Excellent Thriller Very Intense

Rating: 8/10 (12 October 2013)

I remembered this incident appearing in the news in 2009 but did not know the extent of the trauma involved in the ordeal of the Somali pirates taking over a huge American cargo ship. I wanted to know how truthful the film rendition was to the book A Captain's Duty written by Captain Phillips. There is a good online article available entitled, "How accurate is Captain Phillips?" by Forrest Wickman for Slate Magazine which provides more details on the accuracy.
According to Mr. Wickman's investigation, the film rendition is pretty accurate. I thought it was interesting that the person who played Muse, the captain for the Somali pirates, looks a lot like the real person who is currently serving 33 years in prison in Terre Haute, IN. The actor and the real person are pictured side by side in this online article.
I sure hope that Mr. Phillips was treated for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome after the awful ordeal. To his credit, he did go back to work over a year later in 2010. The time on the Alabama lifeboat with the four Somali pirates was actually five days. One does not get the idea that it was that long in the film.
The best acting was at the end when Tom Hanks had to play someone who was in shock and traumatized. He did a great job and said according to this article that the scene was improvised. I found the doctor's or nurse's comments rather irritating at the beginning. Many people in the audience (including me) teared up at the end because finally it was over. It was pretty gripping for a long time. I was so proud of the Navy Seal Team 6 for their great work in solving the crisis. What would we do without them?
Definitely worth seeing. It holds one's attention easily. I would say that it's too intense for young adults (13-15 year olds). There is some violence as would be expected. It has a PG-13 rating.