The notion of forking out fourteen dollars to see a film based on a Fun Park ride seems like a dubious investment. What’s next? A movie version of Dodgem Cars?
To compound the problem, the film in question is a pirate flick – a genre whose recent offerings have been resounding disasters. However Pirates of the Caribbean is rescued from certain ignominy by a cracker script (from the writers of Shrek), swashbuckling action and a riotous performance by Johnny Depp.
Depp stars as Captain Jack Sparrow. Described as possibly “the worst pirate in the world”, Jack is without a ship and a crew since the mutinous and murderous Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) took over the ‘Black Pearl’ and left him for dead.
He arrives at the British town of Port Royal hoping to deprive the fleet of one of their superior vessels. But the authorities are less than enthusiastic about Jack’s ambitions and, despite saving Governor Swann’s daughter from drowning, he is thrown in prison awaiting execution.
Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) has long been fascinated by brigands and buccaneers. Something of a pirate-nerd, her romantic notions of such men and their adventures are soon quashed when she is kidnapped by Barbossa.
Geoffrey Rush makes a great villain. His Barbossa is truly wicked but there’s enough of the larrikin about him to keep the film on the right side of comedy. Not to say that Elizabeth isn’t in danger. But Barbossa’s interest in her has nothing to do with sex, money or ordinary bloodlust. He and his crew are under a curse. Neither dead nor alive these villains need a blood sacrifice to restore them to life and Elizabeth is their chosen victim.
When the navy refuses to launch a rescue, her childhood friend – and would-be lover – Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) breaks Jack out of prison and embarks on a rescue mission of his own.
The gallant Will has love and honour on his mind, but Jack is out for revenge and the ‘Black Pearl’.
Pirates of the Caribbean is loaded with allusions, not so much to other pirate movies but chiefly to Raiders of the Lost Ark. Jack Sparrow is part Indiana Jones, part Long John Silver.
While the concept of a tongue-in-cheek adventure/comedy suggests family viewing, excessive violence makes this unsuitable for younger children. There are no illusions of virtue in these buccaneers – a fact which is clearly demonstrated for us.
Unlike the charismatic, if somewhat dippy Jack Sparrow, Barbossa and his crew are a thoroughly bad lot. They follow a pirate code which is remarkably similar to the ethos prevalent in Western society. ‘Take what you can, give nothing back’. It’s a philosophy that has devastating consequences for them.
Ostensibly Jack is the same as his former colleagues. But despite his attempts at heartlessness he can’t quite do the cut-throat thing.
Although essentially light-hearted, Pirates’ script has an array of interesting ideas woven into it. Redemption, sacrifice, freedom and forgiveness are concepts key to the plot.
The British controlled Port Royal is a society bound by its law – grace and mercy cannot be accommodated.
Those of Barbossa’s ilk are just as trapped. They are reaping the destruction and misery they have sowed.
The need for redemptive sacrifice is not limited to the overtly criminal but applies to the more seemly members of society as well.
