We continue on now with our conclusion of the quartet of Russell Crowe Oscar films starting with the second consecutive Best Picture Winner that he appeared in.
A year after Gladiator; Crowe played a completely different type of character to Maximus in the form of troubled mathematician John Nash. Even as a somewhat mild-mannered chemistry teacher in The Insider Crowe was an intimidating presence but in A Beautiful Mind he was quite the opposite. The film follows Nash from his time as a student at Princeton to receiving the Nobel Prize for his revolutionary work on game theory. The majority of the film though concentrates of Nash's schizophrenia and the hallucinations that are side effects of the mental illness. Perhaps A Beautiful Mind's most memorable moment is when it's revealed that Nash's Princeton roommate Charles Herman and shady secret agent William Parcher are both imaginary figures. Even though I'd never seen the film before I felt it was quite easy to guess that Charles was an imaginary figure, due to the fact that he always disappeared whenever any other characters came on screen. Meanwhile the revelation about Parcher was more revelatory although it did negate a lot of the more interesting thriller elements of the film that were cast aside in favour of a story about Nash's rehabilitation following a stint in a mental hospital. The final part of the film concentrates on Nash's relationship with his loving wife Alicia as well as his return to Princeton where he became one of the institution's most respected professors. However, I found that this journey through time was almost a little anticlimactic judging by what had gone before.
Although I did go into A Beautiful Mind fresh there were a couple of things that I knew about it ahead of time, such as the fact that Russell Crowe was supposedly robbed of a second Best Actor Oscar for his role here. The rumour goes that, after winning a BAFTA for the role, Crowe's argument with an editor over a poem cost him points with the Academy. However, I would assert that Crowe's performance in A Beautiful Mind simply wasn't strong enough and I felt that his turn wasn't particularly memorable. The film itself had its moments most notably when Akiva Goldsman's adapted screenplay added a little bit of humour to otherwise stifled character of Nash. But Goldsman's weakness was his pacing and there were times were the narrative ground to a halt most notably just after Nash is released from the mental facility. Of the other performers, only Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly truly shone as Alicia Nash giving a well-rounded turn as a woman who discovered she'd taken on a lot more than she'd originally thought. I personally felt that Connelly provided the emotional core of the film and she provided the majority of A Beautiful Mind's most compelling moments. The film occasionally presented some interesting visual sequences in which Nash's theories would be constructed via light and fill the screen. Unfortunately these moments were few and far between and the only other highlight that I noted was James Horner's haunting score. Ultimately there's nothing particularly wrong with A Beautiful Mind; it's a solid biopic with solid direction by Ron Howard, but there's nothing particularly groundbreaking about it either and I feel that it won the Best Picture prize simply because it's one of those 'issue movies' that the Academy loves so dearly.
Another love of the Academy's older members is an epic swashbuckling adventure that harkens back to the films of the 1930s. They were give this two years later in Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World; an adaptation of three books by Patrick O'Brian chronicling the Napoleonic War ventures of Captain 'Lucky' Jack Aubrey. In the lead role of Aubrey, Crowe wasn't the recipient of a Best Actor nod but the film did receive ten Oscar nominations, a tally only bettered by that year's Best Picture winner. Set in 1805, the film focuses on Aubrey's ship the HMS Surprise and its pursuit of the French privateer Acheron. The film's main themes are about the notions of hierarchy and tradition on the ship and how sometimes these can cause problems for the crew. The main relationship the film explores is that between Aubrey and the ship's doctor Stephen Maturin who are presented as old friends. The pair argue about Jack's occasional pig-headedness and Stephen's love of nature as opposed to his friend's preoccupation with warfare. In fact, there isn't a lot of action in Master and Commander, which I feel is rather a good thing as it allows the audience to get a feel for what it's really like being on the ship. Peter Weir explores every aspect of the Surprise from the crew's quarters to the Captain's table and punctuates the action-packed scenes with some quieter moments. Obviously, the final twenty minutes or so is devoted to the Surprise's final attack on the Acheron in which they disguise themselves as a whaler to avoid detection. Weir and co-screenwriter John Collee build up the tension in this final scene perfectly and so the pay-off is even more satisfactory. However, I'm still not quite sure what the film's final scene achieved and it made me believe that some people were clamouring for a Master and Commander sequel.
Of the ten nominations Master and Commander was awarded by the Academy it only won two; for Cinematography and Sound Editing. I'd certainly say that these were the two elements of Master and Commander that were the best especially Russell Boyd's cinematography which I believe was integral to the narrative of the film. Boyd takes the audience into every part of the ship and captures every skirmish perfectly and as a result gets us involved in the action. Meanwhile sound designer Richard King went out of his way to record realistic sounds particularly for the storm and battle scene. In fact I found all of Master and Commander's period detail to be spot on from the costumes worn by each crew member to the construction of the HMS Surprise itself. I suppose one could say that at times Master and Commander is a film that favours style over substance as the plot was quite easy to follow. But that's not to say that Master and Commander was poorly written as I felt that I knew all of the major characters and their key motivations. Furthermore I found that Russell Crowe was the ideal choice to play Aubrey due to his commanding presence. Whilst I didn't think the role required a much range from him as something like The Insider I found him to be utterly believable a the conflicted captain. Oddly Paul Bettany, who played Charles in A Beautiful Mind, played opposite Crowe once again here as Stephen. Due to this I spent a good twenty minutes trying to decide whether or not the doctor was in fact a real character or just a confidant that the Captain had imagined. It was only when Stephen started to interact with other crew members that I believed he was real and by the end Bettany had turned him into a compelling member of the crew. Although old-fashioned in its storytelling; Master and Commander's visual prowess made it stand out from the crowd and overall I felt it was deserving of its place among the pantheon of Oscar-nominated movies.
That's your lot for now, next time we will be going back in time again as I look at three more films from the 1930s and 1940s.
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