History Buffs: Master and Commander

[Music] hello and welcome history buffs my name is Nick Hodges and you've wanted it you've asked for it and here it is Master and Commander the far side of the world based on a series of books by Patrick O'Brien this is a film that any self-proclaimed history buff has to watch the story is set to the Napoleonic Wars and Captain Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy is tasked with pursuing a French frigate called the azure on a tense cat-and-mouse chase develops that crosses both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and in this high seas adventure we get a historically accurate picture of what naval combat was like in the Golden Age of sail this is Master and Commander the far side of the world ever since I started history buffs I've been getting numerous requests to discuss the historical accuracy behind Master and Commander and whilst the plot and the characters in the film are completely fictional they have been inspired by real people and real historical events but before I get started I want to discuss the film setting and address something you see at the very beginning of the movie the opening title state the Master and Commander takes place in April 1805 and then it says that Napoleon is master of Europe which in my opinion is debatable at this time I personally feel that title would be more appropriate in 1808 long afters great victories at Austerlitz and Jena but you can argue that he was definitely on his way to becoming master of Europe in April 1805 Napoleon had already crowned himself Emperor of France and through many great victories had expanded French territory his military expansion might have been more successful if it hadn't been for the British we had a Napoleon some others worse defeats the most notable of which was forcing Napoleon and his army to withdraw from Egypt and Syria in 1802 the army and peace treaty was signed between the French and the British but just over a year later everything broke down and both nations want to get at war Napoleon was then convinced that the only way to stop the British was to conquer them during the short-lived peace treaty had wasted no time in building up his armed forces and by April 1805 he had stationed an army of over 200,000 men by the French coast this highly disciplined fighting force drilled and trained daily for months on end waiting for the call to finally invade Great Britain the only thing that stood in their way was the Royal Navy its objective was to blockade French ports forcing any potential invasion fleets to stay docked as well as disrupt French trade the Royal Navy would also attack French interests abroad and sees her merchant vessels as prizes of war dealing a lot of damage to Frances economy and this is where the movie begins Captain Jack Aubrey and his ship the HMS surprise is sent to confront the azure on off the coast of Brazil whose mission is to seize British whaling ships however Albury will soon realize that the ash Ron will be the most formidable ship he has ever faced [Music] at its core master and commander is a classic David and Goliath story with the drama revolving around the clever tactics used by the dueling captains of two French and British warships and that's literally it it's a self-contained plot but it can be extremely effective if handled right I mean if you think about it it's pretty much the basis for every Star Trek movie ever made and whilst Trekkies have the Wrath of Khan as history buffs have Master and Commander and even though it's a piece of fiction it's brimming with history in the film Captain Aubrey is faced with an almost impossible task his ship the HMS surprise is crewed by 197 men and has 28 cannons but the a Chiron is twice her size twice her numbers and twice her guns and is even faster than HMS surprise but the biggest game-changer of all is that the asteroid has an extremely thick hole that is impervious to all breeze cannon fire odds such as these will be enough to keep any ships officers up at night she's more like a shimmer than iron a 2 dagger mourneth rigored you have to wonder about the nature of a hull our shots wouldn't penetrate triple-shot it at 200 yards on our guns at North deck steam occurred where the gage had a clear advantage in fire every frigate like that in the Pacific could tip the balance of war in the ponens favour and so the question stands did the British ever face a ship like the ash Ron in battle and the answer is yes but it wasn't the a Chiron and it wasn't French it was American it was the USS Constitution in the war of 1812 the United States put to sea a frigate that was more advanced than any ship of her class on August 19th 1812 it confronted the British warship the HMS Garry air to east of Boston the garrier brought all her guns to bear and pounded the constitution however the cannonballs had no effect and were reported to simply have bounced off the Constitution's hull an American sailor cried out huzzah her sides are made of iron and this gave birth to the Constitution's nickname Old Ironsides with the garrier being unable to inflict any damage the Constitution wasted no time in returning fire and brought down her mast rending the Guerrier dead in the water leaving her British crew no choice but to surrender the Constitution's victory helped galvanize support for the war and this small engagement out in the Atlantic Ocean became a celebrated part of u.s. naval history so much so that the American public took great effort not just to preserve the Constitution's name but the ship itself today you can find the Constitution in Boston Harbor still in use by the US Navy she is the oldest commissioned warship still afloat and the second oldest commissioned warship in the world the first being HMS Victory Nelson's flagship that he served and died on in the Battle of Trafalgar so what made the USS Constitution so seemingly indestructible what made her battle with the HMS Gary s so one-sided well it all comes down to the material she was made of and some pretty slick ship design now this time most ships throughout the world are made of white oak that is commonly found in Europe but the Constitution's overall frame Ian hull was sheathed in two different species of oak white oak live oak and white oak again now live oak comes from rare oak trees that are indigenous to the southern eastern parts the United States they are generally found in places like the South Carolina swamps and what made it special was that it was extremely resistant to moisture its natural grain in thickness gave it exceptional strength and allowed it to take a lot of stress against the water in the open ocean with a well-designed hole it allowed the ship to go much faster bluff above the water and sharp below gives a holla final entry on a long runner she goes off that's why she's so fast heavier but faster spotted that takes care of its speed but what about its given name Old Ironsides well when a cannonball is fired against a hole made entirely of white oak it is able to punch through cleanly throwing up pieces of splintered wood in all directions and it was the splinters made by a cannonball there was a primary cause of wounds and mutilations in naval combat but if a cannonball is fired against a hole made of both live oak and white oak it simply bounces off that's the future fascinating modern age we live in I once heard the expression that a ship is only as good as her captain and crew and this seems to be the running theme with Master and Commander despite knowing that the surprise is out manned outgunned and outclassed by the a Chiron the audience wonders how can captain or Bree possibly hope to take her down England is under threat of invasion and though we be on the far side of the world this ship is our home this ship is England and therein lies the drama of the film like a deadly game of chess played out in the high seas it's exciting stuff to watch captain all reused some pretty ingenious tactics to evade capture and finally at the end of the movie to seize the Asscher on it comes across as classic well-written historical fiction and most of the time when I review historical movies the main characters and their great deeds are usually more exaggerated than their real-world counterparts and as awesome as Jack Aubrey and his catch of the astron is in the movie it pales in comparison to the real historical figure he's based on and that is Thomas Cochrane if I could only use two words to describe him it would be bad ass I mean this guy has got one of the coolest life stories I have ever read and unfortunately I'll only be able to scratch the surface of his accomplishments so if any of what I'm about to say sounds interesting to you then I strongly urge you to look him up as a naval officer Thomas Cochrane was one of the finest to ever serve in the Royal Navy but he was also one of its most impudent several times throughout his career he had problems with the superior officers and even his peers one high-ranking officer he pissed off was Lord Keith who snubbed him by signing Cochran to a small fourteen gun brig slew called HMS speedy Lord Keith probably hopes that with this posting Cochrane would fade away into obscurity however it was on HMS speedy that Cochran would pull off some of his most famous naval actions as he harassed the Spanish and the French in the Mediterranean like for example one event that Marsden commander was dead the inspired by was when commander Cochran was being pursued by an enemy frigate under the cover of darkness he ordered that his ship HMS speedy be completely blacked out and like in the movie when Jack will be fixed to land him on a small raft Thomas Cochrane attached it to a bucket and set it adrift the enemy frigates full by the roof sailed off into the night after it and Cochran's ship was able to escape this was one of many deception Cochrane pulled off in his career but his favorite method of tricking his enemies has also been adapted by Master and Commander in the final act of the movie Jack Aubrey lures the astron into a trap by disguising the surprise as a whaling ship just like Jack Aubrey in the film Thomas Cochrane also disguised his ship if the odds were against him never anything as intricate as a whaling ship of course but he did keep a variety of different flags in his possession for such an occasion for May the 6th 1801 HMS speedy was off the coast of Barcelona when Cochrane spotted a Spanish frigate it was the el-gamal the ship that was much faster and four times the size of the speedy carrying three hundred and nineteen men compared to his 54 carry thirty-two guns to his fourteen cochrane knew but the speedy had no chance of escaping out gamo he gave the order to sail directly towards her with the wind in their favour the speedy moved quickly as the Spanish captain was still working things out Cochrane orders that an American flag be hoisted causing further confusion amongst the Spaniards only when they were right beside al gamo to Cochrane order the flag be replaced with the British colors because of her immense size alga Mo's cannons could only fire above the speedy since she was so close the Spaniards realising the disadvantage attempts to mobilise boarding parties each time they're getting ready the speedy veered away far enough the Spanish couldn't board but close enough that El Gallo couldn't lower her cannons to hit the speedy all while the speedy repeatedly fired into El Gamal at point-blank range as the Spaniard abandoned their boarding actions Thomas Cochrane decided but the moment was right and ordered all of his men to board al Gamow the fighting was fierce as his crew cut their way through the decks by this point the Spaniard captain had been killed and his crew were beginning to waver seizing the opportunity Cochran ordered one of his men to remove the Spanish flag thinking that their officers had surrendered the ship the Spaniards finally lowered their arms and the battle was over in the aftermath three of Cochran's men had been killed and nine were wounded while Sanel gamo fourteen were killed 41 were wounded and 261 Spanish sailors had now become prisoners of war this was to be one of Thomas Cochran's greatest triumphs on HMS PD alone he captured or destroyed 53 enemy vessels whilst in Master and Commander captain Aubrey is known as lucky Jack Thomas Cochrane was to be known to his enemies as the sea wolf as you can see Master and Commander doesn't try to retell history nor does it pretend to be based on a true story it is however historical fiction done correctly the director of the film Pizza where had a story he wanted to tell but rather than changing history to fit his narrative he changed his narrative to fit history which is how it should be done it is the whole reason why I made this channel in the first place to point out historical inaccuracies and to give my opinion on what makes a good historical film based on those who view history as a handicap to others who realize its potential as a powerful storytelling device the question of the historical accuracy of Braveheart is one that that always makes me laugh I wasn't looking to describe facts or numbers or to quantify William Wallace I wanted to to capture a spirit and a feeling that I had had when movies had changed my life it's terribly important if you're going to create a period in history I think whatever the subject of the film that you pay respect to history and you get it as close as possible this is precisely the reason why I believe movies like Braveheart suck and why films like Master and Commander should be praised and I find it kind of ironic that a film with a completely made-up plot and characters be more historically accurate than a film that professes to be based on a true story and how is that possible well it's the little details that show Peter wears gray care for history like for example I really appreciate that the Midshipmen in Master and Commander are at the appropriate age of around 13 years old because I thought many films I could think of that are set in this period where they show this which is kind of ridiculous seeing how is such a common practice even Horatio Nelson was a midshipman at 13 so it's nice to see Master and Commander set it right another cool scene I like is when the crew sing Spanish ladies two ladies of Spain we see goddess for opening and we open a short time to see you again what a wonderfully true voice mr. Holland possesses to the casual viewer who doesn't know a lot about naval history they might be a little confused as to why captain aubrey looks disapprovingly why the crew stops singing and it has nothing to do with mr. Holland's wonderfully true voice it's because mr. hollom is fraternizing with the crew which at the time was a big no-no the Royal Navy prohibited personal interactions between officers and enlisted men instead the officers would hang out with other officers and the four masked men would hang out with other four masked men the idea behind it was to maintain discipline and a clear chain of command which is what Aubrey is trying to tell hollom later in the movie you don't make friends for the former's Jack's led they'll despise you in the end think you weak nor do you need to be a tyrant like I said before this could have been lost to the casual viewer who might think that the insubordination hollom suffers is from the fact that the crew thinks he's a Jonah and whilst yes that is true the seed of that insubordination seems to have starts in this subtle and yet historically accurate scene and I also got a really big thrill watching Aubrey's crew doing gun practice Great Britain at the time had the greatest Navy in the world and it all boiled down to the extraordinary professionalism of her crews due to their rigorous training they're able to load and fire their cannons every 90 seconds and the ways presented in the movie is extremely accurate no no that's extra ration of grog [Applause] so by now I'm sure you guys are getting a really good sense of what makes Master and Commander such a great film it's all in the little details from the portrayal of the ship's captain to the Midshipmen the tactics the nautical lingo the battles the surgeries you'll be hard-pressed to find another film that does a better job of showing what life was like in Nelson's Navy but if I absolutely had to I could point out some minor criticisms I have at the movie like for example I'm kind of confused as to why a French warship was being built in Boston like I know the USS Constitution was built in Boston and the asteroid is based on her but for the life of me I couldn't find a legitimate answer I also found it really unlikely that a captain would so willingly risk his ship and crew by chasing enemy frigate during a violent storm around Cape Horn which is one of the most dangerous shipping routes of the world especially back in the 1800s I know the captain Aubrey is committed to his duty in all but this is damn near suicidal and if you had to twist my arm and ask me what was my biggest criticism about the movie there would have to be a major change to the script when they adapted Master and Commander from the book the far side of the world in the book the setting takes place in 1812 and not 1805 and atmo surprise is sent after an American ship the USS Norfolk which is preying on British whalers in the Pacific Ocean the Americans would never back a film in which they were the enemy I just was confusing into emotionally for the audience which what the who do they feel for Jack or their own countrymen and given it was an American back picture you know it was asking too much now of course this isn't a deal breaker for me because I love this movie so much but I do find it a real shame with how Hollywood views its audience like their sweet innocent children that need to be sheltered from confusing emotions I think Americans are a little bit more intelligent than that just look at letters from iwo jima the whole movie is talking the perspective of the Japanese as they're fighting Americans and yet not a single Yankees [ __ ] to me that they were emotionally confused by it in fact letters from iwo jima was extremely well received by American audiences so that document goes right at the sodding window but anyway that's my only real criticism about the movie and I'm able to look past it simply because it's clear to me that pizza we're and the filmmakers genuinely cared about bringing this period to life to make their film as historically accurate as possible the common complaints I hear is that it is more important for a film to be entertaining than historically accurate my question to that complaint is is it too hard to ask for both a Master and Commander aren't that question with a resounding no no it's not well that about wraps it up my name is Nick Hodges and thanks for watching history buffs and remember if you like the show help the channel grow if you wish to support history buffs you can now do so at patreon and as always let me know in the comments section what you thought about Master and Commander and of course what historical movie should I review next in the meantime check out the history buffs Twitter and Facebook pages for new updates until then I'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: undefined

Views: 3,259,647

Rating: 4.9240637 out of 5

Keywords: History Buffs, Historical Accuracy, Historical innacuracy, Historically innacurate, Master and Commander, review, Thomas Cochrane, Jack Aubrey, HMS Surprise, The Acheron, USS Constitution, Age of Sail, Napoleonic Wars, Naval Combat

Id: _Iwea41ua0Y

Length: 21min 36sec (1296 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 18 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

One of my favorite book series and movies. I was relieved that it passed muster.

[u/Mercury-Redstone]

The soundtrack is amazing as well! For those of you interested the little violin piece is Mozart's : Violin Concerto No.3 in G, K.216 - 3. Rondo.

The beautiful cello piece is Bach's J.S. Bach: Suite for Cello Solo No.1 in G, BWV 1007 - 1. Prélude.

The movie and soundtrack are both amazing.

[u/FishCake9T4]

Absolutely fantastic movie. Loved the end scene.

[u/AegnorWildcat]

There is one flaw in his argument towards the end, regarding how accepting American audiences would be of the movie if the adversary was an American ship. He gives Letters from Iwo Jima as an example. Letters from Iwo Jima was a small film, with a small budget, and was successful by making $13.7 million domestically. Master and Commander was a big film, with a big budget, which made $94 million.

There are lots of Americans who are sophisticated enough to handle a film such as Letters from Iwo Jima. But if you have a large budget movie and are going after a broader American audience, then you have to evaluate things completely differently. It is one of the dangers of the expansion of the blockbuster in American cinema. You lose some of the freedom that smaller budget films have.

[u/NoBotAlphaTron]

Fanatastic book series, I've read all 21 twice over now, and throughly enjoyed the film. Time to read them again, I think.

[u/ElagabalusRex]

If you like naval history, there's the excellent 2015 Dutch film Admiral about the legendary Michiel de Ruyter, although that one is more about Early Modern politics than action at sea.

[u/Dianuo]

This guy wasn't lying about that Cochrane guy... " In February 1801 at Malta, Cochrane got into an argument with a French Royalist officer at a fancy dress ball. He had come dressed as a common sailor, and the Royalist mistook him for one. This argument led to Cochrane's only duel. Cochrane wounded the French officer with a pistol shot and was himself unharmed "

[u/AnOddSeriesOfTubes]

Just added two movies to my list to watch..

[u/PimpMogul]

Just watched like 5 of this guy's videos. There goes my Sunday.