Pirates of the Caribbean

Gore Verbinski, USA, 2002, 143 minutes

It’s hard not to get a feeling of ennui when viewing the summer releases the Hollywood moguls hope will con you out of your hard-earned (or stolen, whatever) cash. Guns this, earthquakes that, super-powered mutants in complicated love-triangles set to the background of elitist Victorian England the other. Which is why Pirates of the Caribbean is such a breath of fresh salty air. The whole swashbuckling genre has been neglected for some time now, and this fully enjoyable mainstream blockbuster trounces all recent opposition (Cutthroat Island anyone?) and consigns them to spend an eternity in Davey Jones’s locker.

Johnny Depp is on spectacular form as the Keith Richards inspired Jack Sparrow, and gains able support from Jack Davenport as the staunchly British Norrington and Keira Knightly as the beautiful Elizabeth Swann (whose incredible cleavage, enhanced by a corset knowingly referred to in the dialogue, should have most male members of the audience sharpening their sabres, so to speak, long after the movie is over). Geoffrey Rush is also solid as the villainous pirate Captain Barbarossa. Orlando Bloom is as wooden as a very wooden plank, but who cares? He’s pretty and that’s something for the girls.

The script from Shrek scribes Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio is witty and clever and some stylish direction from the usually bland Gore Verbinski will make you forget this was ever a theme-park ride. In short this wonderfully entertaining film is something of an oddity, a Jerry Bruckheimer production and a Walt Disney movie that it is impossible not to recommend.

Review by Ben Wilkinson
Written for EUFS Programme Spring 2004