Pirates of the Caribbean (film)
From AwardAnnals
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| Director(s) | Gore Verbinski |
|---|---|
| Series | (First in series) |
| Distributor | Walt Disney Video |
| Honors | |
| From producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pearl Harbor) comes Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the thrilling high-seas adventure with a mysterious twist. The roguish yet charming Captain Jack Sparrow’s (Academy Award(R) Nominee Johnny Depp) idyllic pirate life capsizes after his nemesis, the wily Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), steals his ship, the Black Pearl, and later attacks the town of Port Royal, kidnapping the governor’s beautiful daughter Elizabeth (Keira Knightley). In a gallant attempt to rescue her and recapture the Black Pearl, Elizabeth’s childhood friend Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) joins forces with Jack. What Will doesn’t know is that a cursed treasure has doomed Barbossa and his crew to live forever as the undead. Rich in suspense-filled adventure, sword-clashing action, mystery, humor, unforgettable characters, and never-before-seen special effects, Pirates is a must-have epic on the grandest scale ever. | |
From producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pearl Harbor) comes Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the thrilling high-seas adventure with a mysterious twist. The roguish yet charming Captain Jack Sparrow’s (Academy Award(R) Nominee Johnny Depp) idyllic pirate life capsizes after his nemesis, the wily Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), steals his ship, the Black Pearl, and later attacks the town of Port Royal, kidnapping the governor’s beautiful daughter Elizabeth (Keira Knightley). In a gallant attempt to rescue her and recapture the Black Pearl, Elizabeth’s childhood friend Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) joins forces with Jack. What Will doesn’t know is that a cursed treasure has doomed Barbossa and his crew to live forever as the undead. Rich in suspense-filled adventure, sword-clashing action, mystery, humor, unforgettable characters, and never-before-seen special effects, Pirates is a must-have epic on the grandest scale ever.
Reviews
Amazon.com
You won’t need a bottle of rum to enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, especially if you’ve experienced the Disneyland theme-park ride that inspired it. There’s a galleon’s worth of fun in watching Johnny Depp’s androgynous performance as Captain Jack Sparrow, a roguish pirate who could pass for the illegitimate spawn of rockers Keith Richards and Chrissie Hynde. Depp gets all the good lines and steals the show, recruiting Orlando Bloom (a blacksmith and expert swordsman) and Keira Knightley (a lovely governor’s daughter) on an adventurous quest to recapture the notorious Black Pearl, a ghost ship commandeered by Jack’s nemesis Capt. Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), a mutineer desperate to reverse the curse that left him and his (literally) skeleton crew in a state of eternal, undead damnation. Director Gore Verbinski (The Ring) repeats the redundant mayhem that marred his debut film Mouse Hunt, but with the writers of Shrek he’s made Pirates into a special-effects thrill-ride that plays like a Halloween party on the open seas. Aye, matey, we’ve come a long way since Jason and the Argonauts! —Jeff Shannon
Barnes and Noble
Just when it seemed the pirate movie was moribund, along comes Johnny Depp to revive it, playing one of the wildest buccaneers to ever grace the screen. It’s all the more startling to find this witty, wonderfully eccentric performance in a summer blockbuster produced by action maven Jerry Bruckheimer (Pearl Harbor) and based on, of all things, a Disney theme park ride. What sounded like a recipe for a Cutthroat Island-style disaster turns out to be a thoroughly enjoyable romp in the grand swashbuckling tradition. The setting is the 18th-century West Indies, and Depp is Jack Sparrow, a down-on-his-luck pirate recruited by a handsome blacksmith (Orlando Bloom) to rescue the governor’s beautiful daughter (Bend It Like Beckham’s Keira Knightly) from the clutches of a deadly band of pirates. Led by Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush, in a juicy turn), these black-hearted sea dogs are operating under a curse—they are actually the living dead, who, under moonlight, are revealed to be skeletons. This plot twist adds a nice dash of the supernatural, and the bouts of moonlit swordplay are a ghoulish delight, thanks to first-rate special effects. But the real kick in Pirates of the Caribbean is watching Depp strut and mince in a characterization reportedly inspired by rock ‘n’ roller Keith Richards. Heavily mascaraed, dreadlocked, and effeminate, Depp seems to be subtly acknowledging the homosexuality that was part of the pirate tradition (though not in classic Hollywood swashbucklers). Not that this welcome hint of subversion in any way detracts from the film’s old-fashioned, PG appeal. Despite being a wee bit long at two-plus hours, Pirates of the Caribbean is a joyous and unexpected return to the adventure movies of yore, anchored by a memorable star turn. Kryssa Schemmerling
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