Friday, February 1, 2008

Best Pirate Movie Ever?

We finished off the Pirates of the Caribbean series by watching the middle episode: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. My question to you, dear reader(s), is: "If this series counts as a single movie, is it not the best pirate movie ever?"

Now, pirates are awesome, but pirate movies, in general, are not:
  • Captain Blood, The Black Swan, The Sea Hawk: All those Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power swashbucklers are classics, but surprisingly inert and landbound. Need more ships.
  • Likewise Charles Laughton's Captain Kidd. Fine movie, great acting, not much real pirating.
  • The Pirate: Gene Kelly makes a great swashbuckler (he was D'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers), but this isn't really a pirate movie. Likewise any version of the Pirates of Penzance, including The Pirate Movie.
  • The Crimson Pirate, with Burt Lancaster, has a lot of fun acrobatic fights, but is really very silly.
  • Speaking of silly, Yellowbeard at least has a good ship. I think the only bigger budget item for this movie was "white powder".
Pirates of the Caribbean has everything, hangings, escapes, swordfights, the black spot, double and triple crosses, treasure maps, and most of all, ships - real ones, CGI ones, at sail, beached and at battle, trading furious cannonades.

The best part is probably Johnny Dep as Capt. Jack Sparrow, a brilliant characterization. Kiera Knightley's Elizabeth also very nice. The weakest part: Orlando Bloom as Cary Elwes as Will Turner - very wet and boring. Fortunately, the series ends with him getting killed and Elizabeth running away with Capt. Sparrow.

Oh sorry, I should have posted a spoiler warning.

In conclusion: Did anyone walk the plank or get keelhauled? If not, there is still room for a better pirate movie.

No comments: