I got the 8 disc collectors set back some time ago. Can't remember what I paid, but it sure wasn't as low as $20! Great find.:thumbsup:
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The eight disk Hornblower and sixteen disk Sharpe's sets are must haves.:beer:
Just started the Hornblower series, a couple of discs into it and I like it. Really well done. Glad I picked it up. I'll have to keep an eye out for the Sharpe series.
I prefer Gregory Peck as Hornblower mostly as that is the one I grew up with, and always enjoy watching. I'm surprised though that no one made mention of films Like "I Remember Nelson", or "That Hamilton Woman" old classics which were actually remade in the late thirties!!
While Peck's Hornblower was always a must watch when it came on TV while I was growing up, I never watched "That Hamilton Woman" when it was on. I don't recall ever seeing "I remember Nelson" on TV. I did find "That Hamilton Woman" on YouTube so here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evl7ldotkRI
I couldn't find the classic "I Remember Nelson" but did run across a 1982 series. It is a four part series but only three are available. I read that the forth was not shown due to the Falklands War at the time. Here are the three shown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ssSOyGfQis
I noticed that the links to all the episodes of "Sharpe's" series I posted on this thread were no longer available. I went back replaced the old links with new ones so that you can watch them again. If you prefer you can also access the series at this link:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...g--i158dRBdldp
These are now available. Unfortunately the only version of Sharpe's Peril that wasn't divided into several videos has subtitles. Here they are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07jRJv4Y_5A
Master & Commander; goofs and errors
As for continuity errors, that would take another 3 or 4 more pages...
The distinctive Pinnacle Rock seen in the Galápagos was created by the US Navy using it for target practice in World War II.
Following the first encounter with the Acheron, Captain Aubrey inspects a chart using a magnifier. In the magnified image, a pattern of ink overspray is visible surrounding each letter in the phrase "Hidden Reef" as the magnifier is panned over it (at around 18 mins). Such a pattern is precisely characteristic of modern-day inkjet printers, but of neither quill pens or the printing presses of the period.
In the closing scenes, as the dead are buried at sea, the crew is saying the Lord's Prayer (at around 2h 00 mins). Given the year, they would be using the version known by all from The Book of Common Prayer (1662 edition): "Our Father, which art in heaven..." Instead they say, "Our Father, who art in heaven..." the first instance of which actually appeared in the American Book of Common Prayer (1892 Revision). As a ship of the King's Navy, the established Anglican Book of Common Prayer would be the normative source of liturgy and prayer.
When Hollom has a panic attack after being menaced by the crew, Midshipman Blakeney asks (at around 1h 20 mins) "Are you O.K. Mr. Hollom?" Although the movie is set in 1805, according to the Webster New World Dictionary of the American Language (second college edition) "O.K." is an American colloquialism which was first used March 23, 1839 by C.G. Greene in the Boston Morning Post (Webster New World Dictionary of the American Language (second college edition) p. 989.)
The silverware used at the Captain's table and during the brain surgery scene (spoon at 00:24:11) is machine made and of a style that would not have been used till after the late 1830s when techniques for smithing changed. Spoons of that era would likely not be molded in one piece.
The captain and his dinner guests sing "Don't Forget Your Old Shipmate" (at around 59 mins), a song composed by Richard C. Saunders, an officer in the Royal Navy who was not born until 1809.
Some of the signal flags hanging from Surprise when under the sun didn't exist in the Napoleonic era. They would seem to spell Surprise as there are the same number of flags as letters in Surprise, but they don't actually spell or signal anything.
Throughout the fighting, pistols are seen to function well. During this time period, flintlock pistols failed to discharge up to 50% of the time, and were considered a secondary weapon in close combat.
Captain Aubrey rejects sailing into the "rain forest" of Brazil for a new mast (at around 23 mins). The word "rain forest" was brought into English by a literal translation of the German word "regenwald" from a book written in 1898 and translated into English in 1903.
During the cricket match on the Galapagos, the bowler is shown delivering the ball overarm (at around 1h 30 mins). A technique that was illegal under the laws of cricket until 1864, in 1805 only underarm bowling was deemed legal.
Just before the final battle, the doctor is told (at around 1h 45 mins) "there's three lumps in there" (referring to a cup of tea). Lumps of sugar were not invented until 1840, well after the time of the movie.
The film is set in 1805, yet the book handed to Blakeney by the Captain was actually written in 1806: The Victories of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, by Archibald Duncan.
Unlike the Army, the Royal Marines used adults as drummers, not children.
When Aubrey decides to follow the Acheron into Valpariso, he order's the crew beat to quarters (at around 2h 06 mins). As a result, we see crew members and Royal Marines climbing the rigging into their assigned places on the mast (actually, repeated shots from beat-to-quarters responses from earlier scenes). However, in the overhead shot of the Rose/Surprise, there are clearly no men positioned anywhere above the deck (at around 2h 07 mins).
Prior to the first encounter with the Acheron we see the watch glass turned and eight bells struck (at around 3 mins). A few moments later (at around 26 mins), we see the glass turned again and six bells is stuck which would mean that three hours had passed, yet the ship is still clearing for action, something which would have taken ten to fifteen minutes.
When Maturin is wounded, the bullet is removed from his left side (at around 1h 30 mins). However, when he and Aubrey are discussing the length of their stay at the Galapagos, he is holding his right side and using a cane on that side as well (at around 1h 35 mins).
The two insects referred to as 'weevils' during the scene around the Captains Mess table (at around 34 mins) were most certainly not weevils. The insects historically referred to as 'biscuit weevils', at the time, were extremely small and would not have shown up on camera therefore some artistic licence was taken to make the scene work.
In many scenes HMS Surprise/HMS Rose is clearly motoring, as the sails are either hanging limp or aback. In one scene the ship seems to be making at least 5 knots with all sails backed (at around 1h 12 mins).
Traditionally, and continuing to current times, toasts in the British Navy are not preceded by "to". For example, "Lord Nelson" not (at around 20 mins) "To Lord Nelson".
When Captain Aubrey orders the Surprise due South after battling around the horn, Lieutenant Pullings says, "Due South, Mr Bonden," to Barrett Bonden, who is at the wheel. The prefix "Mr" was used only for officers and would not have been used to refer to Bonden, who was the captain's coxswain and so not an officer. Also have to wonder about that order, due south from Cape Horn, into Antarctica?
As the "Surprise" sails around the Horn and the weather deteriorates, the ship begins to ice up. However, in one shot the icicles on the bow of the ship are hanging straight down (at around 57 mins), which could not happen unless the "Surprise" was becalmed.
During the Storm when the Surprise is chasing the Acheron around Cape Horn, Barrett Bonden is shown alone at the wheel. It was customary on a Royal Navy vessel of the time to always have at least two men at the wheel both as a security measure in case one man was injured in battle, and because the rudder itself was extremely heavy and difficult to turn. During any sort of heavy weather there would certainly have been four or more men at the wheel as one man would not be able to control the rudder (which is why the ship has two connected wheels).
At the beginning of the movie Surprise is shown with a white pennant, indicating she was under independent command; however, during the final fight with the Acheron the Surprise flies a Red Ensign. She should have been flying a White Ensign.
When Aubrey is teaching the midshipmen to use a sextant to determine Noon by using the Sun, they are facing toward the bow of the ship, or South. At that point in the movie the ship was below the equator, so they should have been facing North, towards the stern of the ship.
When the Surprise, while disguised as a whaling ship, is being chased by the Acheron, the smoke from the Surprise is trailing behind her (at around 1h 45 mins). That would only be possible if the wind was coming from dead ahead, which is impossible in a sailing vessel.
When Lieutenant Pulling is given command of the captured Acheron, he is hailed as "Captain" before leaving the Surprise (at around 2h 04 mins). Such an officer would be the "prize master" of that vessel and referenced by his rank. Within the Royal Navy the title of "captain" was only applied to an officer, regardless of rank, who was assigned as the commander of a commissioned vessel (which a prize ship was not).
To pretend to be a whaling ship, Surprise removes its topgallant masts, apparently to change its appearance. Drawing and paintings of whaling ships show them to have been rigged in the same manner as any ships of their era; that is, with main, top, and topgallant masts. Thus there is no reason for the modification shown, and it would be far more likely to make the Acheron cautious because of the odd modified appearance of the Surprise.
Near the end of the film when the crew are playing cricket on the island the camera pans out to show the batsman in front of three stumps. However cricket didn't start to be played with three stumps until at least 50 years after the film is set. At the time of the movie time people only played with two.
At the end of the film, Aubrey sends the de-masted prize Acheron to Valparaiso, Chile, for repairs. Valparaiso is 3,000 miles from the Galapagos Islands, and, in 1805, was a tiny village without appropriate port facilities to dock or repair anything as large as a frigate. Valparaiso did not become a major port until after Chilean Independence from Spain (1810). Guayaquil (in modern Ecuador) would have been a more appropriate choice, being about 750 miles from the Galapagos, and being a major port in 1805. The choice between the two ports was moot, anyway, since both municipalities were Spanish territory in 1805, and thus were allied with the French, and hostile to the British.
When the ships go around Cape Horn you see it in the distance. But the rock you see is not Cape Horn. Cape Horn is a 400 metre high rock face.
In the opening scene when Surprise is attacked by Acheron, Captain Aubrey gives to command to "run out the starboard battery" (at around 28 mins). We then cut to the gun deck showing the guns not yet run out (at around 38 mins). However, Calamy ordered beat-to-quarters at 06:20 and while the boats were being lowered at 08:18 the port guns can be seen already run out and in a long shot from the stern at 08:24 the starboard guns appear to have been run out as well.
The Acheron is supposed to be a 44-gun frigate built in America and sold to a French privateer. No large American-built warship was sold to any foreign concern (nation or individual) during this time period (except the 74-gun ship-of-the-line "America" given to France after the Revolutionary War). American-built warships did not have a good reputation in Europe (something reinforced by the poorly built "America"). It was not until the War of 1812 that the large American frigates proved the superiority of their design. The use of a large American-built frigate in the story is apparently a holdover from the book in which it is an American warship which is pursued.
So all in all, nice movie, dramatic, fun to watch. Accurate, lol no.
I kind of thought due to their age and subject matter they wouldn't be high on anyone's popular list, but with all the YouTube videos and such was slightly taken aback that no one had even made mention of them. In the mid seventies I had the pleasure of watching "That Hamilton Woman" a number of times aboard ship because our Captain was a big Vivian Leigh fan! That was in the days when the nightly movie was shown on a projector on the mess decks, as VHS tapes hadn't hit the market as yet!! Those were the days!! :happy:
Years ago even before WS&IM, the reason that movie caught my eye was because Vivian Leigh was in it.
Your Captain has good taste.
Yeah, I always liked her too! According to David Selznick it was the part that captured the roll of Scarlett in "Gone With The Wind" for her!
I can remember how amazed I was when I was a kid hearing her speak with her own English accent after watching her in "Gone With The Wind." There seem to be a lot of British and Australian actors and actresses that can perform in movies and television and use various American accents convincingly. It seems like I'd be used to it by now but it still amazed me after watching a few episodes of "The Walking Dead" and then hearing some of the cast, particularly the main character, speaking with a British accent. When I watch most American actors who try or tried to do the opposite in movies, its laughable.
To do an accent properly, one must not only listen (in order to hear how it sounds), but not force it -- which is where most American actors fail.
Once, I was waiting in line at the local Barnes & Noble, and one of the cashiers had a full-bore Scottish accent. By the time I reached the top of the stack -- and guess which cashier I got? :) -- I was sounding like Sean Connery. She actually asked me which town in Scotland I was born in; the look on her face when I told her I was originally from Southern California, but had a talent for voice-mimicry....
(It gets worse: I'm a fan of the original _Iron Chef_. I've seen the episodes where everyone is dubbed *except* Chairman Kaga; so I can now do a solid mimicry of his voice. And it's transferred to my feeble attempts to speak Japanese -- Kaga has an "accent" which causes him to smash the end of words ending in vowel-sounds, so "tofu" comes out "tof'" -- so not only don't I speak Japanese, I don't speak Japanese *with an accent*.)
actually for those stateside, netflix carries all of them on dvd
Master and Commander for me. But now that we have links to the full length movies I am going to have to watch the others
I have found another film. It is called Mutiny. It is set in the 1812 war starring Mark Stevens, Patric Knowles and a young Angela Lansbury as a scheming temptress. It is pretty average stuff but they use an early submarine at the end to defeat the British. It is available to watch on Youtube.
Just saw Damn the Defiant! 1962 with Alec Guiness. Damn fine film! :clap:
Voted Master and Commander, mostly because it's the only one I've seen, but also because it really caught my imagination when I first saw it, I already loved ships of sail, and this movie was the first to really give that love something to feed on and grow. I remember my father watching Horatio Hornblower when I was young, but I never had much interest in it back then, not really sure why, and nowadays I just don't have the time to watch it, sadly.
With Spanish ships on the way, perhaps we will recreate battles such as this (Of course having a Hornblower Captain card just wouldn't be fair):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwwZMk4fnIc
As I was brought up on the Hornblower books I relish a bit of a tussle against the Spanish.
Bligh.:clap:
Damn the Defiant but if the original Mutiny on the Bounty had been there I probably would have voted for that.
(1935 Charles Loughton and Clark Gable, with if you can spot them James Cagney and David Niven)
For me it was hands down Master And Commander, the characters (Killick and the old man), the on deck realism, was just awesome. Hornblower was good too (the series is on Youtube) but it just seemed Horatio was too much in control of his own destiny (he could have fallen down the gullet of a great white and ended up in the captains cabin with a promotion and eating a plate of sushi). But it was an admirable series. I really enjoyed The Bounty with Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson, and from a military outlook, it was the most realistic in my opinion.
Master and commander for me, love it, will watch again tonight.
Sharpe's series is great, i remember them on ITV when they first showed. Sean Bean is an awesome actor too.
I would love to see a sequel to M&C, sadly it wont probably happen, shame. :sad:
Master and Commander, hands down.
My parents (now me I guess since they both have passed), owned a home south of Ensenada, Mexico. I remember traveling along the road seeing a frigate moored near the mouth of the big tank down there where my parents described seeing RMS Titanic a couple of years before and seeing a ship being built nearby (either the movie version of Surprise or Acheron) I never forgot that. The frigate moored outside was without a doubt the frigate I have loved these many years HMS Surprise (ex HMS Rose) and actually had the honor to sail aboard in 2012. Master and Commander will always be my favorite.
1) Master and Commander
2) Horatio Hornblower series
3) Horatio Hornblower Gregory Peck film
My first sea faring film as a kid was the Errol Flynn/ Basil Rathbone "Captain Blood" (which I loved)...then I saw Gregory Peck in Hornblower -- it impelled me to burn through all the novels one summer (including the companion map book). I really enjoyed the TV series with Ioan Gruffudd (and it caused me to read all the novels once again). However, when I saw Master & Commander in the theater on the big screen it became my all time favorite age of sail film.