Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

Then there's Russell Crowe.  Okay, I have a thing about him.  I've been ridiculed, teased and worse.  But at least he's a great actor as well as being, to me, mighty sexy.  But even with Crowe, I don't see everything he's in.  I'm not totally irrational.  But I do love one of his movies that you'd think no red blooded girly girl would tolerate:  "Master and Commander".  No, I haven't read any of the book series, any more than I would read a Tom Clancy book.  I have my gender identification intact.  But "Master and Commander" is engaging, well-written and edited and terrifically acted.  I found myself fascinated by life on a boat in the seventeen hundreds, as well as battle stations, pirates, and the whole nine yards.  Peter Weir is a great director, and here, as in "Witness" and others of his films, he has pulled us into a foreign world in time, place and thinking and made it come fully alive.  Crowe as the captain and Paul Bettany as his best friend and physician on board with a Darwinian taste for describing the exotic species of plants and animals they encounter, are pitch perfect together.  The music they play is exquisite, and their harmony passionately fought for over personality differences.  The man of action and the man of contemplation are atune.  Crowe learned to play the violin for this role.  One of the subplots involves two young boys, living on the sea away from their families for years, and those actors are riveting as well.  It was as if Jane Austen's brother's life was finally made manifest for those of us centuries later.  I've seen this movie probably eight or ten times, and I find new delights in it each time I watch it.  I wish I'd seen it in the theater on a big screen, but then, I assumed I'd hate it.  Instead, I see the beauty of that long ago life option, and the fellowship and depth of feeling these sailors shared.  I'm not ready to enlist on a submarine, but I respect the life and understand it's appeal at last.