This was too fucking good. There wasn't a single moment where I was bored or taken out of the film...

This was too fucking good. There wasn't a single moment where I was bored or taken out of the film. Everything was on point from the performances, to the story and special effects. I thought it was masterful in its execution. However, I would have liked some more depth to the surgeon's distrust of the admiralty/crown and his relationship to the captain, but I'm sure this is explored in depth with the novels. That's not what the film was going for anyway.

So what are some more movies based on naval warfare and grounded in reality? Preferably stuff similar to the era of the film.

The 98-03 Horatio Hornblower series was pretty great if I am not just wearing my nostalgia goggles.

This

I thought Paul Bettany's character's exploits were a little too similar to Darwin's (i.e. they were Darwin's), but all in all, one of the best action movies of the past twenty five years.

What did he mean by this?

That you better holdfast.

A Holdfast in nautical terms is the generic term for something used to hold or secure a thing in place; a catch, hook, clamp.

It came into common use as verb between 1500-1550 as an expression denoting that one should grasp onto a holdfast to secure their position.

In essence he was predicting that the crew topside would need to secure themselves to the ship so that they would not be knocked down or thrown overboard.

M&C is also what the new Star Trek would have been like in a Patrician world.

Crowe was a better Kirk than Shatner.

More used to fightin', too

I liked the Gregory Peck Horatio Hornblower. Even though there were far too many Yanks for the Royal Navy.