Master & Commander 5 th.........

[J. Dillon]

on the list at the box office. :( Does this bode well for a sequel ? :confused: And only two weeks after opening.

JD

[Figment]

That depends.... Can they make a line of toys and a saturday morning cartoon out of it?

A video game, perhaps?

[Meerkat]

As good as it was, I noticed that they avoided a lot of shoreside expensive sets. I'm sure the sea scenes cost enough, but recreating period dockside scenes, native villages and the like would probably send it sky rocketing! I hate to say it, but I think a sequel that's just another sea battle would be a flop.

My sense is that M&C is going to end up as a singleton and will be out on DVD in 6 months (Pirates of the Caribbean has taken less time than that - it's out on the 12th of Dec I believe).

[ion barnes]

Saw M&C last nite. Bloody good show!! I am sure there is lots to be mined from O'brian's novels, and no doubt there are a couple of battles with each story.

As an aside, I did not see the gun deck and bulkheads painted red as I have been told of. Am I wrong? Was that done in a later period?

[Meerkat]

Good point Ion - as far as I know, red paint was used to hide the gore during the Nepoleonic Wars.

[Ian McColgin]

But they had to leave the decks light to show the blood on the film.

Another very small thing that I'm not remembering seeing, perhaps it was and I'll see next time, but Jack always had a Midshipman about such that when anything happened he could say, "Mark the time, Mister . . ."

A good habit shared by pilots afloat and airborn. Even now, 39 years retired from PanAm, Dad will still glance at his watch whenever anything interesting happens. COming back up the Pike from my brother's house in Philly last Friday I blew the exit to the Tappen Zee. As we rolled along, Mary Ellen asked how long we'd been on the wrong road. Before I could answer Dad, from the back seat, noted correctly, "Four minutes, forty five seconds."

That's a pilot.

[ 12-02-2003, 07:34 AM: Message edited by: Ian McColgin ]

[cs]

Pirates of the Caribbean came out on DVD today and we already have our copy.

Chad

[LisaS]

I don't know how it's way back in 5th place. I went to see it Saturday night and it was sold out 1/2 hour before showtime. I made a second stab on Sunday evening, and the theater was 3/4 full. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and look forward to the DVD.

Alan purchased Pirates of the Carribean on Saturday at Blockbuster, so I watched that Saturday instead...eh...it was okay.

Lisa

[rbgarr]

Columbia Trading Post booksellers in Hyannis, Massachusetts has the entire set of novels for sale for a reasonable price.

[cs]

Lisa I'm sorry you didn't enjoy Pirates. I thought it was great. Oh well to each his own.

And yes I thought M&C was outstanding.

Chad

[ion barnes]

I am not clear on when the practise of painting the decks and such, red, came into vogue, but it was something I was looking for. Even though it would be hard to show blood on a red deck, the scene of the bilge pump discharge pumping bloody water says a lot with out gore. And the doctor's tools! I work in a hospital, non medical, but you see these things and the tools have not really changed very much! I was quite astounded.
Overall, I would give 5 outa 5 for authenticity. There are many details I had to explain to others because the details were there but were a given, and not explained which is thankful because to does detract from and degrades the script.

[jwaldin]

We've seen movies where cannons are fired and when the ball hits something it explodes. Will someone tell me if cannon ball were/are ever made that would explode? That would mean they would have to be charged with an exploding devise. Is it an historical fact that cannon balls explode?

[Keith Wilson]

I saw M&C twice when it first came out; I was very impressed with certain aspects of it. Lately, however, it has sort of grown off me, and my opinion of it has lessened somewhat. The movie, although the plot is not really O'Brian's, seems like maybe a chapter or two out of one of the books. While the depictions of life and war at sea were very good, a lot of what makes O'Brian's books vastly better than anything else in the genere was missing. The movie was a high-class swashbuckler; the books are much more than that.

[Eric Sea Frog]

Originally posted by Meerkat:
Good point Ion - as far as I know, red paint was used to hide the gore during the Nepoleonic Wars.As far as I know, the red paint was chosen for its lowest cost as a product.
It was replaced during the second half of the XVIIIth Century by a cream colour.

[Meerkat]

Originally posted by jwaldin:
We've seen movies where cannons are fired and when the ball hits something it explodes. Will someone tell me if cannon ball were/are ever made that would explode? That would mean they would have to be charged with an exploding devise. Is it an historical fact that cannon balls explode?At the time of the Nepoleonic Wars, cannon shot did not explode. They did have exploding rounds (called "bombs") for mortors though. Those where huge squatty things mounted in "bomb ketches", which did not have foremasts. The fuse was lit by hand before the round was shot at the enemy. Mortors where generally employed against fixed targets.

[ 12-03-2003, 04:01 PM: Message edited by: Meerkat ]

[Meerkat]

Originally posted by Keith Wilson:
I saw M&C twice when it first came out; I was very impressed with certain aspects of it. Lately, however, it has sort of grown off me, and my opinion of it has lessened somewhat. The movie, although the plot is not really O'Brian's, seems like maybe a chapter or two out of one of the books. While the depictions of life and war at sea were very good, a lot of what makes O'Brian's books vastly better than anything else in the genere was missing. The movie was a high-class swashbuckler; the books are much more than that.I have to agree with you Keith. I just saw one of the old Hornblower movies for the first time ever last night and thought it was, overall, a much better movie than M&C. There's different one on tonight on A&E!

[johnw]

Hey, every film fades after a while. I think this one has made plenty of money.

[ion barnes]

I think this is where the novel and screenplay diverge. They have to. The novel can be as long as the author wants to give feeling and depth to the characters and situation, and the reader has time on his side to devour the text at his leisure. The screenplay has two and half hours roughly to set-up and tell a yarn.

Once you have read the text and form a dream in your mind of the author's words, its impossible for the director to faithfully reproduce your pipedream. I have never read O'brian so I did not have preconceived ideas. But that being said, I could now read one of his books and imagine Crowe as the captain while I read.

[Meerkat]

I just saw the second (new to me) Hornblower movie, and I thought an excellent job was done of capturing the essential magic of Forester's work, that ineffable quality of boy's adventure, romance and deadly serious busines with a levening of humor and compassion. There was a smattering of saturday afternoon serial in it too, but that really didn't detract. Overall, much more engaging than M&C IMO. I was transported to another time and place in much the same way I recall from reading the books as a kid.