A Fine Presentation With Pacing Issues

Rating: 8/10 (16 January 2019)

20 October 2013. There's seemingly a fine line between authentic portrayal and dramatic pacing and with Captain Phillips, the problem, and perhaps the only one, seems to be that authentic portrayal won out much more than the pacing so that the captivating elements of the movie were not always consistently presented. The beginning and especially the ending of the movie, one of the most penetratingly intriguing scenes in film, another Tom Hanks' Saving Private Ryan (1998) moment featured at the end of that movie, were compellingly presented in their almost vicarious, documentary style that brought the audience into a vividly convincing world, almost as if one were watching a real world quality homemade film capturing real living of particular interest on screen. Yet like a homemade movie, there were moments that seemed to stall and lose their energetic vitality so that the editing just didn't allow the audience to maintain that zestful interest throughout the movie. Even a movie based on a true events such as Fly Away Home (1996) or the fictional dramatic documentary style presentation of sci-fi horror Apollo 18 (2011) had a continuous flow to their presentations. Even as long ago as the 60s, Milton Krasner was nominated for best black and white cinematography for Fate Is The Hunter (1964) a pseudo-documentary style of an investigation into a major airline crash that presented its material in a well edited, serious, but well-paced fashion. Other well edited and audience-friendly paced movie of Captain Phillip's likeness might be United 93 (2006), the military drama Jarhead (2005), and Munich (2005), even Argo (2012). What does really shine about this movie is its focus on the primary characters and the psychological interaction and the natural ambiance about the entire movie making this authentic presentation much more meaningful and penetrating for the audience.