By virtue of an invitation to audition the new Klipsch flagship, the Palladium home theater, I recently had an opportunity to re-visit one of my all time favorite movies, Master & Commander, with Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany.
I love this 2003 movie because it is a sailing movie, with a great actor, wonderful dialogue and plot twists. It has incredible hand to hand, canon to canon battle scenes, set in 1805. The raw violence is juxtapositioned with the English Captain (Crowe) maneuvering his ship like a chess piece to outfox his rarely seen French opponent, while he and doctor spend their evenings playing the violin and cello music of Mozart and J.S. Bach.
Master was filmed with full scale replicas. It was nominated for Best: Art Direction-Set Decoration, Costume Design, Director, Editing, Makeup, Picture, Sound Mixing and Visual Effects. It won Oscars for Best Cinematography and Sound Editing. Crowe did most of the violin playing on camera, but the cello playing is Yo Yo Ma’s work. The soundtrack is available from Decca (ASIN: B0000DG07D).
Bettany is best known as the sick Silas in The Da Vinci Code and the charming Chaucer, with Heath Ledger in A Knight's Tale.
Master was directed by Petter Weir, who has remarkabl;e writing and directing credits: The Truman Show, Dead Poets Society, Witness, The Year of Living Dangerously and Gallipoli (another great war movie).