A compelling pirate tale

Rating: 8/10 (8 August 2014)

Paul Greengrass is a fine action Director, as exemplified in United 57 .Once again, he takes a factual drama, and recreates it for film. The cultural differences between the affluent United States and impoverished Somalia are cleverly woven into the opening sequences.
Stateside, there are crawling six lane highways, in Somalia dirt tracks and mud encrusted Toyotas. Captain and Mrs Phillips worry about schooling for their son, a shanty, subsistence, fishing village is at the mercy of pirates with bigger fish in mind. The villager pirates tinker with rusting, beach launched, temperamental, skiffs. Captain Phillips meanders through a vast terminal in Oman to board his vertiginous container ship. The Somali dialogue is sub-titled heightening the sense of division.
Tom Hanks is a consummate actor and assumes the persona of a ship's captain with ease. He is in command, but no swaggering hero. His pirate nemesis, "Skinny" Muse, Barkhad Abdi is thin, agitated and determined. When the skiff attacks the Alabama it seems an improbable contest. Although the Alabama is unarmed, it is huge, deploying fire hoses, and travelling at speed.
The ship's crew are remarkable for their ordinariness, with some protesting that their duties do not include pirate conflict, but the chief engineer is a wonderful stereo type, grey, wiry, and gnarled. Their Somali adversaries, all first time actors, are equally convincing as frenetic, desperate, khat chewing tribesmen.
Once they have boarded, a conventional cat and mouse, hide and seek, scene unfolds with potential that is fully exploited by Greengrass. The drama which sees the crew seemingly triumph, then lose their captain to the pirates, is compelling. Phillips urges them to "Stick together and we will be alright", advice tinged with irony as events unfold.
Once Phillips is taken hostage, the visceral action changes from the broad sweep of the ocean, to the cockpit intensity of a lifeboat. Grengrass is brilliant in mixing the ingredients of a traditional pirate yarn, into modern day piracy, turning out one of the best action thrillers in recent years which never purports to faithfully document events, just be inspired by them. Profanity is absent, and does not harm the story one jot.
Politically the film is deeply conservative. The Americans are the good guys, the Somalis the bad guys who are either killed, or incarcerated, for their effrontery in taking on Uncle Sam. The Brits don't take the original call seriously and it is the US Navy and SEALS who use overwhelming firepower to crush the pirates. The co-operation of the US military is apparent as operational warships are used to impressive effect.
Greengrass and Hanks neatly sidestep the controversy regarding the extent of the real Captain Phillips' heroism. Could he have done more to take a course further from the Somali coast? He is seen considering pirate warning and his route? How well did he handle the physical confrontation itself? Greengrass doesn't dodge the questions, without providing any firm answers, and Hanks assured but understated performance does not portray him as an action hero.
The nature of heroism for those placed unexpectedly in fraught situations is always contentious. Invariably individuals simply do their best on very limited information, with luck being an essential ingredient. One of the two pirate skiffs is scared off both by the task of boarding the Alabama and the threat of a Naval response, Muse accuses a fellow pirate of cowardice and kills him in the resulting confrontation. The act of boarding is perilous, mortally dangerous, and exciting, with four armed men taking on a crew of twenty no easy task. Are Muses's actions driven by bravery , greed, or fear of failure? Was Phillips's route chosen by bravery, greed or recklessness?
An immensely enjoyable piece of storytelling, this firmly reinforces Greengrass's position in the elite echelon of action film directors. He is a man who can handle a big budget, but places the story and characters first.