[Quick Summary: During the Napoleonic wars, a brash British captain pursues a French pirating war vessel around South America.]
Capt. Jack Aubrey's mood is heavy. He's been unable to capture the enemy ship, and has just lost one of his best men overboard in the pursuit.
Why not give up? Why continue?
Motives and stakes are often explained in exposition, but I thought this scene below did it in a classy way that doesn't feel forced:
[Note: Dr. Stephen is his best friend on the ship.]
THE GREAT CABIN - NIGHT
STEPHEN: Don't you feel chasing this heavier, faster ship, with its long guns, smack of pride 'which goeth before destruction'?
JACK: It's not pride nor anything like it, it's a question of duty.
STEPHEN: 'Duty', aah...I believe I've heard it well spoken of.
JACK: You can be as 'satiric' as you like, but I have a duty to the officers and foremast jacks who've brought the barkey thus far - how do you think they'd feel if I turned around and went home?
STEPHEN: They would obey you.
JACK: I'll not go home having failed. There have been too many failures. I'll not be one of them.
STEPHEN: Then it is pride.
JACK: Do you know what occupies me night and day? How to take him when I catch up with him. I nearly lost my ship once. There won't be a second chance. If that's pride, so be it. To me it's simply my job.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I liked how this dialogue communicated something more that the words spoken, like his angst, and also the urgency of the mission.
Master and Commander: Far Side of the World (August, 2001 draft, revised)
by Peter Weir & John Collee
Based on the Aubrey/Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian
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