FEATURE COLUMN

Fall 2003 Movie Preview

By Sara Michelle Fetters

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MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD

(Directed by Peter Weir, starring Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany, James D’Arcy and Billy Boyd, written by Weir, John Collee and Larry Ferguson based on the novels by Patrick O’Brian, opening Nov. 14)

The director of “Witness,” “Picnic at Hanging Rock,” “Fearless” and “The Truman Show” returns with this big budget high seas spectacle based on the novels of Patrick O’Brian. Weir is a director I’d follow just about anywhere, his movies having a depth of soul and potency of spirit so few can even hint at. While it is the second cannonball and seafaring daring-do movie of the year behind “The Pirates of the Caribbean,” don’t expect the director or star Crowe to let their film have much of the cartoon frenziness that pervaded the Disney hit. This has all the makings of a very serious affair, and with these two at the helm I would hope for nothing less.

THE LAST SAMURAI

(Directed Edward Zwick, starring Tom Cruise, Billy Connolly, Ken Watanabe, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tony Goldwyn and Timothy Spall, written by John Logan, Marshall Herskovitz and Zwick)

Call it “Dances with Samurai” if you will, but there is still no getting around the fact that the trailer for “Courage Under Fire” director Zwick’s new film certainly engages the senses. When this showed before “The Matrix Reloaded” the audience fell into a hushed calm, the sights of legions of samurai racing along the battlefields of Japan a mind-blowing spectacle. For the most part, I’ve been a huge fan of the director’s for some time now, both “Glory” and “Courage Under Fire” classics of their genre. Yet, Zwick does have an unwholesome knack for glossy melodrama learned from his “Thirtysomething” days, and that’s hampered him greatly in misfires like “Legends of the Fall” and “Leaving Normal.” I don’t expect that to be a problem here, though, the battlefield and all its moral chaos a place this director seems to feel more than at home on.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING

(Directed by Peter Jackson, starring Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellan, Orlando Bloom, Liv Tyler, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, John Rhys-Davies, Christopher Lee, Andy Serkis, Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving, written by Jackson, Frances Walsh, Philippa Boyens based on the novel by J. R. R. Tolkien, opening Dec. 17)

No surprise here, I know, but how could the finishing chapter in what may be the greatest trilogy ever filmed not be the one movie I want to see more than any other? Not much really to say, here, save that Jackson has more pressure on him to deliver than just about any director in history. In most circles, the Oscar for Best Picture has already been given to him, the accolades for his work ready to come streaming in wave upon wave. Only problem, the film isn’t here, yet, and with great expectations can come great (hello George Lucas) catastrophe. So far, the director has not only met expectation with his first two epics, but has exceeded them. Can he go three-for-three? Is there anyone out there not aching to find out?

I can’t finish without mentioning some other key films being released this fall that are definitely of interest. By month, they are:

OCTOBER – The Coen Brother’s “Intolerable Cruelty,” Sundance favorite “The Station Agent,” Peter Hedges “Pieces of April,” Claude Chabrol’s “The Flower of Evil,” Disney’s “Brother Bear,” Jane Campion’s erotic thriller starring Meg Ryan “In the Cut,” Nicole Kidman and Anthony Hopkins in “The Human Stain” and Ridley Scott’s remasterd classic “Alien.”

NOVEMBER – Neo and company in “The Matrix Revolutions,” Cannes winner “Elephant,” Sean Penn and Naomi Watts in “21 Grams,” the based-on-fact plagiarism thriller “Shattered Glass,” “Gothika” with Halle Berrry, Ron Howard’s “The Missing,” “Bad Santa” with Billy Bob Thornton, Alec Baldwin’s shot at an Oscar nomination in “The Cooler,” Denys Arcand’s “The Barbarian Invasions” and Jim Sheridan’s “In America.”

DECEMBER – Tim Burton’s newest fable “Big Fish,” Mike Newell’s “Mona Lisa Smile,” Helen Mirren doing her own full monty in “Calendar Girls,” documentarian Errol Morris’ latest “The Fog of War,” “Cold Mountain” with Kidman, Jude Law and Reneé Zellweger, Dennis Quaid trying to save “The Alamo,” John Woo’s “Paycheck,” Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley in “The House of Sand and Fog” and Robert Altman’s “The Company.”

Article Posted: October 3, 2003

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