Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World around Cape Horn is taken from the novel "Desolation Island", although the "Acheron" replaced the Dutch 74-gun warship "Waakzaamheid", the "Surprise" replaced the "Leopard", and in the book it is Aubrey who is being pursued around the Cape of Good Hope. The episode in which Aubrey deceives the enemy by means of a raft bearing lanterns is taken from "Master and Commander", and the episode in which Maturin directs the surgery on himself, while gritting his teeth in pain, to remove a bullet is taken from "HMS Surprise". Other incidents in the film come from other books in O'Brian's series.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World Galapagos Islands we get a beautifully filmed sequence about how the dawn of scientific enlightenment might have felt." "San Francisco Chronicle" film reviewer Mick LaSalle was generally downbeat and, after praising director Weir’s handling of scenes with no dialog, observed that “Weir is less surefooted as a screenwriter. Having not read any of O'Brian's novels, I can't say if the fault is in Weir's adaptation or in the source material, but halfway into "Master and Commander," the friendship of the captain and the doctor begins to seem schematic, as if all the positive traits that an individual could have were