When the period war drama Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World hit theaters in November 2003, the swashbuckling epic exuded brilliance. The picture, directed by the renowned Peter Weir and featuring a prepared Russell Crowe, was immediately praised upon its premiere as a major Academy Award candidate. Furthermore, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World was designed to create a series.
However, while the universally acclaimed film got ten Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture, the ambitious franchise plans were dashed by a comparatively poor box-office performance. With speculation rising about a prequel, it's appropriate to reflect on Crowe and Weir's masterwork, which has the dubious distinction of being one of the finest opening installments of a now-defunct film series in history.
'Master and Commander' Transforms Oceans Into Battlefields
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, set during the Napoleonic Wars, features one of Russell Crowe's best performances as British Royal Navy Captain Jack Aubrey, captain of the British frigate HMS Surprise, which is ambushed by the bane of its existence, the mighty French warship Acheron, off the Brazilian coast and suffers heavy damage. After taking cover in a fog bank, the defeated Aubrey is ordered back to port. However, Aubrey, determined to keep Acheron from reaching the British whaling fleet, orders repairs to be conducted on Surprise at sea, where a second ambush attack by Acheron forces Aubrey and his crew to retreat to the Galápagos Islands.
These early scenes depict Aubrey as a tough yet empathetic and realistic leader who alternates between the humility of history's greatest military leaders and the obsessive resolve of a warlord. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is a fascinating study of behavior and personalities, particularly Aubrey's relationship with his ship's free-spirited surgeon, Stephen Maturin, played by Paul Bettany.
Despite appearing to be diametrically opposed, the frequently squabbling buddies build a fruitful alliance by combining their different strengths. Just as the brilliantly planned Aubrey uses unusual thinking to save his ship, the cool Maturin, who is more interested in birds and insects than combat, conducts brain surgery on the Surprise deck by plugging a hole in his waking patient's brain with a coin.
Master and Commander is based on a series of popular novels.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is based on Patrick O'Brian's famed Aubrey-Maturin novel series, which spans 20 novels and began with the 1969 novel Master and Commander. The screenplay, co-written by director Peter Weir, is mostly based on the tenth novel in the series, The Far Side of the World, but also incorporates aspects from Master and Commander and the fifth novel, Desolation Island.
Russell Crowe announced in 2009 that he was in talks to star in a sequel to Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, based on The Reverse of the Medal, the eleventh book in the Aubrey-Maturin series, which was published in 1986. When the prequel was first announced in June 2021, it was revealed to be entirely based on the first novel, in which a young Jack Aubrey forms a friendship with navy surgeon Stephen Maturin after earning his first command.
'Pirates of the Caribbean' overshadowed 'Master and Commander.'
While the failure to turn Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World into a franchise has primarily been attributed to the film's underwhelming box-office performance, Russell Crowe has blamed the lack of a franchise on the influence of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, in which the first installment, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, was released theatrically in the summer of 2003, approximately four months before the release of Master and Commander.
While Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World earned $212 million at the global box office despite a $150 million production budget, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl grossed more than $650 million. In a 2024 interview with GQ, Crowe stated that the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl significantly reduced popular enthusiasm for a second maritime blockbuster film, effectively killing the sequel possibilities for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. In contrast, the Pirates of the Caribbean film series, which currently consists of five films and covers 14 years, has earned more than $4.5 billion at the global box office. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is available for rental on Prime Video and Apple TV.