Which 2003 film directed by Peter Weir stars Russell Crowe as a Navy captain during the Napoleonic Wars?

The 2003 Peter Weir film starring Russell Crowe as a Royal Navy captain during the Napoleonic Wars is Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

Crowe plays Captain Jack Aubrey, commander of the HMS Surprise. The film follows Aubrey’s pursuit of the faster and more heavily armed French privateer Acheron during the Napoleonic Wars. Paul Bettany co-stars as Dr. Stephen Maturin, the ship’s surgeon and Aubrey’s close friend. Their contrasting personalities—Aubrey’s military discipline and Maturin’s scientific curiosity—drive much of the story.

The screenplay draws loosely from Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey–Maturin novels, a series of 20 completed books. Although the film is sometimes remembered as a straightforward naval adventure, it also focuses on leadership, duty, friendship, class, and the physical realities of life aboard a sailing warship. Filming used replica ships, water tanks in Baja California, and locations in the Galápagos Islands. The title is often shortened to Master and Commander, but the stored answer gives the film’s full official title.