![[Captain Jack Aubrey]](crowe.jpg "[Captain Jack Aubrey]")
Several
things raise this above the typical "Napoleonic sea battle"
film. Nearly the entire action (except for a short sojourn on the
Galapagos Islands) takes place aboard a single ship, and no action takes
place from the point of view of the enemy ship. This lends a great
immediacy to the film.
![[Captain Jack Aubrey]](crowe2.jpg "[Captain Jack Aubrey]")
Also,
atypically for this style of drama, there is very little brutal naval
discipline -- there's one minor flogging, but most of the time it's a "hard
but fair" life. The battle scenes are terrifyingly realistic, with
shattering violence, destruction, and death, but not with loads of
horrific on-screen gore. Russell Crowe as Jack Aubrey seems a bit out of
place on one of His Majesty's ships whilst piratically posing on the
foremast, but the rest of the time he portrays a believable sea captain.
And, from an Honorverse perspective, two or three scenes have very strong resonances with Honor's battles (although her Captain's Dinners are rather more decorous).
Rating: 3
[ unmissable | great stuff | worth watching | mind candy | waste of time | unfinishable ]reviewed 12 December 2003