--- description: O'Brian readers are legion and can be persnickety. So what are they going to think of the film? One sounds off: WHAT IT GOT RIGHT --JACK AUBREY'S HAT. Though the books are set in a time when most... title: Movies: But In The Book ... image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # Movies: But In The Book ... by [TIME](/author/time/) Nov 10, 2003 5:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Nov 10, 2003 5:00 AM CUT O’Brian readers are legion and can be persnickety. So what are they going to think of the film? One sounds off: WHAT IT GOT RIGHT –JACK AUBREY’S HAT. Though the books are set in a time when most officers of the Royal Navy wore their hats with peaks at front and back, Aubrey always wore his sideways, the old-fashioned way. –KILLICK. Aubrey’s steward is to the life: cantankerous, odd speech patterns and–nice touch–always serving toasted cheese to the duo before they play music. –TREPANNING. Maturin’s on-deck medical tour de force–taking the top off a patient’s skull to release pressure and inserting a silver coin under the wound–is well depicted. WHAT IT GOT WRONG –MATURIN. Oh, dear. The film has him as nothing more than a doctor and naturalist who happens to be Aubrey’s best friend. In fact, he was proudly Irish (with a touch of Catalan), a spy for the British, not handsome and utterly incapable of doing anything shipshape. –MIDSHIPMAN HOLLOM (SPOILER ALERT). In the book he doesn’t commit suicide but is presumed killed by a hand with whose wife he was having an affair. –DATES. ‘Tis a small thing, but the novel is set in the War of 1812; the film is set in 1805. –By Michael Elliott Movies: But In The Book ... ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6669998/movies-but-in-the-book/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6669998/movies-but-in-the-book/"},"headline":"Movies: But In The Book ...","datePublished":"2003-11-10T05:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-27T07:58:21.679Z","description":"O'Brian readers are legion and can be persnickety. So what are they going to think of the film? One sounds off: WHAT IT GOT RIGHT --JACK AUBREY'S HAT. Though the books are set in a time when most...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6669998/movies-but-in-the-book/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6669998/movies-but-in-the-book/","name":"Movies: But In The Book ..."}}]}] ```