#I wanted to answer this privatly but I messed something up with the draft idk

[hms-tardimpala]

I saw your tags on my master and commander post and it took me like a full minute to realize when you said one of your top 3 ships you meant relationship and not tallship 😂😂😂

I was definitely watching it for the boats, the sets, and the depiction of sailing culture in the time period. It's wild that they actually did some of thr filming in the Galapagos islands.

They really made it hard not to ship Aubrey and Maturin, though, eh? They literally play duets with each other!!!

I'd love to hear some of your favorite thoughts about the movie if you want, but also no pressure if you don't feel like it or don't have time.

Okay, so. First of all, I'm not very good at talking about media I love past saying "I love it". The people of the server astonish me with their analysis skills. So I'll just say what I really like/what I thought was well executed. And I won't be able not to mention the books, sorry. THANK YOU for allowing me to talk about something I love, though.

(The HMS Surprise is definitely my number one tall ship, by the way 😁)

More than the Jack/Stephen ship, I'm into the Aubrey-Maturin series for the same reasons you watched the movie. I love the sea, naval history, the Napoleonic period, and ships. I also love books/films/shows that go into the social details of a historical period. Jane Austen style, you know. (the books have been described as "Jane Austen at sea" and it's so true)

I think the movie did that well. It portrays the hierachy and class rules in the Navy and british society at large at that time. It always takes the time to show that there can be leeway in this very codified environment, though: fraternisation when success is achieved against impossible odds, Jack allowing Stephen to be his rebel and to question his decisions when captains in the Royal Navy basically had the power of God on their ship, etc. These things couldn't necessarily happen on land, in England, but in this wooden world where men are driven to extremes, they are possible. The movie really makes it clear that Jack isn't the sole hero here, the whole crew is, and this is a group effort of every minute.

One of the layers of Jack and Stephen's relationship is how different their backgrounds are. Even without reading the books, you must have noticed how at odds with the rest of the characters Stephen is (and not only because he won't wear a uniform). Jack is a navy man through and through, since childhood, a red-blooded englishman who believes in and embodies the establishment, although he is able to recognize that there are rotten apples in the barrel and that the powers that be aren't necessarily wise or worth following. Stephen is a civillian: Irishman, catholic, physician, naturalist, an Age of Enlightenment man, who believes that the class system and monarchies are rotten and should give way to a more egalitarian regime. Still, he has a strong sense of duty and puts all his skills in the service of the Naval Intelligence (not shown in the movie), because Bonaparte is just worse than the british state. Stephen's lack of knowledge of/disregard for the ancestral customs of the Navy enables him to be a friend to Jack, an equal, when captains are supposed to be alone (see: Silver being a partner to Flint in a way Gates, a simple quartermaster, never was). They make each other better by disregarding the usual rules of british society in the privacy of their cabin (yeah, they canonically share the cabin, btw). Their use of first names for each other in the movie is a great example: at this time and between a captain and a surgeon, it should be totally inappropriate. (See: Flint calling Gates "Hal")

I like how the movie handles the theme of duty. The characters are in the military in wartime, so obviously they live and breathe duty. Jack's character and his relationship with Stephen are well written enough that it's 100% believable that he would go on an Achab-style quest for the Acheron, going beyond his orders, AND drop it to have Stephen operated on land because he's looking at that cello in his cabin and thinking that no, he can't do it, he can't sacrifice this one, duty be damned. I eat that up.

The fight choreography is amazing. The battle scene at the end is so obviously the result of a lot of talented people working very hard. The music makes your soul travel (the Boccherini string quintet is one of the sounds of love to me). The historical accuracy is crazy insane. (Except that in this particular context, it would make more sense for the enemy ship to be american, not french, like in the book, but eh, american movie. And once you accept this one, the rest is accurate as fuck). The clothes, the technology, the ship, the children at war, oh my it's so perfect. Every time you watch, you catch new details. It's funny! The books have great humor, and that carried over to the movie. It has great performances, too.

I just love it. It stands strong on its own, but when you've read the books, sure you see everything that's missing, but damn, few fandoms are blessed with such a good adaptation.

I can only recommend the books with all my heart, it's one of the rare series of which I can say that it changed me as a person and I'm better for it. The start can be rough because of the naval jargon (although you like ships already, so who knows), but in my experience you can just ignore it and your brain will absorb it and deduce the meaning from the situation as you go along. By the third book, you'll be convinced you can sail a tall ship and you'll be able to predict how the characters will fix damage/alter course/fight, etc. The books just score high on all the points you can expect them to hit.

Here are some posts to make you want to read the books because I can't help myself:

Sorry this was so long. Sorry it turned into a book recommendation. Sorry I rambled (I'm low on grammar and english fluency at this hour). Thank you for giving me the occasion to ramble. Love 💙