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In this Discussion
- flossy_log_lady October 2013
- kdawg October 2013
- the_owls October 2013
- ThickeningAgent October 2013
- UncleBoatShoes2011 October 2013
- YoursTruly October 2013
movies
Gravity was so bad, and Captain Phillips was SO GOOD
Who would have thought it would end up this way???
CP might be the best movie I have seen in a year. So fucking brutal and raw. No hero or villain, only humans caught up together in--and all equally helpless within--the brutal anti-human whirlwind that is AMERICAN BUSINESS
I cried
It was the opposite of Gravity
Who would have thought it would end up this way???
CP might be the best movie I have seen in a year. So fucking brutal and raw. No hero or villain, only humans caught up together in--and all equally helpless within--the brutal anti-human whirlwind that is AMERICAN BUSINESS
I cried
It was the opposite of Gravity
Comments
I have so many questions, I don't even know where to start....
truest mainstream movie ever
so true and real
can NOT stop thinking about it! Thought about it all afternoon again today!
Some things that they changed are the ages of the pirates, who were actually teens IRL, and I think that the captain may have chosen to shortcut through unsafe waters and put his ship in danger.
Just thinking/curious about the ways the story may have been changed to make a more exciting and resolved movie plot for people to watch Tom Hanks in.
Why am I so grouchy about it, I haven't even seen it yet?!
Both Hanks and the viewer end the movie just feeling insignificant and tiny and powerless to fight against bureaucracy and procedure. Hanks is absolutely not portrayed as a "hero" at all. He's a boring nice middle class dude who has a harrowing experience, but as the experience goes on he becomes even more harrowed by realizations about, like, how he and the pirates are all just caught up together in this horrible web of capitalism, how they don't have any choices, how he himself doesn't even really have choices. He and the pirates are all just tossed on the sea of life together, they all recognize each other's humanity and yet they are all unable to change the narrative of events. The Navy shows up and nothing is about him or individual agency or bravery or heroism, it's like everything that happens just shows him that individuals don't matter at all to global capital. The Navy doesn't care about him as a person, they are just following the boring procedures for hostage situations, and are fully prepared to blow up the lifeboat with him inside of it if the negotiations fail, and Hanks knows this. There's no sense of recognition between them, like, oh thank god the Americans have arrived to save me. Hanks is terrified the whole time and only gets more terrified once the Navy shows up. There are all these devastating shots of the tiny lifeboat against the utter unmanageable immensity of the Navy warships. The fucking ruinous realization that the American Navy can do literally whatever it wants, because the loser government of Somalia isn't going to give one shit about these poverty stricken pirates, first of all, but also even if the Navy kills A UNITED STATES SHIP CAPTAIN nobody is going to say boo to them. It's all about the complete futility of believing an individual can make a difference or can even choose to live a certain kind of life. Although Hanks lives at the end of the movie it is not presented as a triumph or even as a relief, and he survives through basically no actions of his own. He's just this hapless pawn, just like the pirates.He ends the movie completely shattered; he's not happy or anything, just brutalized and in shock, but like he's been traumatized more by the whole negotiations/Navy situation than by the pirates themselves. He and the pirates have these terse, heart-breaking conversations. Hanks and the three pirates all get top billing in the credits. The pirates are incredible actors. The movie shows us the pirates and Hanks from the very beginning--him driving to the ship with his duffel bag / them getting ousted from their fucking plywood shacks by warlords who force them to go out 300 miles into the ocean to bring back loot. There is absolutely no sense of judging them as villains or as less human than Hanks. I felt the fate of the one surviving pirate was presented by the film as what was ACTUALLY fucking emo--it was absolutely 100% a dual protagonist film.
"you shoot my friends?"
"Captain Phillips is safe. All your friends are dead."
MAYBE YOU SHOULD SEE THE MOVIE BEFORE DECIDING WHAT THE MOVIE IS ABOUT
thank you!
I'd argue 60-40 or 70-30 in favor of CP as the "good guy." Very well done film, thoroughly enjoyed, but they could have done an even better job of familiarizing us with the brutal realities of being a Somalian male teenager.
I've also been reading some interviews with crew members who call bullshit on a lot of the film, most importantly with the portrayal of CP as this brave, responsible leader. Says one crew member: CP was actually a haughty jerk who knowingly put the crew at risk by steering the ship too close to the Somalian shore, despite multiple warnings advising ships to remain at least 600 miles off the coast (when the ship was captured, it was 240 miles off shore). Etc. etc.
Just saying. It was still a great film, though.
Also I agree I was perhaps a bit too fervent in my "100%" comment. Hanks is for sure the protagonist. I just mean, there's not really an ANtagonist. You'd expect it to be the pirates, but it's not. If anything it's "capitalism" or "America" or something huge and vague like that. It was a 60-40 dual protagonist film, it's true. That's still pretty awesome, considering most movies!!!!!
I usually can't stand to watch movies based on contemporary political issues but this one really hit home for me in a cool way I really appreciated. The ending is so out of control. It is rare that you see a major film dare to end on such a brutal, emo, unresolved note (see: Gravity)
not literally
I really enjoyed how in the movie the really did a great job at making Hanks uncharismatic for the first 30+ minutes of the film and made him seem like a schlubby boring dude who was kinda a boring hard ass boss and not some beloved captain.
I mildly disagree with YT on the point about when the Navy showed up. I thought Phillips had some slight relief but also mixed with knowing that the whole situation had gone passed the point of a peaceful ending and that there would be bloodshed.
It was good. Those Somali actors ruled.
Perhaps that explains everything!
it's pretty good, and certainly cements Tom Hanks in that "best actor ever?" discussion. that dude has some skills. Barkhad Abdi, who played the head pirate, was really great too and i hope his career takes off.
this film would be interesting to remake from different perspectives. we now have the Captain's perspective. next could be the pirate's perspective, followed by the ship's crew. each film would be wildly different.