Back to the ‘far side of the world’

Way back in 1600, the Spanish merchant galleon, the San Diego was hastily converted here in Manila into a battle ship to engage Dutch naval forces off Nasugbu Bay. In the battle that ensued, the Dutch soundly defeated the Spanish crew and sank the San Diego. (A French-led exploration team located the San Diego in the early 1990’s, and the treasure trove they found was hailed as one of the past century’s greatest archaelogical finds.)

As a resident of Nasugbu, Batangas, I have always been fascinated by the sinking of the San Diego. I’ve often wondered how the battle between the two ships’ crews ensued. I’ve often tried to imagine how the canons must have boomed, how the crew on both sides must have panicked and fought, and how many were tragically killed.

Watching the latest Russell Crowe starrer Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World directed by three-time Oscar nominee Peter Weir (Galipoli, Dead Poets Society), I finally got a good idea of how a naval battle was fought in those olden times.

Based on Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin novels which The New York Times’ Richard Snow had described as one of "the best historical novels ever written," the film is set in April 1805 during Napoleon’s heydey. The film takes us to the open seas to Brazil where the British ship H.M.S. Surprise helmed by Capt. Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) is chasing the French ship Acheron. Ironically, the Surprise is the one taken by surprise when its crew discovers that their ship has become the hunted rather than the hunter. Another surprise is that their nemesis is a finely-crafted, better-equipped battleship. After an initial routing, Capt. Aubrey must take the risk of waging a herculean battle.

This film’s superb production design will make you feel like you are at sea, tossed by the waves as much as by your fears that the enemy can sink your ship anytime. You can almost feel the sturdy ropes, the billowing sails, the wooden mast head or the planks onboard, or almost feel soaked by the splashes of the salty seawater or a raging storm that has been spectacularly rendered. The attention to details is obvious, and Peter Weir revealed as much when he had said, "I surrounded myself with artifacts of the period as I would on the script – sword, belt-buckle, maps, hoping to draw down the muse. Music was another aid as I groped in the dark, trying to find my way back in time." The director had taken his passion for authenticy further by specifically seeking out 18th-century looking faces for the crew members.

This ability to transport you soundly to a bygone era and convince you that you’re actually there is one good reason to watch Master and Commander. If you think about it, battle scenes in recent films have mostly been on land (Lord of the Rings, Gladiator) or air (Pearl Harbor). But naval battles in the open seas? The Matthew McConaughey starrer U-571 set in World War II is the last exciting one that comes to mind. In Master and Commander, you’ll find yourself in the thick of the billowing smoke and cannonade in the sea.

What also makes this film different is that it features one-on-one naval combat (with the ships trading volleys of cannon fire and the crew members fighting by hand or by sword) so that you can vividly see how much effort and bravery it took for a ship’s crew to fight to the finish. For more than fighting battles, simply staying put at sea – where all the work was done manually in those days – boiled down to a test of wills.

The film also helps you get a good feel of how life must have been like for sailors in those days. Life onboard certainly wasn’t easy without the modern amenities we take for granted. The movie, for one, features several bloody scenes including surgeries performed onboard, so you just have to grit your teeth while watching them – just as the sailors surely did when they underwent operations without the benefit of general anesthesia.

Another good reason to watch this film is the fine performance of the cast led by Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany (who plays the surgeon and naturalist Dr. Stephen Maturin) and 13-year-old Max Pirkis (who plays midshipman Lord Blakeney, a naval apprentice). Pirkis’ maturity, bravery and earnestness belie his character’s youth. His luminous screen presence reminds one of the young Mark Lester, and chances are Pirkis’ performance here will do for him what The Sixth Sense did for Haley Joel Osment (that is, if Pirkis chooses to pursue acting).

Crowe’s Capt. Aubrey possesses an innate nobility, authority like his Maximus character like Crow’s in Gladiator, although the latter elicits more empathy than Capt. Aubrey. Capt. Aubrey, however, is as skilled a tactician as Maximus, and it is his maneuvering against the enemy at sea that makes you root for him.

Although we get to know Capt. Aubrey as a multi-faceted man who also loves reading and playing the violin, somehow Master and Commander focuses much more on the chase and the action that ensues, such that we the audience do not feel as involved with him here as we had been with Maximus in Gladiator.

Another plus – the film’s soundtrack of classical music which includes Bach and Mozart pieces lends it a certain timelessness. Likewise, the exotic locations of the Galapagos Island and Baja, Mexico and Dr. Maturin and Lord Blakeney’s avid observations of flora and fauna also give us a sense of how the early seafarers must have felt while reaching and beholding "the far side of the world."

In sum, Master and Commander is a film that is definitely a cut above the ordinary with its superb technical and production details. Yet, it falls just a notch short of being "up there" with film greats. Maybe it’s because although we do feel for the lead characters’ predicament, by movie’s end we wish we had gotten to know more about them; although Peter Weir has not buried his characters under the heart-pounding adventure, they nonetheless remain subservient to it rather than the other way around. Master and Commander may not be the kind of movie you might want to watch over and over again like your favorite classics, but it’s definitely the kind that will hold your attention while it’s playing on the screen.