Times change. The movie Master and Commander has already been ably discussed by many writers here at Blogcritics. But the thing that was most interesting about the film was just how much of a different world it was in the early 1800's.

Sure the stirring film is about honor and duty during war but other than discussing its realism and authenticity the film hasn't taken on the same Saving Private Ryan reflection. After people saw Spielberg's "Ryan" many of the discussions were how did they do that. And not how did the film makers do that, but how did the soldiers go over than do that. But even in Saving Private Ryan, there were things you could recognize about the 1944 world. Radios, machine guns, landing crafts, aircraft, and telephones among others.

But in Master and Commander there is no Global Positioning system, no laptops, no cell phones, no pagers, no blackberries, no internet, or no 24 hour a day news. No real hint of the shear simplicity of 2003-the things you just don't have to think about. The complete dearth of communication, for one, is both awesome in its minimalism and frightening at the same time. No Blogcritics too! No spam!

Very few reviews have hit upon this theme. The Arizona Republic's Bill Muller attempts to hit upon the differences. But it is mostly about the raw power of a 19th century war ship.

The impact on large events that time has, say 9/11 or the situation in Iraq, and the differences between 1805 and 2003 are astonishing. There could be no way to immediately second guess or even assess the military situation on the ground in post war Iraq for instance in a timely fashion. Then again there would not be the immediate impact of CNN and others. There wouldn't be a distorted bunch of news; there would probably be little news at all.

Sure America can project force almost anywhere and anytime. Using precision guided missiles, having bombers take off from Michigan on a bombing run destined half way around the world, or be in constant contact with the troops on the ground. That said, the intrusive nature of up-to-the-second reporting takes away any chance that on any given Sunday the story will be seen clearly through the fog of war. Things may be going well, or they may be going badly. The truth is you'll probably never know until the end of the war what worked and what didn't. Which days were good and which ones were bad. Nation building, like the making of hot dogs and democracy, is best if you don't really know how it's done. Well that's not entirely true.