Pirates of the Caribbean a classic?...Yo Ho Ho!

Rating: 6/10 (15 September 2008)

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was the surprise success story of 2003. Pirate films have not fared too well on screen over the past 30 years or so. It was a film that took its inspiration from a theme park ride (which is pretty crass self-promotion if you really think about it). And the star was Johnny Depp, an actor who, up until that point had avoided big-budget extravaganzas in favour of edgier material. In spite of the odds stacked against it, it made a splash at the box-office and was quickly hailed as a modern classic.
I've always felt the Pirates of the Caribbean films are rather overrated. Pt 1 has an easy appeal and is not an unlikable film. But its not quite the barnstorming swashbuckler that people make it out to be. The sequels only upped the scale and wound up being capsized by it. Still, at least Pt 1 is straightforward. Its no classic, but at least you can keep track of the story. Something that could not be said for the sequels.
I think with POTC, Disney were trying to make a pirate equivalent of The Princess Bride. An adventure story on the one hand, with a whole level of knowing humour on the other. Where it takes all the expected clichés and wittily subverts them. When this is done right, you can produce a very entertaining experience. TPB is the undisputed champion in the field. And the same was done with Westerns in the excellent and very underrated TV series The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.
But POTC is not on they're level. It feels amusing more than it feels funny. And its also much too long. Clocking in at just over two hours, it lacks the snappy pace and perfect running times of the above examples. Something that only got worse as the sequels went on. Still, Pt 1 does have its moments. The jokey tone of the film is established as soon as we get our first glimpse of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow.
Its a very funny scene. Jack is standing on the crow's nest of his ship, purposefully looking out to sea. Then the camera pulls back to reveal that's all that's left of it. And just as the ship is about to go under, Jack casually steps off onto the dock of the nearest port. Its a scene that makes you think this is going to do for the pirate genre what The Princess Bride did for fairy tales. Its all the more disappointing then that the best gag in the film comes right at the beginning.
Nothing else in the movie quite matches the hilarity of that scene. It so perfectly captures the balance between straight-faced adventuring and tongue-in-cheek humour. But nowhere else in POTC does it achieve the same level of success. Gore Verbinski directs it all with high-octane energy, throwing in everything you'd expect. Swordfights, battles, romance.
But the plot has a thinness that the film never really escapes from. I think the problem may be that since its genesis is in a theme park ride, the writers have had to construct a scenario while working within very narrow margins. Certainly it never opens itself out to the possibilities or sharp deconstructions that come with the genre. Not like William Goldman and Rob Reiner's treatment of The Princess Bride.
Where the film is more successful is in its casting. And Pirates of the Caribbean has a fine one. Johnny Depp expectedly rises to the occasion, putting his own unique stamp on the part. There has never been a pirate like Captain Jack Sparrow. And there never will be again. Depp's inspiration for the part was Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones because he thought pirates were the rock stars of the high seas. With a Keith Richards slur, a drunken swagger, and a fey flailing of his hands, Depp cuts and thrusts away with the entire movie.
Orlando Bloom, in his first role away from The Lord of the Rings does just fine as Will Turner, the simple blacksmith out to rescue his lady love. Equally up to the action and dramatic scenes, this young man is one of Hollywood's rising stars. The exquisitely radiant Keira Knightley is wonderful as the spirited Elizabeth Swann. She brings a refreshing injection of modernity to the old cliché of the damsel in distress. And you mustn't miss Geoffrey Rush as the vile Captain Barbossa. He throws himself into the part with real theatrical gusto. A villain you just love to hate.
Aside from Johnny Depp's performance, what makes POTC rather unique among the genre is the inclusion of a fantastical element. Barbossa's crew of pirates are under a curse, and are really the undead. Like the pirate genre has been crossbred with The Evil Dead. Gives a whole new meaning to skeleton crew! Its never quite as scary as it should be (this is a Disney film after all), but its a nice spark of originality in an otherwise very traditional movie. The CGI effects are really excellent here, even if such effects do seem somewhat out of place in a pirate movie.
The script thrusts and parries its way to a surprisingly low-key ending. What should have been an epic battle at the end feels disappointingly lacklustre. And sadly, I'm afraid that is much of the problem with Pirates of the Caribbean. It never really goes for it with full wind in its sails. Its a pleasant film when its on, but it never wittily deconstructs itself like you imagine the writers intended. Its better then its sequels, but where it should have been a grand, high seas adventure, it sadly never gets out of the harbour.