:17] don't want people to turn around and say I didn't like it,
[2:08:19] because of the seriousness, because of the ground in this,
[2:08:21] because of the authenticity. People will be turned off by
[2:08:24] that. That's not something that turns
[2:08:26] me off in cinema. That's something that really
[2:08:28] resonates with me and something that I am really, really engaged
[2:08:31] in. And I've seen a lot of films and
[2:08:35] there's a lot that I don't like. There's a lot that I love and
[2:08:37] there's a lot that I really appreciate and this goes in the
[2:08:40] appreciate category, and it is just wonderfully realized.
[2:08:45] It's a brilliantly rounded film and I appreciate the people love
[2:08:48] this film and I love the people love this film.
[2:08:50] I love that as well. And I will at some point we'll
[2:08:53] give this A10. I will catch up with you guys
[2:08:56] who love this film, I promise. Right now it's a solid 8.5 for
[2:09:01] me. Wonderful.
[2:09:02] So now we're setting sail for the yard was formerly known as
[2:09:05] Twitter, now X, to see what our followers think of Master and
[2:09:08] Commander. All right.
[2:09:09] OK. So John O'Brien, not sure if
[2:09:12] that's any relation to Patrick O'Brien at Obi Orbit, said glad
[2:09:17] this was voted for the podcast. 10 out of 10 for me.
[2:09:20] One of my favourites. Love the cast scenery, time
[2:09:23] setting, which they managed to get the next couple of movies
[2:09:26] made. I bet he does.
[2:09:28] If you wanted to write to the books, Bellamy at Bellamy, not
[2:09:34] him, said 10. It's just a great film.
[2:09:37] Gorgeous lookout and a superb cast.
[2:09:39] Came out with the cinema looking forward to the sequel.
[2:09:41] That never happened. There's a theme here, isn't
[2:09:44] there? Yeah.
[2:09:45] There is Is this not good enough for you people?
[2:09:49] It's wonderful. Just enjoy it.
[2:09:50] Watch it twice. There was a few people saying
[2:09:52] they wanted to see you turn into a Netflix series.
[2:09:55] I mean, that would be good. I mean, yeah, yeah.
[2:09:57] But I could see that have to be executive producer and be on top
[2:10:00] with it. And whether he's capable of
[2:10:01] doing that, whether he cares about that, I don't know.
[2:10:03] Yeah, I don't know. Either and one of our patrons,
[2:10:06] Will, Crawford said. I have and always will love this
[2:10:09] movie. When I first saw it, I thought
[2:10:11] it would be stale at some points, but was absolutely
[2:10:14] enthralled. To this day, I watched Master
[2:10:16] and Commander at least twice a year and rank it in my top 10
[2:10:19] military films, 10 out of 10. OK.
[2:10:23] Will Crawford and William beat the quarters.
[2:10:28] It's going to love that. It's going to be so true.
[2:10:32] And all together, our followers rated the film as What do you
[2:10:35] Think out of 10? That sounds really positive, so
[2:10:39] I'm going to go A9. It's going to be a high one.
[2:10:41] I would say definitely 9 at least.
[2:10:43] It was a touch lower 8.58.10. OK.
[2:10:46] All right. All right.
[2:10:48] So that gives Master and Commander 34.5 out of 40 in
[2:10:51] total did OK for itself. Yeah.
[2:10:54] Very much. And that's it.
[2:10:56] On Master and Commander. We hope you've enjoyed it and
[2:10:59] you're not thinking you don't have time for our damned
[2:11:00] hobbies. I'll grab a cannonball and
[2:11:04] disappear. Which I think you have
[2:11:07] disappeared. You're sitting in the pitch
[2:11:08] black. What's going on?
[2:11:09] My natural habitat mate. That's the way I roll.
[2:11:15] Next time, sometimes when you want to come clean, you have to
[2:11:17] play dirty, and Matt Westy and Luke are doing just that with
[2:11:21] Benny Blanco from the Bronx. As they talk, Carly goes where?
[2:11:24] Carlito. Yeah, just for Luke's
[2:11:26] impressions. That's.
[2:11:28] Gonna be the Luke. Show that one, yeah.
[2:11:30] Definitely. I'm looking forward to it.
[2:11:31] It's. Gonna be good, yeah.
[2:11:33] Well, in the meantime, to find out more about becoming a
[2:11:35] patron, supporting what we do, and accessing our archive and
[2:11:38] bonus episode, please visit patreon.com/all the Right Movies
[2:11:42] or click the subscribe link on Apple Podcasts.
[2:11:45] Yes, please do. Please rate and review our Snap
[2:11:47] podcast on Spotify and all of your other podcast platforms as
[2:11:51] well, as long as it's five stars.
[2:11:52] Obviously. Why not?
[2:11:54] Socially? You can keep up with all the
[2:11:55] right movies on Twitter now X where we are at 80 right Movies.
[2:11:59] We post threads on there that tell the stories behind classic
[2:12:02] films. Everything that we post has been
[2:12:04] said by somebody involved in the production or it comes from
[2:12:06] three separate sources, the same as the research on our podcast,
[2:12:10] so you should check that right out.
[2:12:11] Definitely. You can find us on YouTube at
[2:12:14] youtube.com/all the right movies on Instagram and threads.
[2:12:17] We are at all the under score right movies on Blue Sky.
[2:12:20] We are at all the Right movies.com.
[2:12:22] We have a Facebook movie group which has lots of chat in there,
[2:12:25] so check that out. Does, yeah, get involved.
[2:12:28] Yeah, yeah. And we have a website full of
[2:12:30] great features at all the right movies.com I.
[2:12:33] Don't know how you do. We're all off now to commit our
[2:12:35] bodies to the deep, to be turned into corruption.
[2:12:39] Yes, come back for calling. It was way and well done, lads.
[2:12:42] Extra rational grog for both of you.
[2:12:44] You'll have mine as well. Waters down, Roma, can't we?

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