WHO’S IN IT?
Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump), Catherine Keener (The 40-Year-Old Virgin), Barkhad Abdi (film debut), Barkhad Abdirahman (film debut), Faysal Ahmed (film debut), Mahat M. Ali (film debut), Michael Churnus (Men in Black 3), David Warshofsky (There Will Be Blood), Corey Johnson (Hellboy), Chris Mulkey (Cloverfield), Yul Vazquez (The A-Team), Max Martini (Pacific Rim), Omar Berdouni (Green Zone)
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Paul Greengrass (United 93), director; Billy Ray (The Hunger Games), writer; Dana Brunetti (21), Michael De Luca (Moneyball) and Scott Rudin (The Social Network), producers; Henry Jackman (Wreck-It Ralph), composer; Barry Ackroyd (The Hurt Locker), cinematographer; Christopher Rouse (The Bourne Ultimatum), editor
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
In 2009, an unarmed US container ship, the Maersk Alabama, is quickly hijacked by Somali pirates, as led by their captain Muse (Abdi). To spare the lives of his crew, Captain Richard Phillips (Hanks) offers himself to be their only hostage, and both the commanding offer and the pirate captain find themselves at each other’s throats in their desperate bids for survival…
WHY SHOULD YOU BE EXCITED?
Thanks to the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, the world’s view on pirates has never been stronger. Swashbuckling adventures on the seven seas is all anyone can think about when they hear the world pirate, with grand wooden ships, curvy cutlasses and thick sort-of-Irish accents being the norm in many great pirate escapades in Hollywood. Truly, it’s a pirate’s life for us.
Unfortunately, things are a little different nowadays. Take Captain Phillips, a film about the real-life account of a ship captain taken hostage by pirates. Only these are not the colourful, cheerful kind as described in that opening paragraph – these are extremely dangerous Somali pirates, armed with machine guns and a brutal, hostile nature. Anyone thinking that Jack Sparrow will somehow come in to restore balance seriously needs to get their mental priorities straightened out, for these are most certainly not the kind of pirates we all grew up on.
Using his experiences from working on another real-life drama United 93 – for which he was deservedly nominated for an Oscar – director Paul Greengrass has done his utmost to ensure that another harrowing true story like this one is told with respect and intelligence through his extensive research and passion for the project. Writer Billy Ray is tasked with penning the tale so that it reaches a wide, mainstream audience without even thinking about dumbing down the events – after all, this is the same guy who adapted The Hunger Games to the big screen while also making it plausible to newer audiences. Both men seem to work together perfectly to bring the tale of Captain Phillips to the big screen.
A cast of mostly unknowns happens to be led by one of Hollywood’s most popular actors, but however good Tom Hanks may be in the role of Captain Richard Phillips most eyes will be on the young men playing the Somali pirates themselves. Early reviews for the picture have unanimously praised their full commitment to the roles despite this being their film debuts, especially Barkhad Abdi as their leader Muse, and some have even commented on how the film world’s view of pirates could be drastically altered through their performances alone. While the kid-friendly version of pirates will always be timeless to both children and adults alike, we at least now have a version that adults can really sink their teeth into. Thanks to Captain Phillips, it’s a pirate’s life for even more people. Yo ho, yo ho etc.
