First scene Billy Boyd was in: “Look, it’s Pippin!!!”
Had never read the books. Never even heard of them, in fact, except what I’ve seen mentioned in this thread. I feel that there wasn’t much in the way of plot - “Chase ship. Fight. Chase ship. Unexpected setback. Fight. Unexpected setback. Chase ship.” But I liked it anyway. I liked the characterization and the historical accuracy (at least Gunslinger says it’s accurate, I wouldn’t know - naval history is not my forte, but I appreciate accuracy wherever I can find it even if I can’t personally vouch for it). It was highly enjoyable. I like tall ships.
The scene with the Frenchman shouting at them amused me because I kept expecting them to be saying “SURRENDER NOW, YOU SILLY ENGLISH SEE-A-MEN, OR WE WILL BLOW OUR NOSES AT YOU!” I nudged Gun in the side and mimed the silly way the Monty Python and the Holy Grail Frenchman had slapped his hands on the castle wall.
Heh. “Capitan Jacque! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries! I fart in your general direction!”
I’m going to see M&C tomorrow and I am soooo excited. I’m glad it’s getting good reviews, and I am fully prepared to adore it.
Heh. “Capitan Jacque! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries! I fart in your general direction!”
I’m going to see M&C tomorrow and I am soooo excited. I’m glad it’s getting good reviews, and I am fully prepared to adore it.
My father’s a big O’Brien fan, so Mum and I took him to see the movie yesterday. While Dad muttered about them combining books (he’s a curmedgeon – he has to have something to complain about or he’s miserable!), we all thoroughly enjoyed the movie. The relationship between the captain and the doctor works well, and they only tidy up the realities of life a bit for the screen. For those of you who are worried about Maturin, don’t. He’s not too handsome for the part, and I swear he sports one of the worse haircuts I’ve seen on screen, aka the haircut you’d expect a man with short hair to have after months at sea.
I even liked the ending. Jodi, have fun. It’s a hell of a ride of a movie!
I had a question after seeing the movie, maybe some of you naval history buffs could help out. I’ll do the spoiler thingy because it seems like a lot of people still haven’t seen the movie:
The young man who lost part of his arm…in real life, would such an injury have ended a naval career? Obviously he was training to be an officer, so he wouldn’t necessarily need two hands to do his job (unlike an “ablebodied seaman”) but he was also very young. We’ve all seen Hollywood movies with one armed, one legged and one eyed pirate captains, but what would have been the situation in the British Navy at that time…would that kid have continued on?
Some more thoughts on the movie I didn’t add last night…I don’t know about anyone else but as they went into the climatic battle I was ready to grab a cutlass and pistols and join right in, that’s how into the movie I was by that point. I found it utterly absorbing.
Needless to say the other people I was with including Mrs. Lagomorph did not feel the same way…she said something about
wanting to jump overboard with a cannonball like whatshisname
Yes, but wasn’t he older when he got injured? Nelson was valuable to the Navy at that point because of his leadership and tactical ability. The situation in the movie is different because of the age of the person involved, no?
A wonderful, wonderful movie.
The classical piece used substantially throughout the movie is the “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis” by Vaughan Williams.
If you’re thinking of the sequence I think you are, then it was the first movement of J.S. Bach’s 1st suite for solo cello in G major. Not sure whose recording, but it was a good one.
One strange thing - I heard many people in the theater around me saying they had read that Russell Crowe learned the violin for this movie, but clearly he did not. Is he/the studio actually making that claim? One look at his bowing, and it’s easy to see it’s overdubbed badly.
I loved the movie. It was exciting, fun, and surprisingly beautiful. Whoever did the sound should definitely win an Oscar.
I noticed this too, then one review that I read said that Crowe had actually done the violin playing. Maybe they told him they used his playing, then overdubbed someone else?
When the Discovery Channel was whoring* for Master & Commander last week, on one of the shows there was a segment that talked about Russell Crowe learning violin. He had a violin with the silver “fret” strips that they sometimes put on for beginners and was happily sawing away.
They did not, however, include the SOUND of his playing in that segment.
He may have learned some basic violin moves, but I’d be VERY surprised if he learned enough to play more than basic music.
*I.e., devoting 2 or 3 evenings before the film opened to showing anything they could think of that related to the movie, and shoving in bits of the movie to illustrate their show. I feel like I’ve seen most of the movie already.
On an HBO special for the movie, they said he learned to playt it for the movie too,
To be honest, when he played it on the special, he did pretty well.
Although it’s amusing to think so, I doubt Crowe is actually that dumb. He did learn to play the violin as part of his preparation for the role, which he talks about here:
I read somewhere else, unfortunately I don’t remember where, that he found listening to his own playing in those scenes rather painful, so I’m pretty sure he knew they’d be overdubbed.
He may have learned to play in some fashion. I was just surprised to hear fuss about it in the media and then have it be so clear on screen that he was not playing what I was hearing. No insult implied to Crowe’s talents - I happen to think he’s great. But when someone says they learned to play an instrument for a film, I expect to hear them play, just as I expect to see them on screen doing stunts if they say they did them themselves.
On a different topic, one of my favorite things about the movie was how much it made me glad I was never a sailor on a 19th century warship.
I heard the sound designer intervied on NPR the other day. He described driving through the mojave desert with a mini ship rigging in the back of a pickup truck to capture the sound of the wind. All I could think was, “cool job.”
Question for anyone who has seen the movie: during the climatic battle Capt. Jack has a brief verbal exchange with a crewman from the other vessel
in what I think was the demolished Captain’s quarters on the French vessel.
Can anyone tell me what was said? I was sitting in the second to last row of a packed theater with poor sound, and I don’t speak French. I couldn’t make out what they said. Anyone?
LL, when Jack was on deck and the French guy tried to stab him, he asked where the captain was. The French sailor replied “L’infirmerie” (infirmary, if you couldn’t tell.) Jack goes down there and finds the captain apparently dead. The doctor introduces himself in English, but he says something like “I am Docteur Delavigne” very rapidly, in a strong French accent. He goes on to say the captain asked him to give Jack his saber, and he hands the saber to Jack. I didn’t hear any French spoken in that exchange.
Of course we find out later that it wasn’t the doctor at all, but the captain of the Acheron POSING as the doctor!
