 
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
|
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
Is a very good film when it doesnīt not try try to be " new time Hollywoodian ", it is a calm, quiet, beautifully photographed picture. From the man who created another film that is quite strange but somehow fascinating " Pic-Nic at hanging Rock " and of course the cult " Witness " who even did fit in the so wooden & over acting Mr. Ford. If you can see & read between the lines, and forget the intempestive canon shots, it is a most agreable film, following the theme of John Huston, but with a good actor not in the way of the miscast Mr. Peck, called Mr. Crowe.
Good shot.
Follow Ups:
and Peter Weir's style in general, then check out his much earlier war movie "Gallipoli". I use the term "war" loosely because it's not like most war movies (no blood and guts). Here in Oz it is a classic for reasons that non-Australians won't fully grasp (however, that doesn't mean you won't enjoy it). I love its style - if you love texture, colour, absence of artifice, and "honesty" in film-making, I guarantee you'll like this movie.Doug (big Peter Weir fan)
PS. It's funny you should mention Master and Commander. I just got back from the video store a couple of hours ago with a copy!
...that in places fall on predictability and even chiche. That said, I do like it, even if it is not the greatest film ever - it has the strong human element, human tone and touch.Its use of adagio Albinoni was mesmerizing, albeing too straighforward - the sharp contrast between death and beautiful, almost unreally so, music was eerie, but so much abused in films it is almost sad.
Without any questions a recommended film, even if with some faults.
I just order it, even I saw the name...Gibson...Sometimes you have to be brave..And he was young, back then...Thanks for the recommendation!PS: Much fun with M & C !
Overall I liked it. It steered clear of triteness and cliche, although it did borrow a few tricks from Saving Private Ryan (ughhhh!) that I found irritating. I liked the way it avoided the current Hollywood obsession with blood and guts.I also thought the plot was a bit weak, but that's what happens when a director also writes the script!
Cheers. Doug
I WAS a bit wound up, generally, with my last post - needed to edit it, and sent it by mistake when rushing out to do that Dad's taxi bit, for an impatient fils, 'kay! :-). Then I felt constrained to delete it after I had re-read it.First up I am an inveterate follower and devourer of books and novels of the Napoleonic era, particularly but not exclusively naval history AND the Peninsula campaign with reference to 'the Rifles' and 'the Lightbobs'. So,.... I had a lot of the background and knew both the stories here combined, so for me it was easier.
I really enjoyed the film, and find much of the commentary here and more widely reflective of deep ignorance. So there. I don't get to go to the movies much anyway, and this was a treat.
For Patrick particularly, go search under my handle at Central under Rifles. I actually served a few months at the Greenjackets depot!
I have been devouring naval novels, and naval and gun history, for a long time and got on to Patrick O'Brien quite late. I can probably bore you all to death about technological change and artillery in any context let alone Naval or 19c. Mil. History is ONE of my hobbies outside muisc and audio, along with cooking, literature, systems/ic thinking etc etc.
PO's works are IMO a substantial step-up in characterisation and revelation of people's lives and attitudes way back then from mnay others including famed 19c novellists, the ch'n is a lot more near to the bone than Austen for eg. I would put them in the top-end literature class, as good as Tim Winton's stuff.
[I think bernard Cornwell's stuff is also bettr thean many suppose, not just his Sharpe series. ]
I think M&C IS flawed, by putting two stories together at least, but I did find that I enjoyed it and have watched it since, our primitive HT on DVD.
I very much enjoyed the characterisation and the arguments, the character of Maturin is a complex and conflicted Irish Catholoc Spanish upbringing, naturalist and surgeon, probably a 'United Irishman' but a hater of Nappy. Natural and philosophy were once a phrase.
The dinners and the jokes did NOT strike me as weak.
Many naval officers were musical. And didn't ahve recordings.
Delivering a broadside at close range, as a surprise from within fog was a common tactic, and is easy, it is called firing at 'point blank'.
The French tended to aim a little higher, at rigging and masts (a disabled ship is an easy mark from then on) using chain shot, bar shot and langridge, as well as solid shot at the hull. BUT in their ship, point blank would have done the job aginst a smaller, lower and older English frigate.
The use of grape filled balls by the carronades when raking IS also accurate.
The American ship builders, really were experimenting with much bigger and more heavy frigates, leading to the ship of the 1812 war like 'Old Ironsides'.
This path was made possible (triggered?) by the tree called 'Live Oak', then very common through the littoral of Eastern USA, from about Maryland south. Huge heavy one-piece ribs growing to shape for you. But, why though?
Small navy, no chance of beating a fleet of LoB ships.
You got the straight-line following wind speed or more, of the Line of Battle ship, (sail area/wetted area). So, you could run from them, where ordinary frigates just could not. AND retained much of the handiness and twistiness of a frigate.
Crew size, esp. for boarding AND prize crews. Also helps with sail handling, for agility.
Very much heavier guns, and more of them.
Endurance.
Taken together it meant that these bigger frigates, some built for French privateers as here, were more able to dictate the terms of an enaggement, and piss off if neccesary.
I found the bloodiness and ferocity in M&C VERY truthful, and personally quite difficult for me, as an ex-grunt, to cope with. As I did with SPR!
It is for me the best film about this period / naval warfare that I have seen, along with, perhaps "Le Colonel Ch......" with Depardiuex and Ardant, and 'the Duellists', which I nearly forgot, ;-).
Despite Patrick's view that the French navy was as good as the RN, I disagree, the number of their privateers is sufficient indication of this.
The RN at the time was a far more effective force except perhaps around 1802 to 1803 when it was run down, by Britain's 'top people' aka slimebags.
I would acknowledge that there were indeed many very effective French ships and admirals, from '92 to '15. But, the quality of the French navy overall was far lower that it had been a decade or two earlier, when it was line-ball with the RN. And, it got worse in the period.
Further, Nappy never really GOT naval warfare, did he?!
The RN was actually not a bad place to serve, even for prime seamen, most sailors were volunteers despite the impressions we have about 'the press', and there weren't that many East Indiamen - the better alternative.
Despite death from wounds, the health of the RN was better than in the UK generally. A RN ship was actually quite a healthy place.
Oh and the swords, for anachronisms and accuracy? IIRC officer's swords were not an issue item in British service. Apart from some fairly general guidelines for middies dirks, (for officer's swords?), there may have been a lot of variation anyway. The RM's may have had reg'n as in the Army.
Many captains had two, a dress sword, this very possibly an elaborate 'presentation' item, and the one they carried in battle, many of both being family heirlooms.
And many officers preferred the Navy's cutlass, for h2h. Me?, I'd have carried a boarding pike, and 2 pistols.
Last of all, here's some quizz q'ns.
Why were muskettoons / blunderbusses made with a belled (horn) mouth?
Where does the name Carronade come from? AND, Who wrote one of the first anti-factory poems, after seeing a factory making them?
Warmest,
Timbo in Oz
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio Scrounger
Peace
It's about character, friendship, the nature of authority, the price of command. I loved how these themes were developed through the treatment of Midshipman Blakeney's character: his RN rite of passage under the twin authority figures of those radically different friends, Aubrey & Maturin. Watch the extras, especially Weir's bit about adapting O'Brien's books. The watch the movie again.As Weir notes in the extras, much of the appeal of O'Brien's books is in the details and the characters. In that sense, Weir (and his co-writer John Collee) is very true to the source material.
Wier's style is heavily slanted to visual storytelling. He's not gonna underline the obvious or spell it out for you. he assumes you get the references and are paying attention (such as the name of the enemy ship). Gladiator At Sea it ain't.
Best film of its kind ever made IMO. I love Weir.
Hi HarmoniaThanks for your reply. It was very enlightening - I had no idea of the genesis of this movie. I don't have a DVD player so I had to suffer :-) through the VHS version which doesn't have the commentary you refer to.
I hope I didn't come across as an ignoramus by berating the movie for its paucity of plot - I did understand, and indeed appreciate, the subtler themes running through the movie. I was grateful it wasn't Gladiator At Sea.
It's funny that movies are like music (and any other art form for that matter) - they are much more enjoyable when one understands what the creator is trying to achieve. Thanks again. I really should get myself a DVD player so I can partake of those extras, shouldn't I? :-)
Cheers. Doug
Which plot? The lines between as I said are the thing to look and enjoy at, this is only partially " an action " film ( Hollywoodian ) The best comment have been written until now by Timbo above.
I am glad you enjoy it and I suppose this film may grow on you, as I feel it will on me.
It is a sympathetical film.
A Bientôt,Patrick
PS: Saving Private...., I saw only once and a long time what kind of // you made?
nt
.
nt
I just cannot picture Crowe as a captain in the Royal Navy. Sorry. I also thought the relationship with his doctor was weak, ill-written, and trite.
Couldn't disagree with you more.
The dinner scene with the awful jokes and puns was simply pathetic.A vastly overrated film.
That's the point, or one of them.They're taken straight from the books. The other officers are more amused at Jack's re-telling of these old jokes and Maturin's reaction to them than they are by the inherent wit of the material.
In Germany an France it did received very negative reviews!
Made me wonder how the Frogs aimed so damned well when they really weren't in visual contact but for a moment.
The French were renowned as accurate gunners.It was partly a lucky shot, calculating the British vessel's course and speed and last sighting.
Spectacular in the cinema.
As you may knows....
Should I now wait till you and Patrick settle this dispute between the two of you?It is, after all, my hard earned $3.25!
If you really wanted to see this movie you should have shelled out the 8 or 9 bucks to see it in a propper venue on the correct medium. I do not understand why people wait for video releases to see such visual movies.
There are people in places with decrepid theaters and/or who have state of the art Home Theaters who prefer to see a film there. My own sound system at least is FAR better than my local cineplexes. There are many advantages to home viewing.
It's still video.
Things you can do at home...
Any other things you don't understand?
To many to list.
so you may find some intellectual material to digest in various scenes.
If you are searching for a characterization of a man in a leadership position on a ship of HM navy...look elsewhere.
Specifically, the scene which was Crowe's one opportunity to display his great acting chops, the one in the officer's mess, was a total disaster. His attempt to tell an amusing story fell flat, with even the actors' in attendance unable to convincingly respond.
Compare that to Brando's skills as a raconteur in "Last Tango in Paris," especially the story about his having to clean the ditch...
Crowe is vastly overrated, though he was surprisingly good as the whistleblower in some film or other a couple of years ago.
(Patrick likes it because it portrays the French as clever AND brave).
During certain periods the French were not simply clever and brave, they were THE best.Rattles yor cage, that truth? He-he... you must have some non-French origin!
Lord Nelson was just a fluke.
My critic is absolutely correct. Donīt hear what foolish Tin and many critics have said on this film. You will see...Time will fly....
I have been EXTREMELY reluctant to see yet another Crowe's film after his Gladiator, disregarding all the positive posts here... after that film, and a couple others that I had dubious pleasure of catching on my cable, I had no inclination whatsoever to pay to see him "play".After your post I might reconsider and give the Commander a chance... the $3.25 rental fee might be appropriate here.
Just do it and tell us about the " wrong swords "....Hehe...
.
nt
I will keep the subwoofer volume low...About time... we haven't used our projector in weeks!
I know, I know, it is not as big as clark's reference 100 foot screen, but will have to do for now!
You are right! NO WOMEN in this one. I did NOT miss them....Strange, very strange what is actually happening to me? Maybe I was only glad not to have a Zetha..I donīt know what...AND a boring kaka love scene.
That is as you see dear Victor, one more reason to see it!
I told you before " his " is bigger that yours.
If she was a car, she would be a Chrysler mini-van with wooden siding.OK, OK, I am warming up to the idea! A short man with a big sword? Hmmmmmmmm.....
Nt
I liked Russell Crowe in 'LA Confidential,' and otherwise the thought of him pretty much irritates me...But I really enjoyed Master and Commander, not expecting to at all. I do think it's the sort of film it's best to see in the theater, but in lieu of that, it's entertaining nonetheless.
______________________________
Stranger than that, we're alive!Whatever you think it's more than that, more than that.
-Incredible String Band
The same for me. My expectation where-100db.
But I may think I gonna cherish this one. It is in his genre ( kind ) really worth to have it.
Poor Tin he only enjoy the " boum-boum.."
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Top of Page ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Support/Wish List ]
[ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
