MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD 227
acceptable to American audiences. To play Jack Aubrey, Weir signed megastar
Russell Crowe in late 2001. Weir and Crowe then worked closely for several weeks
with the Oscar- winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) to flesh
out the relationship between Aubrey and his friend, Dr. Maturin (played by Paul
Bettany).
Production
Before principal photography began, the cast was put through a two- week boot
camp where they literally learned the ropes and other nautical skills in handling
early 19th- century sailing vessels. The actors were also taught swordplay and how
to load and fire cannons. Because of the enormous technical complexities in depict-
ing naval warfare in the age of sail, Master and Commander was an expensive pro-
duction: the final price tag was a whopping $150 million. It was also a long
production that stretched over a five- month period (17 June–11 November 2002)
and involved some 30 actors; dozens of extras; 970 technicians of all kinds (includ-
ing 70 stunt men); 2,000 costumes; and extensive use of miniatures, models, and
computer- generated imagery (CGI). There was location shooting in the Galapagos
Islands and at sea for 10 days, with the aforementioned Rose masquerading as the
Surprise, but most exterior shots were filmed in the huge (17 million gallon) hori-
zon tank that James Cameron had built to film Titanic (1997), located at Fox Baja
Studios in Playas de Rosarito, Baja, Mexico. Here the filmmakers used another rep-
lica of the Surprise, mounted inside the horizon tank on a hydraulically controlled
gimbal that allowed it pitch in all directions— gently—to simulate normal sailing
and, more violently, to mimic the action of heavy seas, as in the Cape Horn sequence
(which was supplemented by actual footage of stormy seas taken aboard a modern
replica of Capt. James Cook’s ship, HMS Endeavour, as it sailed around the Cape
while circumnavigating the globe). For interior shots of the Surprise (and its nem-
esis, the Acheron) Weir had a set built for each deck in sound stages adjacent to the
horizon tank at Baja. Captain Aubrey plays the violin so Russell Crowe had to learn
the instrument: a task he said was the hardest thing he ever learned.
Plot Summary
An opening title card reads: “April—1805 Napoleon is master of Eu rope. Only the
British fleet stands before him. Oceans are now battlefields.” During the Napole-
onic Wars, Capt. Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe), commander of the HMS Surprise, a
28- gun frigate, is ordered to sink, burn, or take as a prize the French privateer
Acheron but Acheron ambushes Surprise off the west coast of South Amer i ca. Sur-
prise is towed into the fog to shield itself from further enemy engagement. Aubrey’s
officers tell him that HMS Surprise is no match for Acheron, which has a thicker
hull and many more guns; they advise Aubrey to abandon pursuit. Aubrey points
out his orders are to prevent Acheron from plundering the British whaling fleet. He
commands that the Surprise be repaired while still at sea. Acheron then attacks Sur-
prise again, but Aubrey tricks the Acheron using a raft and ship’s lamp and evades
capture. Following the privateer south, Surprise rounds South Amer i ca’s Cape Horn
in high seas. Sadly, a sailor falls overboard when part of a mast breaks off and has