Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World
Starring: Russell Crowe,
Paul Bettany, Max Pirkis
Director: Peter Weir
Category: IIA
The most surprising thing about Peter Weir's foray into the seafaring epic is just how different it is to all the films that have come before. Get the likes of Errol Flynn out of your mind, for starters. Weir presents a stunningly realistic version of life on the high seas, but perhaps his greatest achievement is to have made the whole thing so intimate - about as close as you can come to copping a face full of sea spray without leaving terra firma.
As a director whose reputation has been built mainly on his explorations of men under pressure, Weir is on familiar ground in this film set during the Napoleonic wars.
