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While watching Pirates of the Caribbean, most people
see streams of action, humor and romance on the screen. What I
saw was a group of smiling men in suits in an executive Disney
office. And I’m not talking about the men who are smiling
because their film broke the coveted $300 million mark, I’m
talking about the ones who, some years ago, were smiling because
they’d just written a script they knew was going to break
the $300 million mark.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
does everything just the way the “how to write a blockbuster
script” book tells you to. The tight, frequent and intensive
actions, the growing romance between two of the most attractive
kids in the business – done up just enough to keep it moving
without going overboard; and a primary, lovable, comic-relief
character with punch lines and one-liners galore. Despite its
unusually extended length for a Disney film, you can still taste
all of the extra scenes and shots that have been shaven off to
keep it tight and flowing. And you can hear the frequent revisions
done to the script – make this scarier here – up the
intensity here – say that punch line a little louder here
– Pirates is as calculated a film as you can possible
get. And yet, it really is good.
The final product is a story about the curse that lies upon a
gang of evil pirates led by Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush).
The curse cannot be lifted until they have a certain gold medallion,
carried by Elizabeth Swan (Keira Knightley). The pirates capture
Elizabeth, but are followed by Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), who
is in love with Elizabeth, and Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp),
who is helping Will so that he can get his ship back, the same
ship that was taken from him by Barbossa.
Elizabeth and Will do their jobs well enough, which consists mostly
of being cute while occasionally saving each others lives and
Will conveniently practices fencing three hours a day so we can
get some good swordfights in. But the show is really stolen by
Depp, whose wobbly, seemingly drunken, Keith Richards-esque, pirate
character is frequently pulling laughs through his carefully written
one-liners and well performed facial reactions and body movements.
Though the actors are clearly having fun in their roles, so, it
would seem, is director Gore Verbinski while playing with the
trappings of the pirate world. Pirates does even better
than Cutthroat Island
at getting it all in, sometimes picking fun of the pirate
conventions while building upon them at other times. Just as fun
are the scenes that are set up to mirror visual elements from
the Disneyland ride.
Pirates of the Caribbean turns out to be just as fun
a ride. You can see right through it – but it works. It’s
funny, it’s intense, and it’s entertaining. It may
be all manufactured, but it’s manufactured right.
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