''DO you want to see a guillotine in Piccadilly? Do you want your children to grow up singing the 'Marseillaise'?'' This is Jack Aubrey, commander of H.M.S. Surprise, rousing the patriotism of his men as they prepare to engage a faster, larger French vessel somewhere off the coast of South America. This ship is England, he proclaims, and ''Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World,'' which opens nationwide today, makes his point with magnificent vigor and precision.
This stupendously entertaining movie, directed by Peter Weir and adapted from two of the novels in Patrick O'Brian's 20-volume series on Aubrey's naval exploits, celebrates an idea of England that might have seemed a bit corny even in 1805, when the action takes place. The Surprise is a stiffly hierarchal place of pomp and ritual that is nonetheless consecrated to ideals of fair play, decency and honor and ruled by a man whose claim on the words in the film's title comes, if not by divine right, then at least by demi-godlike force of character.
Of course, life on the Surprise is not all high-minded talk and principled action. Winston Churchill once said that the foundations of British naval tradition consisted of rum, sodomy and the lash. ''Master and Commander,'' which is rated PG-13, settles for two out of three.
It is tempting to read some contemporary geopolitical relevance into this film, which appears at a moment when some of the major English-speaking nations are joined in a military alliance against foes we sometimes need to be reminded do not actually include France.
The Surprise may be England, but ''Master and Commander'' is something of an all-Anglosphere collaboration. Both the director and the star, Russell Crowe, are Australian (Mr. Crowe by way of New Zealand), and no fewer than three American studios (Universal, Miramax and 20th Century Fox, which is the United States distributor) paid for the production. The spectacle of British imperial self-defense has been made more palatable for American audiences by a discreet emendation of the literary source: the story has been moved back seven years from the War of 1812, when the British were fighting . . . but never mind. Bygones are bygones. . . .
Aubrey (Mr. Crowe) is an ideal personification of modern executive authority -- the Harry Potter of the managerial class. His adventures are salted with arcane technical lore and administrative wisdom that resonate deeply with even the most landlubberly middle managers and office workers. ''Master and Commander,'' were it not a movie, could be a Powerpoint seminar advertised in an airline magazine: Leadership Secrets of the Royal Navy. . . .
The Napoleonic wars that followed the French Revolution gave birth, among other things, to British conservatism, and ''Master and Commander,'' making no concessions to modern, egalitarian sensibilities, is among the most thoroughly and proudly conservative movies ever made. It imagines the Surprise as a coherent society in which stability is underwritten by custom and every man knows his duty and his place. I would not have been surprised to see Edmund Burke's name in the credits. . . .
Published: 11 - 14 - 2003 , Late Edition - Final , Section E , Column 6 , Page 1
<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E6D81438F937A25752C1A9659C8B63> *****
_Love, Actually_:
***** . . . Hugh Grant plays his usually suave but stuttering self, but this time he's prime minister of England (did I mention the movie is British). About midway through the film the President of the United States pays a visit, played oddly enough by Billy Bob Thornton. Basically the President refuses to compromise on anything, and hits on the office assistant, on whom Grant has an innocent and touching crush.
This visit naturally ends in a press conference where Billy Bob talks insincerely about the US and England's "special relationship". Promting Hugh Grant to diatribe about how Britain was not going to take it any more. (Paraphrasing) The relationship is not special, it consists of America telling England what to do, it consist of cow-towing to US power, and it isn't working. Hugh Grant tells the president that Britain may be a small country but they're strong one and will not be bullied. To which the whole country responds cheers and jubilation. When you are watching this scene you can't help but get the feeling that Hugh Grant is playing the Tony Blair that they wanted Tony Blair to be. A man standing up for what is right and not going along with something just for politics sake. . . .
<http://www.chicagoreport.net/archives/000678.php> ***** -- Yoshie
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