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“Captain Phillips” seems to be the only source to help put that troubled fantasy to rest of being kidnapped by a team of skilled pirates, cannibals to be specific, equipped with heavy artillery. And it is heart-warming to know that it came out in the year “2009”, as that was the same time I believed an American raid happened in Somalia where a ship was hijacked, and who doesn’t want a peace of that?
This account and video you have helped me piece together send chills down my spine. Not just because Paul Greengrass makes work shake cam, but because this docudrama tutorial you gave me explains how people imagine pirates to be like. Domesticated and civilized. Now that is scary and the absence of handheld cameras and American actors only adds on to the worry. The idea spins my brain to Captain Jack Sparrow or Long John Silver, and trust me, it is not gentle. As one a fan of boisterous thrills Paul Greengrass is well known for his attention grabbing, action filled scenes, and ‘Bourne’ did just that. And what is even more jaw dropping is the fact that Paul Greengrass also made ‘United 93’, oh how the pieces fall together.
Within the first 20 minutes you are bored and on the edge of your seat at the same time waiting for something to happen. The Marvel creates around stars aligned because an American going onto a raided cargo ship, a jewelry store almost got it right there. The Marines serve as the Action takes off.
What happens in the next two hours is captivating enough that a few handrests in movie theaters that people watched this particular sequence may need reupholstering. But as Greengrass has proven in earlier works, such as 2002’s “Bloody Sunday” which covers the shooting of unarmed demonstrators in Northern Ireland, and 2006’s “Flight 93” which depicted the events leading to the crash of a plane in Pennsylvania on 9/11, he seems to have the ease with the documentary side of the film more than the interactions among the characters.
Using an unfamiliar cast helps in establishing realism, but in this case, the filmmaker did well to cast an actor who helps movie watchers feel secure. Tom Hanks is one of the few rare movie stars who can escort us through a perilous, dark, and frightening world (yes, even during those not-so-great thrillers based on The Da Vinci Code), and at the end of the film, make us feel that everything is right in the world. And who else do we want to see rescuing a space craft from destruction in “Apollo 13?” Suffering the horrors of D-Day in “Saving Private Ryan?” Going through a plane crash on a lonely island in “Cast Away?”
Hanks has changed, or at least become different from the theater friendly, quaint neighbor we have all come to cherish. The actor sets aside his usual jovialness to take on a role of a grim and exhausted merchant mariner from New England who works with a great big floating warehouse with controlled precision. Unfortunately, no chitchat with the crew, no jokes: this is work. No nonsense. While the ship’s crew are shown taking part in an emergency drill, there appear to be no trained soldiers on board the ship until the scenario becomes bad enough to need the attention of some Navy seals.
In a prologue that shows Richard Phillips – who wrote the memoir that inspired the script – being driven to the airport by his wife (a cameo by Catherine Keener who, it seems, has played every man’s wife in modern cinema). Many have criticized this segment as being clumsy and unnatural, but I take it that Greengrass wanted to set up the captain as an ordinary family instead of an exaggerated hero, which would make their cool headedness later on much more astonishing. Furthermore, apart from the medical attendant who makes a late appearance in the story, Keener is the only woman on screen with significant presence.
Of course, the center of attention is the hijacking. The pirates were able to board the ship with remarkable ease, although their efforts effectively ruined their own boat. Phillips, assuming the role of a host of sorts, styles himself as a waiter and attempts to distract his unwilling guests by offering them water and food while he shows them around. However, the foursome – led by the emaciated Muse (Barkhad Abdi), who is undoubtedly the chief of the operation – starts to lose their patience.
Phillips gets taken prisoner onboard a covered lifeboat due to his reckless actions. The pirates now want millions in ransom to let him go.
The pirates are as much a vessel of storytelling as the ship itself, but the movie does give them some interesting character touches, save for a segment portraying a greedy warlord recruiting his army of willing raiders. Hub and other pirates show behaviors that mimic the characters in a gangster story, as if they have seen Cagney films or “Goodfellas” a few too many times. Abdi and Hanks engage in an interesting psychological exchange. The sadistic hot head who provides the brawn would do Joe Pesci proud. Muse, revealing his youth, admits his dream is owning a car and moving to America.
In those final tense moments of Captain Phillips, at least we still had Hanks portraying the one remaining act of humanity. It becomes awfully clear to everyone inside the lifeboat, surrounded or not, that no one is guaranteed to get out of this alive, not even Phillips. It is one of the most emotionally wearying climaxes of the year, and this is no easy claim to make.
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