MovieChat Forums > Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) Discussion > Why Root for the British?

Why Root for the British?

posted 13 years ago by ballston54
71 replies | jump to latest

Just caught this again a few days ago (after seeing it when it first came out) and something occurred to me that didn't previously: as an American why should we root for the British, who of course are meant to be the good guys here? After all, it was only a couple of decades prior, that the U.S. and Britain fought each other in the American Revolution. A few more years down the road, they would clash again in the War of 1812. And the British are fighting the French in the movie (Napoleonic Wars), who were our ally in our Revolution. Kind of ironic I think.

[–] SupeRed09 12 years ago

Because they were against the French, what other reason could you possible need?

[–] Lucy9596 12 years ago

Because the film is told from their POV. If the French crew were the protagonist, we would root for them.

If the idea is to stay alive, I'm driving.

[–] annlevtex 12 years ago

Well I know the books spanned the period between the Napoleanic Wars and the War of 1812. They set it in the earlier period to avoid offending the American audience. Can't say I blame them, since I would never have rooted for the British against the Americans in 1812! That's when our Anthem was written!

But rooting for the British against the French was a no-brainer. Especially this little floating world of companions paid by Crowe, Bettany, etc. How could you not root for them?

Unless of course you are French....

[–] rmiikku 12 years ago

Simply because Americans could never get through a movie where they spoke French.

[–] Reephaman 12 years ago

Ironically, the conflict between HMS Surprise and the super-frigate called The Acheron was based on a real conflict between HMS Geurriere and USS Constitution in the War of 1812. The producers readily admitted that the US audiences would not be ablle to handle being cast as the enemy so the story was transferred to 1805 with a French opponent. The only ship in the world that embraced the technology that purported to be in the Acheron was the USS Constitution.

I would have loved to see how US audiences would cope with rooting for Aubrey against the nasty Yanks. Payback for some of the historically distorted crap that the Brits have to put up with. Suck on that, Mel Gibson!

[–] unexplained98 10 years ago

The same story in 2 parts, one from the British perspective and the other from an American (like Flags of our Fathers/Letters from Iwo Jima) would have been interesting.

[–] jglapin 12 years ago

Why? Because blood is thicker than water.

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[–] Blueghost 10 years ago

by ballston54 » Wed Jan 25 2012 14:35:44
IMDb member since November 2003
Just caught this again a few days ago (after seeing it when it first came out) and something occurred to me that didn't previously: as an American why should we root for the British, who of course are meant to be the good guys here? After all, it was only a couple of decades prior, that the U.S. and Britain fought each other in the American Revolution. A few more years down the road, they would clash again in the War of 1812. And the British are fighting the French in the movie (Napoleonic Wars), who were our ally in our Revolution. Kind of ironic I think.

Well, I didn't actually. But I still thought it was a finely crafted film. It's been forever since Hollywood cranked out a good classic sea epic, and I was glad to have it.

[–] k.m.bunting 8 years ago

Because the film is based on novels by a British author, silly!

Tom Rothman of 20th Century Fox is quoted as vehemently denying that the plot was changed because "America cannot be seen to be the enemy". The reason was that the War of 1812 is much less well known to the general public than the Napoleonic Wars, and explaining the situation by means of a conversation would have taken up too much time.

[–] syntinen 8 years ago

Tom Rothman of 20th Century Fox is quoted as vehemently denying that the plot was changed because "America cannot be seen to be the enemy".

But then, as Randy Mice-Davies said, "Well, he would, wouldn’t he?"