Master and Commander: Patrick O’Brian: Book 1 (Aubrey-Maturin)

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A victory against such odds would normally bring official recognition, promotion, and significant prize money, but unfortunately for Aubrey his superior at Mahon is Captain Harte, with whose wife Aubrey has been having an affair.

Christopher Hitchens gave a mixed review: "Any cinematic adaptation of O'Brian must stand or fall by its success in representing this figure [Dr. This was changed to make the movie more presentable to American audiences, going back to 1805 and the Napoleonic War, but this change left behind a few inaccuracies. Ireland was then a country governed by Britain, and political dissent had been increasing for some time. Aubrey's professional life of daring exploits and reverses was inspired by the chequered careers of Thomas Cochrane and other notable captains of the Royal Navy from the period.

Taking two broadsides while their own could scarcely penetrate the thick oak of the Acheron the crew decimated and the rudder shot it seems that the Acheron should have been able to maintain close contact, fire more broadsides, perhaps chain and grapeshot and been able to board. Great efforts were made to reproduce the authentic look and feel of life aboard an early nineteenth-century man-of-war.

Frank McNally, writing in honour of the 100th anniversary of the author's birth, reflects on the breadth of the appeal of the series of novels, for the quality of the writing and the relationships between the characters, which put them beyond the typical naval adventure, and gain interest from readers who "wouldn't touch Horatio Hornblower with a bargepole. Ramage, first of a series of novels about Lord Ramage, an officer in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, written by Dudley Pope. It theorized that this was in part due to the film's portrayal of "non-toxic masculinity" and strong male friendships, particularly the one between Aubrey and Maturin.The site's critics consensus states: "Russell Crowe's rough charm is put to good use in this masterful adaptation of Patrick O'Brian's novel. The first six books quickly move through twelve years of the Napoleonic Wars, as established by frequent reference to historical events, with The Fortune of War ending on 1 June 1813 with the battle between HMS Shannon and USS Chesapeake.

Century Fox executive Tom Rothman had wished to adapt O'Brian's novels since first reading them, recognizing the potential for a film franchise. Having not read any of O'Brian's novels, I can't say if the fault is in Weir's adaptation or in the source material, but halfway into 'Master and Commander,' the friendship of the captain and the doctor begins to seem schematic, as if all the positive traits that an individual could have were divided equally between these two guys, just so they can argue. Though this is a matter of opinion, the very first battle seems unrealistic, as the Acheron had such a decisive advantage that it is hard to imagine how the Surprise possibly escaped. In his introduction to The Far Side of the World, the 10th book in the series, O'Brian wrote that if the author "had known how many books were to follow the first, he would certainly have started the sequence much earlier" in real historical time. He is himself a perfect Quixote: an enthusiastic supporter of the Revolution until '93; a United Irishman until the rising, Lord Edward's adviser.He uses several addictive substances, including laudanum and coca leaves, arising from scientific curiosity, control of his reactions to physical problems, and substance dependence. In an introductory Author's Note to the novel, O'Brian sets out his approach to historical accuracy, noting that historic records of naval battles are filled with "actions that few men could invent".

Yesterday, I said that the book's full-immersion experience is one of those things that ultimately makes it involving, but it's also the thing that kept me from finishing this book in a couple of days as opposed to closer to a week. The film is drawn from the Aubrey–Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian, but matches the events in no one novel. That night, Hollom commits suicide by jumping overboard with a cannonball; Aubrey holds a service for Hollom the next morning. Sound designer Richard King earned Master and Commander an Oscar for its sound effects by going to great lengths to record realistic sounds, particularly for the battle scenes and the storm scenes.

The film omits completely the fact that the doctor and naturalist is also a spy for England—a key plot element in the novels. Jack Aubrey is a large man (both literally and figuratively) with an energetic, gregarious, cheerful, and relatively simple personality and a deep respect for naval tradition. The movie takes place in a real war, with a British ship that actually existed at some point, but the majority of the plot and characters are adapted from the fiction of O’Brian.