Ask yourself this: why would the Academy give an Oscar to Russell Crowe for Gladiator? Because it's an epic, that's why. Gladiator is the type of movie that Hollywood churned out during its golden age, or whatever they want to call it. But that is definitely not Crowe's best performance to date.
Russell Crowe's best performance is still in 2003's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Anybody who's ever read the books by Patrick O'Brian will know what I'm talking about. Crowe brings life to the swaggering sea captain who knows his ship inside-out like Michael Schumacher knows his F1. The whole movie has been described as "a testosterone-filled sea journey about nothing but seamen, seamen, and seamen" (no pun intended), and Russell definitely comes out as the ship's alpha male. Seeing him in uniform, with his long blonde hair in a ponytail, will almost make you wish you were back in the days when ocean-going vessels travelled by the power of the wind alone.
Crowe may still retain some of his famous mannerisms, like the way he raises his eyebrow, but generally, the man called Russell Crowe completely disappears and is totally replaced by Lucky Jack Aubrey. He shows the many sides of Lucky Jack: the cultured musician when he is with his close friend Doctor Maturin; the brilliant tactician when he is with his officers; the stern disciplinarian when he is with the ship's crew; and the excellent navigator when he takes the ship's wheel. He plays all these parts effortlessly, able to blend all those different traits seamlessly into one solid character.
Russell Crowe's performance here is commendable in that he not only learned to play the violin for this role, but he also spent hours studying the history of the dialect that Jack Aubrey may have used during this time. Crowe has been known to spend hours researching his roles, with the zeal of a graduating Ivy League student working on a thesis. And the only reason Russell Crowe wasn't nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for this role? Because he already won for Gladiator, that's why. And I don't think the Academy is in the habit of letting Australians win twice.
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