MASTER AND COMMANDER; THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD

Peter Weir's superb "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" set the benchmark by which all other movies of this kind would be judged. To this day it remains the most realistic account of what life must have been like on a Man of War during this period in history, (the early years of the 19th century). So much attention is paid to detail it could almost be a documentary; that's not to say Weir skimps on the action which also has a documentary-like realism to it. When cannon balls streak through these vessels you feel the suffering, the pain and the damage as if you were actually there. Basically this is an account of one (English) vessel's pursuance of another (a French ship; it's set during the Napoleonic Wars). The captain of the English vessel is a superb Russell Crowe; he's dashing and immensely like able here, and he's very ably backed by a splendid supporting cast that includes an equally superb Paul Bettany as the ship's doctor. Russell Boyd's brilliant cinematography deservedly won the Oscar.