God bless Jack Sparrow

Rating: 7/10 (24 April 2016)

This is one of those movies I'll rate higher than I really should because it's pure nostalgia for me. I was in kindergarten when it came out, and this film was responsible for an extended pirate phase. Hell, I still want to be a pirate. The aesthetic in this movie is a powerful thing, and the character who embodies that aesthetic is, of course, Jack Sparrow.
Oh, Jack Sparrow. I never had a crush on you, but you were and are #goals - a seaborne Mick Jagger swaggering down-ship with a bottle of rum, radiating a good-humored nihilism that even my child-self knew to envy. There's a surprising amount beneath the surface with Sparrow, but ultimately, he captures and complicates the conflict between fantasy and reality that defines this genre. All the other characters are pure period drama or pure fantasy. Sparrow quite literally walks the line between real and myth, and because of it he's the essence of a swashbuckler. The whole Will/Elizabeth story - okay, that's most of the story - that I could do without, and I think I speak for most people when I say Sparrow makes the movie. But boy, does he make it something.