My grandfather having been a captain, I grew up with tales of the sea, with shanties and with all the lore attached to the great harbor cities like Hamburg. The sea and the waves are still one of my favourite subjects to paint . So quite understandably I'm particularly thrilled with this film.

A little information about the historical background:

In 1803 war broke out again. This time between France and England. Russia, Austria and Sweden allied with Britain against the French under Napoleon , who didn't have any trouble with this: Indeed, he defeated Austria and Russia at Austerlitz, he crushed the Prussians at Pena, and he defeated more Russians at Friedland. In a peace treaty called the Peace of Tilsit, he brought all of Europe to his feet.

All? No, one enemy was left: England. Napoleon had planned to invade England but the "right moment" never showed up. (or was it too late?) England's navy under Adm. Horatio Nelson again crushed the French fleet at Trafalgar on October 21, 1805. So Napoleon went back to the drawing board trying to figure out how to defeat the British.

The former director general of the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, Victor Suthren is responsible for developing the historical accuracy. He is working as a consultant on this movie The Far Side of the World

Why did Napoleon win?

Although the relative number of troops is a determinant of victory, Professors Rotte and Schmidt find that troop morale and leaders' tactical skills are even more important. Because morale and leadership skills are judged ex post facto by military experts who have the benefit of knowing which side won, they are wary about ascribing too much weight to these factors

In most battles neither side has a clear technological advantage. When there is a difference, the professors find that having the technological edge does not raise the likelihood of victory. Having superior intelligence and the element of surprise, by contrast, count toward victory.

Consider Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. With 68,000 men, Napoleon faced the Duke of Wellington with a combined English and Prussian force of 137,000. French intelligence underestimated the Prussians' fighting abilities, and Napoleon was surprised by their swift appearance on the battlefield. The Rotte-Schmidt statistical model gives Napoleon only an 18 percent chance of prevailing. They calculate that had the Prussians not arrived, leaving Napoleon to face Wellington's 66,000 men alone, his chances would have risen, but to just 26 percent. The reason for the long odds is that the duke was rated a superior leader at that stage of their careers; had the advantage been reversed, Napoleon would have been predicted to prevail.

So leadership, morale, troop size and intelligence have historically counted for more than technology

Russell Crowe on preparing for the role:

"I am full of (Lord) Nelson's navy at the moment. I've loved devouring the books -- I can tell you things about ships that I couldn't have 12 months ago."

His two great characters are a British sea captain, Jack Aubrey, in the Napoleonic wars and his best friend named Stephen Maturin. These two men could not be more different in temperament. Jack Aubry is gruff, burly, powerful, sort of a buffoon ashore, totally capable at sea and Stephen Maturin, whom he meets in the very first moments of the first book when, in fact, he gets in a quarrel and almost a duel with him in a concert, is shy, slightly shabby, quiet, absolutely brilliant, and a, as it turns out, a dedicated and effective counterrevolutionary spy against Napoleon, who of course at this time, Britain is fighting alone. Here's a plot synopsis of The Far Side of the World ( see the article by Upcoming Movies) this time quoted from Ingram:

"The War of 1812 continues, and Jack Aubrey sets course for Cape Horn on a mission after his own heart: intercepting a powerful American frigate outward bound to play havoc with the British whaling trade. Little do he and Maturin know that disaster awaits them in the Great South Sea: typhoons, shipwrecks, murder, and criminal insanity."

The script revolves around a ship, called the Surprise, and it's Captain, Jack . The British navy has informed Jack, that his mission is to destroy a French ship by the name of the Acheron, a job that many to date have failed. Jack, after a brief skermish in the beginning of the screenplay, notices that this will not be an easy task as they repair their damaged ship. But Jack must complete his mission, for these are his orders: to stop the ship at any costs.

Fox Marketers decided that the American public would never hold still for the United States as the enemy, so the Norfolk (the american vessel of Patrick O'Brian's book The Far Side of the World) has been renationalized as the French vessel Acheron. According to the Washington Post, it stands within the studio compound in somewhat truncated form, its masts and rigging abbreviated, its bowsprit ending in splinters, propped up with scaffolding near the open air 8 1/2-acre seaside pond/tank where "Titanic" met her iceberg.

Filming: Production has started in mid-June, 2002, filming at the Fox Studios Baja in northern Mexico (the water sets built for their filming of Titanic), wrapping in mid-October, 2002. The film is scheduled to be released in november 2003. Its budgetis about $135 million. This would easily make it Weir's most expensive film. (The Truman Show was budgeted at only $60 million.)

Director Peter Weir needed 200 men (between 20 and 40 years old) with long hair to work as extras in the film, mainly in Baja Studios in Popotla.The scenes the extra hands were required for the battle between the French ship Archeron, the enemy, and the HMS Rose "commanded" by Russell Crowe.

What Patrick O'Brian would have thought of this movie is hard to guess. He sold the film rights to his first Aubrey/Maturin book, "Master and Commander," to Samuel Goldwyn Jr. before his second U.S. book tour in 1995. Goldwyn also purchased options to film the rest of the series.

From Entertainment weekly:

'I didn't throw up once during the entire production,' Russell Crowe wants it known. 'I'm proud of that fact.' If only they gave Oscars for such feats.

But then seasickness wasn't the only hazard Crowe faced while filming MC, Peter Weir's $135 million epic based on Patrick adventure novel about the crew of a British frigate during the Napoleonic Wars.To portray Jack Aubrey, the swashbuckling, fiddle-playing captain of the HMS Surprise (with Paul Bettany, Crowe's imaginary friend in ABM, playing the land-loving ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin), the actor had to immerse himself in oceans of 19th century naval jargon. He had to learn to climb a mast, fire a cannon, and occasionally even pilot a real man-of-war in high seas (or at least round Fox's Baja Studio, in the same giant water tank Cameron used to sink his Titanic).

And then there was the ultimate challenge;'Learning to play that violin was the hardest f---ing thing I've done in my life,' Crowe says. 'I practiced 26 hours a week and ultimately achieved the status of a decent 7-year-old.' It may all be worth it in the end: If Crowe does for sea adventures what he did for gladiator movies, we may soon see a whole new franchise sail onto the horizon. Crowe, for one, sounds like he'd be on board for another. 'There are 20 books in the series to draw from,' he says. 'There's a lot more we could get into.' Just so long as the Dramamine holds up."

And here is the french translation of the above text from Entertainment weekly:

traduction française grâce à Caco

Je n’ai pas vomi une seule fois, pendant tout le tournage ! » Russell Crowe veut que cela se sache. «J’en suis très fier ! »

Si seulement, ils donnaient des Oscars pour de tels exploits. Mais, le mal de mer n’est pas le seul danger que Crowe ait eu à affronter pendant le tournage de Master And Commander, le film épique de 135 M$ réalisé par Peter Weir, basé sur une nouvelle de Patrick O’Brian portant sur les aventures de l’équipage d’une frégate britannique pendant les guerres napoléoniennes. Pour interpréter Jack Aubrey le corsaire, le capitaine violoniste du HMS Surprise (avec Paul Bettany, l’ami imaginaire de Crowe dans A Beautiful Mind, interprétant le très terrien chirurgien du bord Stephen Maturin), l’acteur a dû s’immerger dans l’atmosphère naval du 19ème siècle (« Le mot drap veut dire corde… » . Il a dû apprendre à grimper le long d’un mât, tirer au canon et même occasionnellement, piloter un vrai navire de guerre sur les Sept Mers (ou du moins, autour du studio de la Fox à Baja, dans le même réservoir d’eau que James Cameron à utilisé pour couler le Titanic).

Et puis, il y a eu le plus grand challenge : «Apprendre à jouer du violon a été le putain de truc le plus dur que j’ai fait de toute ma vie, » dit Crowe. « J’ai pratiqué 26 heures par semaine et ai finalement réussi à atteindre le niveau décent d’un enfant de 7 ans. »

Ca pourrait bien en valoir la peine, finalement : Si Crowe fait pour les aventures maritimes ce qu’il a fait pour les films de gladiateurs, on pourrait bientôt voir à l’horizon tout un flot de navigateurs prêts à débarquer. Crowe, le premier, semble parler comme s’il était prêt à ré-embarquer pour un tour. « Il y a 20 tomes dans la série, que l’on peut adapter, » dit-il. « Il y a beaucoup plus à exploiter. »
Tant que la Dramamine fait effet…

Wallpaper: click on the picture

Thank you, Max Crowe for sharing this picture on the web

For more information on ships like the HMS Victory and the Tall Ship Rose:
http://www.hms-victory.com/home.htm
http://www.tallshiprose.org/
The Gunroom

Concerning the upcoming movie:
http://www.peterweircave.com/master/
read this article of the washington post

http://www.foxbaja.com/

AND LAST NOT LEAST:
The Patrick O'Brian discussion board