Get Together With The Boys To Watch Master And Commander In 4K Blu-Ray
A sailor’s life for thee.
Oceans, if you haven’t heard, are now battlefields, and have been since the 2003 release of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
Set in 1805, as Britain fought to maintain naval supremacy in the early years of the Napoleonic Wars, Master and Commander is an impeccable adventure movie worth revisiting via its new 4K Ultra HD re-release.
How Was Master and Commander Received Upon Release?
Captain Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) has been ordered to hunt down a French privateer off the coast of Brazil, a straightforward premise that highlights the draw of a visual upgrade from the moment you see Aubrey’s HMS Surprise cut across the sea. Less advertised than the troubled state of the waters, but equally important to the cinematic experience, is Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany), the ship’s learned surgeon. His friendship with Aubrey, and their ensuing digressions into music, naturalism, and life’s general foibles, gives Master and Commander a stately tone that stands out amid more breakneck blockbusters.
Aubrey’s mission to turn the tables on his stronger French rival provides a steady throughline, but Master and Commander is essentially a series of vignettes about life for certain kinds of men in a bygone era, blending plotlines from Patrick O'Brian’s long-running, impeccably researched, and often (thanks to their relentless sailing jargon) completely inscrutable novels. That a stop to explore the wonders of the Galapagos is treated with equal gravitas to the military conflict speaks to the movie’s insistence on not being just a sailing epic, but an adventure.
Inasmuch as it’s possible for an already well-regarded film to be re-appraised, Master and Commander has recently enjoyed an odd second act. Coming out soon after Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind, when Crowe was at the height of his charm and box office appeal, the film passed muster financially, picked up a couple of Oscars, and went over well enough with critics, historians, and novel enthusiasts (although some fans took umbrage with director Peter Weir cutting Maturin’s other role as a spy, not to mention all the women).
Why Is Master and Commander Important to See Now?
What men want.
Today, however, Master and Commander has been seen as meme material, as a franchise that should have been, as a film that guys are “obsessed” with, and as a movie that portrays a positive vision of masculinity, one needed now more than ever. It’s not that a single viewing will fix your boyfriend, and any fantasy about leaving your office job behind to live in the age of sail would be shattered the moment you got a whiff of the cramped crew quarters, but the film finds the human element in big ideas like duty, honour, and sacrifice, and shows the satisfying camaraderie that can emerge among those willing to uphold such traits.
Aubrey and Maturin, in particular, feel real and earnest, as the soldier and the scientist at turns exasperate, fascinate, and comfort each other. Their relationship has inspired reams of fanfiction, and that reaction is understandable. But in a culture where any whiff of fictional male bonding is immediately transmogrified into smut, it’s a timely lesson in how intimacy without romance is important for men too. Maybe it’s a stretch to call Master and Commander, as The Conversation did, a “safe harbour of positive masculinity” — the film doesn’t shy away from a cruel subplot about an ostracized officer — but it is a reminder that there’s no real strength in aloof arrogance.
What New Features and Upgrades Does The Master and Commander Blu-ray Have?
Master and Commander’s remarkable practical effects and sets should pop in 4K Ultra HD, and a new Dolby Atmos sound mix will impress viewers as the wind blows and the cannonballs fly. Also included in the two-disc set, which is available with or without a Steelbook, are some deleted scenes and a few other bonus features, although 20th Century Studios has made the frustrating decision to cut the wide variety of behind-the-scenes and making of featurettes included in the 2004 release.
Still, a 4K re-release is a fine excuse for you to catch the Master and Commander wave. Leisurely but never bloated, earnest without being saccharine, and romantic without being blind to the era’s brutality, it’s a joy of a film that manages to find believable and compelling people amid yesteryear’s epic struggles. You’ll come for the naval battles, but you’ll stay because it’s satisfying to watch hard-working men take a fiddling break.
