Special Notes:
Also available in a two-disc Collector's Edition and a modified 1.33:1 full screen edition.

Story Synopsis:
Based upon the novels by Patrick O’Brian, "Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World" tells the story of Captain Jack Aubrey (Crowe) and the crew of his ship, the H.M.S. Surprise, who, during the 1800’s set off to defend themselves and England from Napoleon’s fleet. This is a surprisingly quiet action film by director Peter Weir ("Witness," "The Truman Show"). (Suzanne Hodges)

DVD Picture:
DVD/D-VHS Comparative Review

The anamorphically enhanced DVD and high-definition D-VHS D-Theater pictures (framed at 2.40:1) both nicely represent the stylized Oscar®-winning vision of the filmmakers with desaturated images that visually complement the 19th Century storytelling. Viewed alone, the DVD is quite pleasing, with the muted color palette appearing well balanced. The sky is often blown-out and blacks drop off with little detail or definition. When compared to the DVD, the D-VHS picture is warmer by candlelight, better delineated, and more detailed into the darkest scenes. Viewing in a completely blackened room is recommended for both formats, but the D-VHS is definitely the better way to experience the extremely dark visuals. The DVD tends to appear a bit muddy at times, while the D-Theater version is clean and crisp. Edge enhancement is noticed on both formats, but is not a huge problem on either. There are some scenes that appear a bit smeared or soft, and some pixelization is detected on the DVD at times. When it comes to this title, the D-VHS D-Theater version is the way to go. (Suzanne Hodges)

Soundtrack:
The Dolby® Digital and DTS® Digital Surround™ 5.1-channel soundtracks (both with Surround EX™ center back channel content) are quite an accomplishment in fidelity, spatial dimensionality, and tonality. In every scene, there is a complete sense of immersion as the sounds of the creaking ship, as well as that of the ocean, literally surround the listener with tremendous realism. It’s very easy to lose yourself in the audio mix and feel as though you are aboard the H.M.S Surprise. Also, there is an amazing amount of individual soundtrack elements in each of the five channels that’s really fun to experience. For example, the creaking of the ship is mixed differently in each of the five channels, so individual sounds are not duplicated at the same time. These elements bounce around the holosonic™ soundstage during the course of each scene-back and forth, front and back, as well as all over the place-but in perfect channel orchestration. There are two major battles in this film that bookend the movie’s story and truly push the envelope when it comes to home theatre surround sound. Amazing is an understatement as in these scenes. Our Dorrough Sound Monitor shows activity from all audio channels peaking and holding maximum output for quite lengthy intervals. The final battle fills the listening space with an intense spatially dimensional soundstage. LFE in these scenes is extremely powerful and deeply penetrating. In addition to the two battles, the storm sequence that starts around the 47-minute mark should exhaust your surround loudspeaker system with highly immersive and incredible sonic activity. Even with the very high SPLs produced seemingly throughout the entire presentation, the subtle nuances of the soundtrack stay very clear with accurate detail. After experiencing this entire film on D-VHS D-Theater, you will understand why this film won the 2004 Academy Award® for Sound Editing. The DTS version (full 1509 kbps on D-Theater) employs a much wider soundfield, as well as being a bit more detailed, showing more dynamic range, and being more immersive than the Dolby Digital Surround EX version. On our Dorrough Sound Monitor, the DTS version showed as much center surround activity as that of the Dolby Digital Surround EX encoded version. (Jeffrey Kern)

This Disc Contains The Following WSR-Rated Superb Qualities:
Superb Cinematography
Superb Sound Effects Recording Quality