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The single most embarrassing thing about being one of the last people on the planet to see The Curse of the Black Pearl is realizing how many of the images I recognized from the ride. Most people talk about the influence of various films; I can point to the bits that were taken from audio-animatronics. It's just sad.
So onto the various films and their influence. *g* There's actually a bit taken pretty directly from Douglas Fairbanks' movie The Black Pirate. It's a great silent that's available on DVD. It was the first fictional film in Technicolor, although the two strip processing gave only a range of tones rather than the vivid colors of the later three strip process. Still, Elizabeth's escape down the make shift rope is a direct steal from the earlier film.
The whole movie has a particularly Fairbanksian feel to it. The delight that's been missing from so many adventure movies is there in spades. The seesaw swordfight in the blacksmith's shop looks like it should be from one of Douglas Fairbanks' movies. Johnny Depp's performance would have been right at home in silent movies -- that's a compliment, by the way -- his constantly woozy movement belies the precision with which his gestures echo the words in the script. That precision allows two things that are rarely seen these days -- first, when something happens suddenly and at human quickness the audience can actually follow it and the second is that the audience is able to feel the joy of physicality.
We live in an age where half the population is obese and about half of the remainder looks like they should be in a wax museum. These gym-toned bodies are aesthetically pleasing to many people (I'm a bit mixed in my response to them), but I rarely get the feeling that they're giving any joy to their owners. On this subject, my favorite bit of dialogue from Black Pearl is during the blacksmith's shop fight:
Jack -- "Who made all these weapons"
Will -- "I did, and I practice with them three hours a day"
Jack -- "Then you don't have a girlfriend."
While that may have been paraphrased a bit, that's the impression I get from so many of the ripped and toned and waxed set. Douglas Fairbanks looked damned good shirtless (rent Thief of Bagdad for proof), but his joy in his body and what it could do was palpable.
Black Pearl surprised me on a number of levels. One was that so many of its characters were honorable. Captain Jack Sparrow never lied. He exaggerated; he plotted; he schemed; he commandeered. He told the truth, so that his two little speeches at the end were beautifully set up. The first where he talks about the vows that he, Elizabeth, and Will have all made and have come true was the one that got me thinking about Sparrow's innate honesty (right down to whether or not he deserved the slaps that each of the women on Tortuga gave him). The second one was when he spoke of being dishonest. It confused Barbosa. It confused me until he started talking about the fact that honest men would do some damn fool thing as he begins the fight that brings all the action of the movie to its climax. It was perfect.
It was also interesting to see an illustration of the idea that there might be a higher duty than the law could perceive. When Will says that the right place for him to be is between Jack Sparrow and the gun pointed at Jack, that's the moment when he truly becomes a mature man. It's a rare thing to see from Hollywood product these days, but it's always been a hallmark of the swashbuckler.
The special effects were wonderfully eerie, and I'm really glad that I saw an early matinee so I could go out into sunlight afterward. And what was it about Geoffery Rush's performance that made me sad when he didn't even get a bite of his apple before he died?
There are some small quibbles. Supposedly there's a dramatic rule that if you show a gun in the first act, it has to be fired before then end of the play. When the pirates explained what they'd done to Bootstrap Bill, I expected that we'd see him come back before the end. After all, none of them could die. It didn't really matter that he was weighted down at the bottom of the ocean.
I hope this means that we'll see more good swashbucklers come out. They're a genre of hope. They're also an interesting genre to look at from the point of view of values. The leading man is usually breaking the law of the land and often creating havoc in the social order, yet he's the hero because he's responding to a higher ideal. Whether it's Robin Hood stealing from the rich to give to the poor, Rudolph Rassendyll freeing the Prisoner of Zenda, or the Scarlet Pimpernel slipping the condemned out of Paris during the Bloody Terror -- each has decided that his life is worth sacrificing to a higher cause.
From our modern democracies we may see the causes in a different light. Some of those French aristos were nasty pieces of work, Robin was defending the rights of a king who brought England to the brink of bankruptcy, and the Prisoner of Zenda was a lousy king. None of that matters. It's the idea that there is something more or better to fight for that's the hallmark of the swashbuckler.
Johnny Depp can buckle my swash any time.
So onto the various films and their influence. *g* There's actually a bit taken pretty directly from Douglas Fairbanks' movie The Black Pirate. It's a great silent that's available on DVD. It was the first fictional film in Technicolor, although the two strip processing gave only a range of tones rather than the vivid colors of the later three strip process. Still, Elizabeth's escape down the make shift rope is a direct steal from the earlier film.
The whole movie has a particularly Fairbanksian feel to it. The delight that's been missing from so many adventure movies is there in spades. The seesaw swordfight in the blacksmith's shop looks like it should be from one of Douglas Fairbanks' movies. Johnny Depp's performance would have been right at home in silent movies -- that's a compliment, by the way -- his constantly woozy movement belies the precision with which his gestures echo the words in the script. That precision allows two things that are rarely seen these days -- first, when something happens suddenly and at human quickness the audience can actually follow it and the second is that the audience is able to feel the joy of physicality.
We live in an age where half the population is obese and about half of the remainder looks like they should be in a wax museum. These gym-toned bodies are aesthetically pleasing to many people (I'm a bit mixed in my response to them), but I rarely get the feeling that they're giving any joy to their owners. On this subject, my favorite bit of dialogue from Black Pearl is during the blacksmith's shop fight:
Jack -- "Who made all these weapons"
Will -- "I did, and I practice with them three hours a day"
Jack -- "Then you don't have a girlfriend."
While that may have been paraphrased a bit, that's the impression I get from so many of the ripped and toned and waxed set. Douglas Fairbanks looked damned good shirtless (rent Thief of Bagdad for proof), but his joy in his body and what it could do was palpable.
Black Pearl surprised me on a number of levels. One was that so many of its characters were honorable. Captain Jack Sparrow never lied. He exaggerated; he plotted; he schemed; he commandeered. He told the truth, so that his two little speeches at the end were beautifully set up. The first where he talks about the vows that he, Elizabeth, and Will have all made and have come true was the one that got me thinking about Sparrow's innate honesty (right down to whether or not he deserved the slaps that each of the women on Tortuga gave him). The second one was when he spoke of being dishonest. It confused Barbosa. It confused me until he started talking about the fact that honest men would do some damn fool thing as he begins the fight that brings all the action of the movie to its climax. It was perfect.
It was also interesting to see an illustration of the idea that there might be a higher duty than the law could perceive. When Will says that the right place for him to be is between Jack Sparrow and the gun pointed at Jack, that's the moment when he truly becomes a mature man. It's a rare thing to see from Hollywood product these days, but it's always been a hallmark of the swashbuckler.
The special effects were wonderfully eerie, and I'm really glad that I saw an early matinee so I could go out into sunlight afterward. And what was it about Geoffery Rush's performance that made me sad when he didn't even get a bite of his apple before he died?
There are some small quibbles. Supposedly there's a dramatic rule that if you show a gun in the first act, it has to be fired before then end of the play. When the pirates explained what they'd done to Bootstrap Bill, I expected that we'd see him come back before the end. After all, none of them could die. It didn't really matter that he was weighted down at the bottom of the ocean.
I hope this means that we'll see more good swashbucklers come out. They're a genre of hope. They're also an interesting genre to look at from the point of view of values. The leading man is usually breaking the law of the land and often creating havoc in the social order, yet he's the hero because he's responding to a higher ideal. Whether it's Robin Hood stealing from the rich to give to the poor, Rudolph Rassendyll freeing the Prisoner of Zenda, or the Scarlet Pimpernel slipping the condemned out of Paris during the Bloody Terror -- each has decided that his life is worth sacrificing to a higher cause.
From our modern democracies we may see the causes in a different light. Some of those French aristos were nasty pieces of work, Robin was defending the rights of a king who brought England to the brink of bankruptcy, and the Prisoner of Zenda was a lousy king. None of that matters. It's the idea that there is something more or better to fight for that's the hallmark of the swashbuckler.
Johnny Depp can buckle my swash any time.
