Master and Commandergives a cinematic look into the duty of a British ship during the war with Napoleon. Led by the strong and stubborn Captain “Lucky Jack” Aubrey, the HMS Surprise is given orders to hunt down the French ship, Acheron, to prevent her from stretching Napoleon Bonaparte’s reach to the far side of South America.
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| HMS Surprise |
Aubrey quickly realizes that he’s outgunned and outmaneuvered by the French ship, as it sneaks up behind the Surprise in a fog and delivers a pounding to the British ship. Aubrey manages to lose the Acheron in the fog with a clever ruse involving a miniature ship with lanterns aboard floating away from the Surprise. After repairing his ship, Aubrey resumes the pursuit, seemingly more because of the insult to his person and ship rather than his duty to his country.
The wisdom of this chase is questionable, as the Acheron hides in a bay in the coast and sneaks behind the Surprise once again. Aubrey and his crew manage to escape yet again, and “Lucky Jack” vows that there will not be a third such encounter. His brilliant idea to capture the French vessel is inspired by his friend, Stephen, explaining how a stick bug evolved to look like a stick in order to evade predators.
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| Jack Aubrey, played by Russell Crowe |
The fascinating deception that Aubrey pulls off is truly quite amazing. Disguising his ship as a whaler, Aubrey basically orders his ship to sit and wait, drawing the Acheron to him before running out the guns and beating her into submission.
The movie was engaging and suspenseful, as well as clever and intelligent. The sound and effects were astonishingly realistic, adding to the overall feeling of dashing headlong into the Pacific Ocean after a ghost of a ship.
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