Film Critique on: Pirates of the Caribbean Part 1 - Essay Example

? Film Critique: Pirates of the Caribbean ~ Part and Section no of Film Critique: Piratesof the Caribbean ~ Part 1 In the recent years, Disney has returned to Hollywood and has started making movies on theme park rides. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is a perfect example of one such project that is based on a very popular Disney theme park ride “The Curse of the Black Pearl”. Despite of the fact that most of the movies made on theme park rides are not interesting; Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was an interesting ride and very much liked by the viewers. The theme of the movie that was based on pirates provides a very exciting journey to the audience. This movie brought back the likeness and demand for pirate genre movies in Hollywood after several decades. This paper will discuss in detail the various aspects of the movie and explain how and why this movie turned out to be a successful block buster. The movie, “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” was an intriguing film that revived and created a new image of the pirate genre movies for the moviegoers. There was a period in Hollywood when pirate movies were very much liked by the viewers and did great businesses. Classic pirate genre films like Errol Flynn and Captain Blood were very famous and attracted huge audiences. However, it is important to note that these movies needed large budgets because making ships and then sinking them was an expensive plan. Therefore, when the interest of the viewers declined, this genre was not able to sustain in the film industry as there was no reason for making the pirate movies. Several attempts were made in the last few years to bring back the pirate genre movies in the market but none was able to achieve the target. Cutthroat Island, a movie that was made in the year 1995 on same genre suffered huge losses and did not receive a warm welcome from the audience (Genius World Records, 2005). The factors that led to the decline of the pirate genre movies were in the minds of the Disney executives when they were preparing the interesting film Pirates of the Caribbean and amazingly they were not scared of the consequences. These confident executives were not only making a film on a collapsed and dead genre but they also took the risk of making the studio’s first PG-13 movie. Fortunately, their hard work and planning worked and The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl changed the image of the pirate genre movies. Indeed, it developed a new and positive image in the mind of the viewers about the pirate movies. In order to erase the negative image of the genre, it was decided to base Pirates of the Caribbean on one of the Disney theme park ride that did not have any popular identifiable characters (Wayne, 2010). “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” brought a change in the viewer’s perception and also made pirates interesting and stylish in the eyes of the audience. The movie director Gore Verbinski, has given a mischievous and playful approach to the pirate genre, which was in those days not an attractive genre for making movies. He has mixed humor and fun with the serious topic making it interesting and something unique in the film industry. He has focused to create great effects not only through the ships but through the impressive acting of the stars that carry the audience throughout the film and maintain their interest in every scene of the movie. The main character of this 134 minutes long movie is Johnny Depp, who played the role of Jack Sparrow. Other characters include; Geoffrey Rush who acted as Captain Barbossa, Orlando Bloom as Will Turner and the heroine Elizabeth Swann whose role was performed by Keira Knightley. The movie was directed by Gore Verbinski, produced by Bruckheimer and screen play was done by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio (Ebert, 2006). The main characters of the film were supposed to be Will and Elizabeth and they performed well in their roles but the character of Johnny Depp received the most appreciation. Jack Sparrow received more attention and his presence proved to be the lucky charm for the movie. Several lines said by him in this movie are really quotable and he has done a remarkable performance, creating an example for his generation moviegoers. He turned out to be the most attractive character of the movie and the movie was also nominated for five Oscar awards including the nomination for the Best Actor (Boyar, 2007). As stated above, he played the role of Captain Jack Sparrow and his role gives the reason to see “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”. His entrance in the movie is considered as the most memorable movie entrance that any one has hardly made in the recent movies. His get up of using black eyeliner and gold teeth was very different but he is one of the very few actors of his generation who carried this look perfectly and managed to play the role successfully. This was not his first performance but his most well-known role in the audience’s memories. Jack Sparrow’s intention of stealing a ship actually ends up saving the daughter of the governor Keira Knightly from the sea. This role as mentioned above is played by Elizabeth Swann, who is simply beautiful in the movie. She is the daughter of Weatherby Swann (Jonathan Pryce), who is governor of Port Royal, a British base in the Caribbean Sea. She not only has looks but she is talented and her work shows her ability. Her performance in this movie was an accomplishment for herself as she was only 17 when she performed in the movie. Along with the quality of having several memorable characters in the film, the movie is also enjoyed and very much liked by the audience due to its presentation. The story is portrayed excellently and meets the expectation of the films that are produced by Disney. The director filled this simple story with magic, humour, adventure making it an interesting movie for the audience. In reality, the pirates are famous for stealing, rapping, kidnapping and killing of innocent people but the director created a very positive image of the pirates in this film and displayed piracy as a lifestyle. The sets shown in the movie shared great resemblance with the Disney ride. There are many scenes in the movie based on sword fighting and brawling which work towards fulfilling the expectations of a good pirate movie. However, in general the movie is more comic than being violent and therefore more liked by the people. Compared with the other pirate films, Johnny Depp’s return as Captain Jack Sparrow has made this movie more interesting and boasted it compared to other pirate films. “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” is the first major release of Disney which was rated as PG-13. The director has made this movie keeping in mind the expectations of the audience from a pirate film. The movie not only portrays sword playing but it is accompanied with adventure, swashbuckling and humour that makes it interesting for the audience and meets their expectations of a pirate film. The music for the movie was given by Klaus Badelt which also helped in adding to the adventurous touch of the movie. Klaus has highlighted the frightening scenes and moments in the movie with loud frightening music and the fight scenes are filled with fast paced music. The visual effects given in the movie are also flawless, especially the transformation of the pirates into skeletons and the portrayal of several ships at a glance. Along with the excellent visual and musical effects, the characters of Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush are also very interesting in the whole movie and they keep the audience engaged and entertaining even during the sword fights. Captain Jack Sparrow deeply hates Captain Barbossa who leaves Captain Jack on a deserted Island. Barbossa and his team then run after an old curse that had made him and his crew eternal and unable to die forever. They looked normal during day time but changed to skeletons in the moon light. In order to kill them, the curse had to be removed and this could only be done only with the help of the medallion which belonged to Elizabeth. Elizabeth took this medallion on her voyage from England, when she saved a little boy Will Tuner. After years, the beautiful Elizabeth was loved by Will as well as the Commoddore Norrington. When the pirates of the Black Pearl that were led by Captain Barbossa attacked the town, Elizabeth offered them the medallion if they agreed to leave. The medallion was the last of the cursed pieces of gold and needed to be restored into the chest with the right person’s blood in order to remove the curse. The interesting and strange part of the story was that they cannot be killed because they were eternal and thus there was no way in which they could be fought against. Despite of this fact, violent battles have been shown in the movie and several times Captain Jack was shown helpless because he was fighting pointlessly. Ebert writes in his book “Roger Ebert’s Movie Year Book” (2006) that Depp’s performance was original in every atom and so far no one has played the role of a pirate in such an impressive way in any other movie. Overall, Pirates of the Caribbean is rated as an entertaining and enjoyable film that is filled with talented actors, very good quality music and impressive visual effects for portraying an adventure on the sea. The movie also had a few complications which included the curse and its details which seemed to be confusing for the viewers. Furthermore, there was great emphasis upon sword fights which could have been lessened as there unnecessary repetition of fights. Despite of all these controversies, Pirates of the Caribbean has been marked as one of the best pirate movies of its time. The movie has been appreciated by its audience and it is argued that there is in reality a 90 minutes movie trapped inside this 134 minutes movie. The ending of the movie is left wide open and it seems that it finishes suddenly without any proper ending, which shows the possibility of the sequel. Indeed, the movie gives the feeling that it already includes the sequel, which turned out to be true feeling when its second part was released in 2006 as “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Dead Man’s Chest (Cooke, 2009). Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl turned out to be a super hit movie in which the attraction preceded the film (Romero, 2009). This pirate picture with super natural reinforcement, a perfect hero and a beautiful heroine turned out to be widely liked and a very attractive love story for the audience. The actors, director and the entire production team successfully managed to change the image of the pirate genre movies. The film contained different types of scenes ranging from sword fights to romantic scenes as well as comic ones which made this an enjoyable and entertaining picture for the viewers. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was successful in reviving the trend and the demand of the pirate genre movies once again after several decades. Moreover, it also helped in changing the negative image of the pirates. They were always portrayed in movies as stealers and problem creates but this movie portrayed “pirates” as freedom lovers and showed “piracy” as a life style. This is also evident from the fact that not only the first part of the movie was a hit but all sequel parts were also liked and appreciated. Therefore, it can be concluded that The Pirates of the Caribbean has brought back with it the trend of pirate genre movies in Hollywood. References Boyar, J. (2007). Films to Go 100 Memorable Movies For Travelers & Others, Capital Books Inc. Cooke, C. (2009). Film Sequels, Edinburgh University Press Limited. Ebert, R. ( 2006). Roger Ebert’s Movie Year Book 2006. Andrews McMeel Publishing Printed in United States of America. Ebert, R. ( 2005). Roger Ebert’s Movie Year Book 2005. Andrews McMeel Publishing Printed in United States of America. Guinness World Records. (2005). “Largest Box Office Loss.” Web Archives. Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20051127180839/http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=50762 Romero. (2009). Media and Entertainment Law. Sandi Towers. Delmar Cengage Learning, 2009 Wayne, N. (2010, March 16). “There's No Way that Should Have Worked: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.” Yahoo Voices. Retrieved from http://voices.yahoo.com/theres-no-way-worked-pirates-the-5577141.html Read More