Similar to your experience, I was 11 or so when I saw this in the theater with my dad. I was also vaguely progressive but very inarticulate- going to bat for Kerry as a preteen was... odd, in retrospect.
I remember enjoying it, but haven't watched it since. While the plot's definitely fuzzy at this point, a lot of its images have stayed with me over the years (the storm, the captain and the surgeon playing music). The ones that stick out now, though, are Paul Bettany's character collecting Galapagos samples and sketching specimens in his journal. This "man of science" is an interesting foil to have onboard the ship, but his pursuits can maybe be read as yet another contribution to the empire- to catalog the unknown so that they can push their boundaries even further.
Like you said, this movie is about a lot of things, and I'm looking forward to re-watching!
I think that you're missing the most important piece of the puzzle; Rusty's and Peter Weirs (and a staggering number of late boomer/Gen X Aussies and Kiwis) obsession with Patrick O'Brien. It's an undereported phenomenon but POB books are found in almost every used bookshop in Australia.
Not to get too political: You're view of Dick Cheney holds up over time; Bush in (my) hindsight has crossed over from malevolent to benign but flawed in many ways. I enjoyed reading your piece and for what is worth you focus on friendship struck true. More broadly, criticism is interpretation done well in my book and one can no more interpret free of context than one can pull themselves up by the bootstraps.
This is the second time in recent weeks I've heard or read a discussion of "Master and Commander," and it's making me think I should go back and re-watch it. I've only seen it once, within a year or so of its theatrical release; I would have been about 24 years old. I really didn't like it at the time, and IIRC it had a lot to do with the subject of your early discussion, i.e., the backdrop of the Iraq War. Suffice it to say it felt to me at the time like the U.S. had gone completely off the rails with blood lust (it had!), which itself was a brutal follow-up to the, uh, questionable 2000 presidential election and the resulting installation of the Neocon war boner brigade. I think I just couldn't bring myself to step back and enjoy the movie at the time, barraged as I felt with ridiculous unironic 'Merica content. But, that isn't the movie's fault. Today, my brain is soaked in other suds, and I'd like to think age and experience have enabled me to assume a more objectively critical posture vis-a-vis art and entertainment. All of which is to say I'll give it a whirl.
Great read!
Similar to your experience, I was 11 or so when I saw this in the theater with my dad. I was also vaguely progressive but very inarticulate- going to bat for Kerry as a preteen was... odd, in retrospect.
I remember enjoying it, but haven't watched it since. While the plot's definitely fuzzy at this point, a lot of its images have stayed with me over the years (the storm, the captain and the surgeon playing music). The ones that stick out now, though, are Paul Bettany's character collecting Galapagos samples and sketching specimens in his journal. This "man of science" is an interesting foil to have onboard the ship, but his pursuits can maybe be read as yet another contribution to the empire- to catalog the unknown so that they can push their boundaries even further.
Like you said, this movie is about a lot of things, and I'm looking forward to re-watching!
I think that you're missing the most important piece of the puzzle; Rusty's and Peter Weirs (and a staggering number of late boomer/Gen X Aussies and Kiwis) obsession with Patrick O'Brien. It's an undereported phenomenon but POB books are found in almost every used bookshop in Australia.
Not to get too political: You're view of Dick Cheney holds up over time; Bush in (my) hindsight has crossed over from malevolent to benign but flawed in many ways. I enjoyed reading your piece and for what is worth you focus on friendship struck true. More broadly, criticism is interpretation done well in my book and one can no more interpret free of context than one can pull themselves up by the bootstraps.
Well done! I dug it.
This is the second time in recent weeks I've heard or read a discussion of "Master and Commander," and it's making me think I should go back and re-watch it. I've only seen it once, within a year or so of its theatrical release; I would have been about 24 years old. I really didn't like it at the time, and IIRC it had a lot to do with the subject of your early discussion, i.e., the backdrop of the Iraq War. Suffice it to say it felt to me at the time like the U.S. had gone completely off the rails with blood lust (it had!), which itself was a brutal follow-up to the, uh, questionable 2000 presidential election and the resulting installation of the Neocon war boner brigade. I think I just couldn't bring myself to step back and enjoy the movie at the time, barraged as I felt with ridiculous unironic 'Merica content. But, that isn't the movie's fault. Today, my brain is soaked in other suds, and I'd like to think age and experience have enabled me to assume a more objectively critical posture vis-a-vis art and entertainment. All of which is to say I'll give it a whirl.
This was a lovely read. I hadn’t thought much about Master and Commander since it came out either. I might give it a re-watch soon.