44 – Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

As we clock yet another Disney film on the list, people might be shocked to learn that I’ve only ever been to Disneyland once. And when I was only two years old at that. I remember nothing from it, and my parents’ only story is my brother being scared of Jafar – even though Aladdin hadn’t even been released yet. Once in my teen years, dinner conversation strayed to the topic of our trip to Disneyland. I asked if we’d gone on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. My brother – who in his own teen years was a brilliant know nothing know it all – tried to get everyone to laugh at me for suggesting such a thing. How could we be on a ride based on a movie that wouldn’t be released for another twelve years? He refused to believe me that the film was actually based on the ride, and not the other way around. It’s understandable; when we think of films based on non-literary sources the first thought is usually a bad idea.

Theme park rides are not exempt from this either. Disney released another film based off a ride – The Country Bears in 2002 – which crashed and burned at the Box Office. This one was already in production at the time and that failure really gave Disney CEO Michael Eisner cold feet, and he tried to shut down production. So all in all it’s something of a miracle that this film turned out to be such a hit and spawned five sequels. But drink up, me hearties, we have a long voyage ahead of us!

Pirates of the Caribbean first opened at Disneyland in 1967, and was in fact the last park attraction that Uncle Walt had a hand in designing before he died. Originally designed as a walk-through waxwork attraction, they later changed it to a boat ride – where patrons would sail through a southern gothic influenced setting. It was one of the first rides to have animatronics (with 53 animatronic animals and 75 humans) – and has always been one of Disneyland’s most popular attractions. A film adaptation of the ride was talked about as early as the 90s – with of course Steven Spielberg entertaining the idea of directing. This version would have had the likes of Bill Murray or Robin Williams as Jack Sparrow. But it didn’t get put into production until 2001. For one very simple reason.

Cutthroat Island was a 1995 attempt at reviving the pirate genre. What it ended up doing was losing $100 million at the Box Office, destroying Carolco Pictures (who produced it) and tarnishing Geena Davis’s image. For a long time, Pirates of the Caribbean was going to be released direct-to-video because the execs were that worried it was going to be a disaster. But it was through the hard work of writers Ted Elliot and Terry Rosso, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski – all of whom had childhood nostalgia for the ride – that the film became a big budget theatrical release. They also introduced one element that Cutthroat Island didn’t.

A supernatural curse is mentioned in the ride and Disney were known for fairy tales and fantasy stories – so they went ‘why not?’ – and you have to remember the context of a 2002 market. The one-two punches of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings had just made fantasy into a bankable genre. They even added ‘Curse’ into the subtitle to emphasise the fantasy nature of the story. This is probably why they didn’t release it under the Touchstone Pictures banner too; Disney was associated with fantasy and they really wanted to draw in those kids and teens who couldn’t get enough of HP and LOTR.

A prologue shows a ship from England journeying across the Caribbean. We’re introduced to a young girl called Elizabeth Swan, who’s singing “A Pirate’s Life For Me” – the famous song from the ride. It should be noted that the film doesn’t adapt any stories from the ride, and is entirely original. But there are loads of little references and nods to it, this being one of them. Elizabeth finds the idea of meeting pirates exciting – which is what concerns her father the governor (Jonathan Pryce). She gets to live a part of her fantasy almost straight away – as there’s a boy found overboard. He’s called Will Turner, and he’s a survivor of a pirate attack. But Elizabeth finds a medallion around his neck.

She then sees the very ship that attacked Will’s – one with black sails and bearing a Jolly Roger flag. But before we can get the next part, she wakes up in her bed. She’s now all grown up and played by Keira Knightley. But my naive 2003 self was convinced that she was the same girl from The Mummy and wouldn’t be told for a good couple of years.

Although she had gotten some positive attention from The Hole and Bend It Like Beckham it was this that marked Keira’s proper breakout role. At first it seems like a no brainer to have her as this plucky girl ahead of her time in a historical setting. But just like with Rufus Sewell in Dark City, Elizabeth almost looks like a send-up of the many coming of age ladies Keira would end up playing in period dramas. You see – Elizabeth isn’t scandalising her peers with her ahead-of-her-time attitude; she’s the proper one shoved into a group of pirates. And it’s played for comedy as this English Rose has to take matters into her own hands. In the second act she’s a straight damsel in distress. In the third, she’s involved in the action. Overall Keira plays up that Elizabeth is something of a pompous wally.

But now we meet the grown up Will Turner.

Orlando Bloom was of course coming off Lord of the Rings and was well into his heartthrob status among teenage girls. He’d probably also displaced Leonardo DiCaprio as the prime target for angry public hate (and would himself get displaced by Robert Pattinson a few years later). In this he’s probably the weakest out of the four leads, probably because he’s playing the boring one. I know Elizabeth is a normal-ish character too but she has plenty of comic relief moments – leaving Will as the vanilla one. But Orlando’s performance in this scene is a bit forced. Maybe it’s just me but when I watch him, I feel like he’s trying too hard to be dorky and tongue-tied around the girl he has a crush on. And yet it’s Orlando Bloom, and I can’t really buy him being shy around any girl. Even if there’s a difference in class.

It’s now time to meet our third lead – Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp). Before we get into the rest of the film, we really should get a picture of who this character was based off. In the writing stage I mean.

Burt Lancaster – who we met back in From Here To Eternity – the real all-American hero. He with the chiseled jaw, pearly whites and frequent shirtlessness. Jack Sparrow was written to essentially be one of those uber manly swashbuckling heroes – and the first choices were the likes of Matthew McConaughey and Hugh Jackman. Keira Knightley describes being shocked at the table read when Johnny Depp went into his routine – and transformed Jack Sparrow from a straight lead into…well…

His reasoning was that pirates were like the rock stars of their day, so he should play Jack as a Keith Richards type. Pretty much anything memorable about Jack came from his mind, which is why it works much better in this film than any of the sequels. It’s the same with the genie in Aladdin – who was created mostly through Robin Williams improvising. So the sequels tried to replicate this spontaneous quality, and turned the character into a caricature. Some of Johnny Depp’s weirder ideas had to be reined in by filmmakers – including a nose that had been cut off and sewn back on!

What’s interesting to note about Johnny Depp at this point in time was that he wasn’t that exposed in the media as he became in the 2000s. He had collaborated with Tim Burton sure, and had some of his oddball roles like Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow. But there were still things like Donnie Brasco, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape or Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas. But once Pirates was a hit, we suddenly saw oddball Johnny a lot more. It can be surprising to note that these kind of antics were still pretty new from him at the time. Michael Eisner even complained that he was ruining the film.

Jack’s entrance into Port Royal is classic. Triumphant music plays as he stands proudly on the crow’s nest of his boat…and we see that it’s 3/4 under water. The music even keeps playing triumphantly as he steps off it onto the dock. If this scene were in the sequels, you can bet it would be played a lot more slapsticky. Jack takes a wander to the docks and inspects the ships that have been left there. As he gets chatting to the guards, he talks of one ship that legend says has black sails and is captained by a man so vile that hell itself spat him back out. The ship’s name? The Black Pearl.

Elizabeth meanwhile is at a ceremony honoring a Commador Norrington (Jack Davenport). She’s left breathless 30% due to Norrington proposing to her, and 70% due to the ridiculous corset that’s squashing her insides. She faints and falls into the sea below. Luckily Jack jumps in to rescue her, also recognising the medallion she’s wearing. In fact, the medallion causes a dramatic wind to start blowing through the area.

Governor Swan orders Jack to be hanged. Apparently removing his daughter’s corset trumps saving her life. But it’s soon revealed that Jack is actually a pirate, giving them more incentive to hang him. Elizabeth protests and finds herself an impromptu hostage. Jack proceeds to escape in what I assume was written to be a standard display of badassery. But with Johnny Depp’s take on the character, it now becomes equal parts thrilling and hilarious. Jack makes it into town and hides in the blacksmith’s – where he runs into Will. Who is none too happy that Jack used Elizabeth as a human shield.

Our first proper swordfight of the movie comes now, and it is a joy to watch. Again what’s interesting to note is that the comedy elements in the scene are still played down. Despite the tongue in cheek elements, the tone is still very grounded. And in some ways that almost makes it funnier. The sequels – in particular Dead Man’s Chest – however upped the ante in the wrong way and it felt like they were trying way too hard.

Jack gets done in by – of all things – Will’s drunken master smashing him over the head with a bottle. He ends up in the local jail, where the other prisoners are trying to get a dog with the keys to come closer. That’s another nod to the ride.

Jack recognises the cannons that start firing on Port Royal during the night. It’s the Black Pearl. And as the pirates swarm the town, it’s important for me to note how they are portrayed. Unlike the sequels, which softened them and portrayed them as brave rebels – here the movie makes sure to show them exactly as they are. They’re shown terrorising the villagers – including one scene where a child nearly dies in the carnage. Although the pirates do provide comic relief, it’s no more so than other characters do. As Elizabeth sees them storming her estate, one of her maids assumes they’ve come to kidnap the governor’s daughter. Elizabeth does pretty well for a teenage girl who’s never been in a fight before, but they catch her eventually. So she invokes par lay.

No actually. It’s a part of the pirate code that says she now has to be taken to the captain to negotiate terms. Their captain is Barbossa (and Johnny Depp decided he should be named Hector) played by Geoffrey Rush. Business was booming for him at this point in time – with Oscar nominations for Shine, Quills and Shakespeare In Love, BAFTA nom for Elizabeth and appearances in blockbusters like House On Haunted Hill. He’s massively entertaining as our antagonist; so much so that the sequels just went ahead and made him a heroic presence.

Elizabeth guesses that it’s the medallion they’ve come for, recognising the ship as the one she saw on the crossing from England. So she gives them the medallion in exchange for leaving Port Royal to never return. She also lies and says her last name is Turner just so they won’t know she’s the governor’s daughter. But they find this very interesting and refuse to take her back to shore! Elizabeth forgot to put returning her safely to Port Royal in the bargain.

The next morning at Port Royal, Will is all gun ho to save Elizabeth. Norrington wants to do things by the book, but Will wants to make like a seagull and start winging it. So he breaks Jack out of jail in exchange for taking him to where the Black Pearl is. Jack agrees once he hears Will’s full name. The following sequence of Jack and Will managing to hijack two ships at once is brilliant beyond words and ends with them sailing the prize Interceptor out to sea. Jack reveals that Barbossa and his crew will undoubtedly be going to a place called the Isla de Muerta – an island that can only be found by people who know where it is.

Jack also knew Will’s father – and drops the bombshell that he was a pirate! Which is kind of like the opposite of a preacher’s child being a rebellious delinquent. And when Will and Jack go to Tortuga to find a man called Gibbs (Kevin McNally) it turns out that Barbossa knew Will’s father (aka Bootstrap Bill) – which explains why the pirates got so interested when Elizabeth said her last name was turner. Jack tells Gibbs that Will could make a good bargaining chip in order to get the Black Pearl back off Barbossa.

We also get a running gag of Jack meeting a woman and getting slapped – with varying degrees of justification.

Elizabeth meanwhile has dinner with Barbossa. Well it’s more her eating everything while he looks on. The reason why has a lot to do with the medallion; it’s Aztec gold discovered by Hernando Cortez himself. In addition to empire conquering, Cortez somehow had the power to place curses – because there was one on the gold. Anyone who takes a gold piece from the chest is cursed, and the only way to break the curse is to return every piece. And repay some blood too. What does this curse do?

So yeah…zombie pirates. Not gonna lie, this scene scared the crap out of me when I was eleven. The sequence of Elizabeth discovering all the undead pirates on deck is still freakishly effective. It’s even more effective with how grounded the rest of the film is. And this is the only overt fantasy element in the film. There’s a supernatural curse but otherwise no one else has powers of their own. The sequels up the ante with sea monsters, vengeful goddesses, mermaids, trips to the underworld etc. The epic scope just doesn’t work for this franchise. It’d be like making a Stardust sequel about saving the world from an evil death goddess.

Only in this franchise could Tortuga be a shelter from the madness, but that is indeed what it is. Gibbs has assembled a crew of ragtag extras to help get Jack and Will to their desired destination. They don’t get much importance beyond a mute man who trained his parrot to talk for him, and…

Zoe Saldana as a pirate once again! Though I am relieved that I did have a film of hers on my list where she wasn’t a Technicolor Fantasy Creature. Her character Anamaria gives Jack a slap that he says he definitely deserved – for stealing her boat an unspecified amount of time ago. Will makes the peace by saying she can command The Interceptor and thus they have their crew. The banter between Johnny Depp and Zoe Saldana is really fun in this scene and it’s pretty much their only bit together in the film. If you’re wondering why you don’t see Anamaria in the sequels, Zoe Saldana had an absolutely horrible time filming this one and kinda didn’t want to return. She nearly quit acting over it but her white knight took the form of…

We cut to The Interceptor in the middle of a storm, where Jack is using a compass that doesn’t point north. Gibbs insinuates that the compass is what’s going to get them to the Isla de Muerta. Once the storm clears, he lets slip to Will that Jack was captain of the Black Pearl in the past. The reason that it’s a past tense thing is that Barbossa led the crew to mutiny against him. They marooned him on an island with a pistol that had just one shot left in it. So that explains why Jack is all…

Orlando Bloom’s ad-libbed impression of Johnny Depp, ladies and gents. According to legend, Jack escaped the island by lashing a group of sea turtles together. Will doesn’t believe this for a second but they’ve reached the Isla de Muerta, so he has to go ashore with Jack. And since this is a pirate movie, it’s time to see the treasure.

It’s moment of truth time for the pirates as they prepare to sacrifice Elizabeth’s blood. It turns out to be just a small cut across the hand (“waste not” says Barbossa) and now the jig is up. Elizabeth’s father was not a man called William Turner, so that means she’s useless. Barbossa knocks her aside, though the rest of the crew are all for cutting her throat and spilling all her blood just to be safe. Will has suspected that Jack is going to use him as leverage and knocks him out, rescuing Elizabeth. They take the medallion for reasons I’m not sure on. Either Elizabeth just didn’t want the pirates to get what they wanted or she guessed they’d be heading after them anyway and knew they should have something they could potentially bargain with.

Jack regains consciousness in time to tell Barbossa that he knows whose blood would work to break the curse. Speaking of Will, we cut to a tender scene between him and Elizabeth. She gives him the medallion back, which seems to confirm that his father was a pirate. We have more pressing concerns though, as the Black Pearl is gaining on them. And since this is a pirate movie, it seems our two ships are now close enough for…

Ironically during this really fun cannon fight, it’s Elizabeth who shines the most. On this particular watch, I’m finally noticing just how good a character she was. And it is interesting that I mistook Keira Knightley for Rachel Weisz, because it’s for similar reasons that I liked Evey in The Mummy. Maybe because Elizabeth is not one of the following:

A damsel in distress.

A decorative love interest.

A token badass lady.

The Hobbit inserted a female character who was not in the original story in order to add some feminine energy draw more women to the cinemas. She was given a few action sequences that felt like the filmmakers were saying ‘is that feminist enough?’ It was a similar case with Marion in the Ridley Scott version of Robin Hood. She had to disguise herself as a soldier and fight in the final battle even if it cost nothing because they had to avoid accusations of sexism dammit! This was even felt in the Beauty & the Beast remake of all things that added action moments for Belle (trying to escape the castle, fighting with Gaston in the climax) lest some straw feminists claim she was too passive. What I like about Elizabeth is that she’s a character and not an agenda.

She’s not put in the story as the token girl. Sure she’s in there because they need a female lead, but she’s allowed to be a character. Her interest in pirate folklore drives the plot – and her imagination helps the others out in this sequence. She doesn’t swash buckle flawlessly because news flash – a girl in her time period wouldn’t know how to. But she can still influence the plot and be an active character in her own way. And I think the movie deserves major props for showing that tales of piracy are legitimate things for girls to have an interest in. As for the romance with Will, neither character is the love interest. They’re two characters with their own stories, and their attraction to each other is just another plot point. The sequels edge things closer to the conventional by making Elizabeth a warrior, and amping up the romance plot.

Jack had been locked in the brig by Barbossa before the battle started, but he frees himself and seemingly switches sides. It doesn’t do much good, because Barbossa’s forces win the fight. Will had been below deck trying to get the medallion, but someone else beats him to the punch.

Will does however reveal his identity to the Black Pearl crew. And because they need his blood for the curse to be broken, they agree that the other crew are not to be harmed and that Elizabeth goes free. But Will fails to specify when or where.

Elizabeth gets kicked off a few feet away from a desert island – the same one Jack was marooned on in the past. Jack too gets ordered off the ship, again with the same pistol with one shot as before. Elizabeth is all keen to try and rescue Will, but Jack is ready to just lie on the beach and do nothing. The sea turtle story was completely bogus, as the reason he escaped was because the rum runners swung by the island and gave him a lift. Better put in the following exchange.

Elizabeth thinks on her feet and gets Jack drunk on rum. While he’s passed out, she burns everything on the island to create a signal fire. Sure enough, the Royal Navy turns up to rescue them. They don’t want to go back and help Will – so Elizabeth accepts Commador Norrington’s proposal on the condition that they do. They sadly don’t believe her about the undead pirates however and lock her in the Governor’s room. They’ll be educated pretty soon however – as Jack convinces Barbossa to send them out to ambush the Dauntless.

Elizabeth sneaks out via rope ladder and frees the prisoners on the Black Pearl but they’re reluctant to help her (“bloody pirates!”) so she has to join the swashbuckling climax on her own. Thankfully Jack has switched sides yet again – also taking a coin from the chest and making himself undead. A fun action sequence ensues, with each of our protagonists getting their moments. In the end Jack pulls his pistol on Barbossa just as Will returns the coins to the chest.

Oh lord, that’s not quite on the same level as Marion Cotillard’s bit in The Dark Knight Rises but it’s up there. The Black Pearl has taken off without Jack, meaning we cut to him being sentenced to death in Port Royal. Elizabeth however pretends to faint to distract people, allowing Will to free him. After an action sequence that goes on a bit long, Norrington allows Jack a bit of a head-start in escaping – which is especially handy since they can see the Black Pearl in the distance. Norrington notices the attraction between Will and Elizabeth and bows out gracefully – things seemingly wrapped up all neat and tidy.

Pirates of the Caribbean was a real breath of fresh air when it came out. It’s incredible to think that this was a time when Johnny Depp was best known for cult films rather than being a leading man – and yet this changed things instantly. He even got a friggin Oscar nomination for his role as Jack Sparrow – something I only found out a few weeks ago and had to do a lot of fact checking just to make sure of. The movie was a huge gamble and it admittedly could have been a disaster. But the right factors all came together at the right time. This was one of the last VHS tapes my family owned, and I would watch it over and over again without getting bored. I wanted a sequel straight away.

Oh you fool.

Dead Man’s Chest may have grossed $1 billion worldwide but it represented everything that is usually wrong with sequels to wickedly original movies. At World’s End was tolerable and I had no motivation to see the other two. It reminded me of when I tried to watch Terminator Genisys and it was a while before I remembered how well regarded the first two Terminator films were. Ditto for Jurassic Park. So in some ways I almost feel sad watching these first entries back. They were good, original and usually fun movies when they first came out. But years of disappointing sequels have almost tainted the original. It’s almost sadder in these days where movies have gotten better at telling stories that span several entries. Dead Men Tell No Tales was hyped as the grand finale, though it sadly didn’t go out with much of a bang. And sadly sometimes you can only catch lightning in a bottle just the once. I will however always carry a torch for this one time lightning did strike.

Yo ho, a grader’s life for me.

*Story? There’s a pretty solid screenplay here – and it really stuck out to me how well the four leads were introduced. The beats were all ‘just right’ and the story had considerably more depth than Cutthroat Island. The action set pieces towards the end did run a little bit too long however. B+

*Characters? Four very distinct leads – Barbossa as our charismatic villain, Jack as the wild card, Will as the everyman to ground the story and Elizabeth as a little in-between. Elizabeth in particular is a great example of a female lead who’s not just a Token Action Girl. A colourful group of supporting characters all feel very distinct and memorable. A

*Performances? Johnny Depp at his peak before overexposure and his own personal demons soured things. Keira Knightley almost feels like she’s parodying her future typecasting. Geoffrey Rush is the MVP – and I almost can’t watch him in anything else because he plays Barbossa so well. Orlando Bloom…I’m sorry. A-

*Visuals? The grimy look that became a staple of the franchise is an acquired taste. I really loved the costume choices and the designs of the different ships. B+

*Anything Else? Action and comedy blended very well without being too bombastic or slapsticky. A

Time to down the rabbit hole with Alice In Wonderland next.