Russell Crowe may reprise Jack Aubrey role in Master & Commander movie

Honestly, I can’t recall Aubrey ever, EVER, saying grace in the books (nor Foresters Hornblower, nor Ramage, or any other literary captains… although POB has his characters referring to such captains as “blue light” officers.

Societies then and now have always had elements of the secular and profane, balanced with seekers for the sacred within it… as humans have always needed a Savior from our human failings. Remember, Maturin and many others were only nominally Christians (one might say “cultural”, small c christians) and the crews included at one point Sethians and other odd offshoots. What I think was MOST accurately depicted was in fact that human response - crude, human behavior in good times, followed by a reliance on and references to God in hard times (go watch again, and mark down when Aubrey remarks reflexively, “God be praised”, and when he prays in front of the crew - in times of stress and deliverance.

I think they rather hit the mark rather accurately with the first film, having read the books repeatedly over the years. However, the mark was: represent the novels, as written, rather than as anyone else’s revisionist history. POB wrote the characters as distinct individuals within their mileu, each with his OWN belief set, as indeed is every man jack serving at sea today. Aubreys philandering (a nod to that with the replenishment scene while touching at Brazil), Maturins drug abuse, cursing, whoring, hazing and other human failings were presented as in the novels, but the producers also completely kept with the novels balanced depiction of deeply and sincerely held superstitions (e.g. the superstition of sailors in a “Jonah”, “scratch a stay, turn three times”, etc) and equally prevalant religious beliefs (e.g. “God be praised” (upon a fair wind), the (full!) Lords Prayer during the burial scene, etc. When was the last time you heard a Christian prayer recited in a film (without some snide joke)? I did note at one of the screenings I attended, one man in front of me was visibly agitated at hearing Russell Crowe reading the service, and he cursed and bolted from the theater, missing the final part of the film.

I guess theres no pleasing everyone.

God bless also!
Jeff

Kennesaw, Georgia, The United States of America

If they want to make this historically accurate they need to invoke more deeply the religious and christian character of Napoleonic era Europeans. It’s a problem with modern movies in that they have people from the 19th and 18th centuries barely mentioning anything religious on screen as though society was as secular back then as it is today. They should have Captain Aubrey and his crew doing prayers, saying grace before meals, etc.

God Bless,