An absurd story, but a fine movie

Rating: Null/10 (16 September 2003)

Contrary to some reports, Pirates of the Caribbean is not a movie about a band of pirates seeking to raise an Aztec curse by some mumbo-jumbo ritual, or the heroic rescue of a beautiful maiden who has fallen into the cursed pirates' hands. Oh yes, the cursed pirates, the Aztec ritual, the rescue and all that rubbish are IN the movie. But, fortunately, they're not what the movie is about. Pirates of the Caribbean is really about white canvas sails and creaking cedar hulls, gleaming cutlasses and flintlock pistols, sailors' tattoos and golden earrings, sun-spattered islets and towering Caribbean cliffs, moonlit seas and driving storms. It is not about any particular pirates, but about the aura of pirates, their atmosphere. And if you love the pirate aura, as I do, you'll forgive the picture the preposterousness that it wears on its sleeve.
The best thing about Pirates of the Caribbean is that the actors and the crew show real love and affection for the screwy B-movie they are making. Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, and Geoffrey Rush all look like they're having fun, and director Gore Verbinski's shots look like he loves watching the scenes he's making, lingering on the pirates and the ships and the islands instead of hustling them on and off.
This movie is much better than such dreck as Die Another Day, not because it's any smarter, but because it lacks the air of cynicism, of contempt for itself and its audience that mars productions like Tamahori's. Die Another Day was made by people who didn't care a flying fig for espionage or intrigue; Pirates of the Caribbean was made by people who loved piracy, adventure and the sea. The scene where Captain Sparrow finally swings aboard, caresses the ship's wheel like a long-lost lover, and murmurs, "Bring me that horizon," is inconceivable in a typical heartless summer blockbuster; most action filmmakers wouldn't be caught dead expressing such embarrassingly sincere emotion.
This is not to say that Pirates of the Caribbean deserves comparison with the handful of real classics that have also been summer blockbusters, such as Raiders of the Lost Ark or Star Wars. Those movies had stories; Pirates of the Caribbean has a muddle that passes for a story. Just because Verbinski's movie is better than the average summer fare we get nowadays does not mean that it's great art, or even good art. But unlike most movies about which people say, "Don't think about it, just have fun," Pirates of the Caribbean actually IS fun.
Rating: **½ out of ****.
Recommendation: Lovers of pirates and the sea must catch this one in the theater, but others can wait for video.