Concept: A British naval ship is ordered to hunt down a French ship twice its size and strength off the coasts of South America during the Napoleonic wars of the 18th century.

• • A great movie, one of those that fall into the “they-don’t-make-movies-like-these-anymore” category.
  • Loads of action, more so than I expected, but well-balanced with plenty of characterization and personal dramas.
  • Although all the actors do a fine job (including hobbit actor Bill Boyd), the movie is carried by the excellent performances of Russell Crowe (the “master and commander”) and Paul Bettany (the ship doctor who reminds me of Star Trek’s Dr. McCoy, the captain’s best friend and confidante).
  • This must be Crowe’s best movie, better than “Gladiator.” He deserves better than the mediocre roles he’s been playing the past ten years or so.
  • Paul Bettany also played Vision in the Marvel “Avengers” movies. He can perform a lot better than what he was allowed to show in the total 23 minutes of movie time from all the Avengers movies. The recent Disney+ series “WandaVision” gave him a chance to show a little more of what he is capable of. 
  • The effects and cinematography are amazing. It’s hard to make big ocean waves actually look like big ocean waves, CGI just doesn’t do a great job of it. But everything comes across as realistic. And by the way, the movie won the Oscar for Best Cinematography.
  • And, last but not least, they filmed several awesome-looking scenes on location in the Galapagos Islands.
  • The movie made a moderate profit upon its release, but not enough to justify a sequel or a franchise (which was entirely possible, given that the movie is based on a set of novels). But the marketing didn’t really communicate how action-packed and engaging the movie really was; I remember thinking at the time of release that a movie about one old ship vs. another would probably be boring. I was wrong; it’s a very thrilling movie. Time has been kind to the movie, and it has become a classic.
  • Viewed on an Optoma HD28DSE projector, 92” screen. Did not look very good on my projector. No fault of the movie itself, but of the source transfer. Streaming services don’t do a very good job with movies that date back more than 10 years, often delivering a sub-par transfer as was the case here. This movie would look stunning on Blu-Ray with a 2k transfer source, or on 4k. However, I’ve read that the blu-ray video has the same visual quality issue issue, looking only slightly better than DVD.
  • The thing about projectors is that they magnify everything, and if it doesn’t look so great on your TV, it will look worse on the projector. This is one title that could really use a new transfer. My rating of 90% is for the movie alone, not the transfer.
  • The sound, however, that’s another story. The sound was awesome—even when the cannons weren’t blasting all around me, there was the continual surround-sound noises of the ship and the sea coming from every angle. A great use of home theater audio. This movie won an Oscar for Best Sound Editing, and if you have at least a 5.1 sound system at home, you’ll know why when you see and hear the movie.
  • If this movie hadn’t been released in the same year as “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King,” it might have won even more Oscars.
  • Not for kids.

Master and Commander (2003) 90%