Back when I was growing up, I had a very specific image of what a pirate was (or should be) - that image was patterned after a movie entitled "Captain Blood." It was one a slew of old 30's and 40's movies that used to be the mainstay of programming back before the onslaught of mega-cable. The star and hero of that movie was Errol Flynn - he was the hero and and he was a real pirate.
This is a real pirate...
Last night we went to see Captain Phillips - the real-life saga of a Somali pirate raid upon the Maersk Alabama in 2009. In this movie, the hero was the captain of the undefended ship under attack, played by Tom Hanks. The pirate lead (played by Barkhad Abdi) is an emaciated former fisherman (so the story tells us) driven to piracy by his demanding warlord bosses. Don't get us wrong, Barkhad does a remarkably good job providing depth to his character (as much as he can given the circumstances and relatively weak script which is written primarily from Captain Phillip's point of view).
Today's pirates sans rum (they chew some sort of plant instead)
Overall though the show, despite its ability to demonstrate building tension all the way through til the end seemed to fall flat. One serious issue we had was the docudrama style employed throughout the movie. A docu-drama takes real actors and makes it look as though they are real people doing often boring things as some type of historical event unfolds. In other words, it's like the reality TV version of cinema. This type of format is especially disappointing when you have talent like Hanks - an actor desperate to give a performance and being thwarting by the film's format at every turn. Just imagine if you will Castaway being redone in a more documentary fashion and you'll see how that could really change the film going experience.
You would think the pirates might invest in some Miami Vice style cigar boats
Even with the film style employed, the movie's pace would have gone much smoother if much of the footage connected with the US Navy had been cut out. Sure the Navy was there and put an end to the situation, but the story that mattered was centered around Hanks and his pirate captain nemesis and taking away from that took a lot of steam out of the production. If some of those scenes had been cut it's possible that Captain Phillips could have rivaled Gravity in the all out action thrill ride category sure to be present in next year's Oscars. (in Gravity they wisely cut off NASA's microphones and focused on the two main characters).
We've had goofy pirates (Johnny Depp), starving pirates (from this movie) - when do we get to see real pirates again? Maybe with the upcoming mini-series Black Sails?
The Raving Reviews Blog is dedicated to the convergence of popular and critical review of the motion picture art - that and taking a sometimes irreverent view of popular culture.
