azziria: (wasted)
azziria ([personal profile] azziria) wrote2003-11-28 04:21 pm

Master and Commander

A few random thoughts jotted down as I've just got back from the cinema:

  • Totally in love with the ship. Sat there all the way through listening to the creak of the timbers and the hiss and crash of the sea, and suffered a serious serious need for the ocean.
  • The movie seems to give a reasonable picture of how tough life at sea on one of those ships must have been: primitive conditions, all crowded in together, nothing ever really dry or clean. No wonder sailors didn't live long lives.
  • The cannon fire is scary. Seriously realistic. As are the costumes. And the photography is great, a few shots really took my breath away.
  • I'm not a huge Russell fan, but I think he did a fair job of depicting the Jack Aubrey I see in the novels.
  • And I'll own up. I nearly cried at one point.

So I really enjoyed it. Worth a look on the big screen, definitely.

[identity profile] azziria.livejournal.com 2003-11-30 10:28 am (UTC)(link)
I really liked the soundtrack. There's a lot of period classical stuff on it, much of which was already familiar to me (Mozart, Vaughan Williams, Bach, Boccherini). I think it's a case of, if you like that sort of thing, you'll like the soundtrack - and even if you don't like that sort of thing usually, it works very well with the film, it's very evocative and in places very much enhances some already very stunning visual imagery.