The movie that revived the swashbuckler!

Rating: 9/10 (30 May 2007)

Somewhere inside this movie is a rather pedestrian summer swashbuckler about two strait-laced earnest lovers fighting for happiness. But with a bunch of talented screenwriters and the movie's real star, Johnny Depp in a now-legendary performance as lovable scoundrel Captain Jack Sparrow, this movie became something else. We had the strait-laced lovers, properly yearning from a distance. Then--wow--Captain Jack, and then BOOM! The Undead! Geoffrey Rush as Barbossa putting in a performance almost as wonderful as Depp's, purring his way through the delightful, witty dialogue. Jack Davenport putting in an oddly sympathetic performance as the requisite Navy stuffed-shirt (who became a full-blown heartthrob in the sequel). Kiera Knightley in the role that made her famous as the Governor's pretty young daughter, and Orlando Bloom, who hadn't yet learned how to act yet was fine as the earnest, smitten, puppyish, chivalrous, thoroughly decent and rather square Will Turner.
Like all movies, this has a few problems, from Bloom's stiff acting to the end battle, which goes on repetitively for about ten minutes too long; but Captain Jack and Barbossa are always somewhere ready to save the day. The subsequent sequels (which I love) can never be exactly the same as this one; Captain Jack wasn't as astonishing the second time around and Elizabeth became rapidly more clichéd as an action chick. The first Pirates of the Caribbean movie has become bigger and yet more legendary in the light of its sequels; and while the "Good or not?" argument will go on for many years concerning them, this first movie will always have a place in every heart that secretly enjoys a pirate tale.