Miami University
Pirates, Film, and the American Need for Escapism During Times of
Political or Military Unrest and Discontent
Undergraduate Summer Scholars 2007
August 19, 2007
-----------------------------
Throughout the last two centuries, pirates have intrigued as well as frightened people. Nineteenth-century authors wrote about the escapades of notorious pirates, with their sense of adventure, lawlessness, callousness, and desire for treasure and gold. They romanticized pirates to dull fear and encourage a sense of adventure. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Americans have expounded upon this notion of romanticized pirates by putting them on the silver screen. They have created their own genre of escapist movies, equal to that of the Westerns, and later in cinematic history, those of science fiction and fantasy. All of these escapist genres allow the viewer to remove themselves from the reality of the present. Cowboys and pirates are both historical figures, giving them emotional resonance. Science fiction and fantasy are often futuristic, fantastical, or other-worldly films that create an unrealistic world. Without escape, whether in literature or on the silver screen, people without a sense of imagination would have nothing to which they could retreat. Children would not be able to play pirates, or cowboys and Indians, knights in shining armor to come to save a damsel in distress (or, distressing damsel in some cases), or Jedi Knights with swords made of condensed energy. These stories of times gone by or futuristic worlds have fueled the imaginations of many, allowing both adults and children to take the stories and expand upon them as they see fit. In American culture, escape comes in many forms, including sleep, movies, literature, board games, family discussions, bedtime stories, and listening to a grandparent talk about the ‘old days.’ Literature, and for the most part, movies, are two of the things that someone can pick up and delve into any time they want, allowing oneself to be taken to a faraway world.
Pirate films, however, were a forgotten genre until Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl arrived in theaters in 2003. This opened up the venue for all things pirate. But why? Was it the eccentric way that Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow was portrayed? Was it the action? The adventure, the romance, or the excitement? The pure disregard the pirates had for law and order? Pirate films have been around for a hundred years, fading in and out over the decades, so why the sudden renaissance of the genre? Better yet, is there a correlation between when the pirate films are popular, and what is going on in the world of the audience? Do people desire a time to escape from their everyday troubles? Is it at these breaking points that people fall in love with piracy and lawlessness once again? Perhaps. These are questions and concerns that shall be answered, for history repeats itself, and so do pirate films and their popularity.
This paper seeks to analyze the popularity of pirate films in relation to the sentiments of the American public and their interest in the genre from the early 20th Century to the present. It suggests that the pirate genre has been more popular in times of American involvement and interest in war, and less popular in times of American indifference to the government and the wars being waged. The interest in the pirate genre varies throughout the decades, but in a logical and predictable manner.
The Pirate Genre
The pirate genre in itself came in waves over time. It continually increased in popularity until the rise of the television in the 1950s, at which time the entire movie industry was hit hard by low movie attendance. People could now watch the news and entertainment on television whenever they desired, and no longer had to rely on their neighborhood movie theatre to provide people their news updates and various outlets to escape the daily hassles. This dramatically affected the output and quality of films. No longer given the budgets producers were used to, the movie industry made two sorts of movies: the low-budget film that garnered little attention or the large-budget blockbuster film that had advertisements everywhere to cover the bill. As pirate films had never been one of the large genres in comparison to romance, comedy, western, or thriller, these films never had a blockbuster release unless the pirate theme was carried into a larger film, such as Star Wars.
Almost all the pirate films portrayed the government as an object of corruption and scorn. The leader of the government, most often the English monarchy or the governorship of Jamaica, was a man who abused his power. It portrayed what happened when the government lost its legitimacy and broke down over time. The films were filled with backstabbing politicians and double-crossing treachery. Allegiances would shift depending on what was going on, the majority of characters sometimes siding with the ‘good’ and moral pirate, other times, with the government. The overall feeling after watching these movies was that the government, no matter how calm it looked on the outside, could not be trusted. There were always people ready to sell out to the other side if they could gain something from it.
1920-1929
The Black Pirate (1926) was popular when it was first shown in theatres, and continues to be an enjoyable movie. Having a disguised Duke as a pirate and a Princess as a common passenger on a ship intrigued viewers. As moving pictures were most often watched by the working classes during these years, the thought of a merchant turned pirate would most likely have filled them with hope that they, too, could be a moral person, even in their current circumstances. Although the good pirate, the Black Pirate, often had near-mutinies on his hands due to his moral ways, he succeeded through the hard times, becoming a role model to even the poor and impoverished immigrants and citizens of the United States.
1930-1939
When Errol Flynn took the title role of Captain Blood (1935), his pretty-boy features belied his swashbuckling ability. He fights the corrupt English government and its injustices by healing the wounded rebels that fight against the king. When taken to court for his rebel sympathies, he refuses to be pronounced guilty due to the fact that he was only doing his job as a physician. His impertinence gets him sent overseas to become a slave. He, unlike his fellow rebel-slaves, refuses to be easily bought and sold, showing a backbone in his character that moviegoers of the time longed to see. Although World War I was over, it was obvious that things were not going well in Europe at the time, and Peter Blood’s character showed that no matter what, one needed to stand up for their beliefs and to have a backbone in times of crisis and lawlessness. Blood continues this rebellion against the government, even as a slave; however, this time he has help from the governor’s niece. Allowed more freedoms than other slaves due to his profession as a doctor, Peter Blood was able to keep up the hopes of his fellow men, promising them freedom and escape from tyranny if they would just have patience with him. This power, this freedom, said something to the American public. It said to stand up for what you believe in, and let neither pain nor tyranny keep you from your beliefs. It was a less than subtle hint to the viewers to stay true to the United States and fight against the Nazi regime in Germany, portrayed as a tyrannical force that one could not trust.
This raw power gave ordinary citizens something to believe in: an idol that made it through the sufferings of slavery to become free on the ocean, free of all government. The ties of poverty of the time were most likely worse than the slavery this doctor endured. But it is his determination to defy the fact that he was a slave that gave him the ability to see past his bondage out to the freedom of the sea, free of all England. Put into normal terms for the peasants and immigrants, it could be seen as working their way free of the constraints put upon them, due to their status by the American government, in this glorious ‘land of the free’. Middle classes were beginning to go to the theatres and could empathize with Dr. Peter Blood. Immigrant doctors could understand what they had left behind in the mother country, and the middle and upper classes could remember what they had had before the stock market crash robbed them of their fortune and prestige.
All Americans in the Depression could relate to his life as a slave. Those who had once enjoyed the life of the wealthy and now had nothing could understand his frustration. They could relate to the fight he had against the tyrannical government that imprisoned him unjustly. Many of the movie goers would most likely have had the same feelings, believing that their lack of wealth and freedom was because of the American government and its policies. Throughout Blood’s time as a slave, audiences could relate to him. They could relate to Blood’s hope of being free, being out on the open waters where adventure would await him and his crew, where they could attack the ships who sailed the flag of their captors and exact their revenge.
There was adventure, and there was romance. Blood was angry at the governor’s niece for having bought him as a slave, when at one time he could have been her equal. Those who were hit hard by the stock market were just as angry at those who kept their fortunes, when others lost everything. When Blood was finally free of his imprisonment, he stole a ship and, with the help of the other prisoners, enjoyed sailing the high seas, engaging in adventure and exacting revenge on those who opposed him. He enjoyed a sort of lawlessness that he could not have experienced as a law-abiding citizen. He went to exotic ports and spent his money on drink and, most likely, women. He became rich through his lawlessness, something that the people who were watching the movies no doubt would dream about.
Blood passed beyond being easy to relate to, to being someone that the movie goers genuinely wished they could be. Through him they enjoyed sword fights and adventure. They could enjoy the sights of places they would never travel to, meet characters that they would likely never come across in the United States during the era of the Dust Bowl. At the end of the movie, when governments changed for the better, people were most likely wishing that the same would happen to their own American government. They would have wanted someone to eliminate their poverty, someone to restore the banks so that they could keep their money somewhere, to have jobs so that they could work. They could relate closely to Peter Blood as he dictated the Articles of Agreement that would be rules and agreements on the ship:
We, the undersigned, are men without a country. Outlaws in our own land and
homeless outcasts in any other. Desperate men, we go to seek a desperate
fortune. Therefore, we do, here and now, band ourselves into a brotherhood of
buccaneers... to practice the trade of piracy on the high seas. We, the hunted,
will now hunt![1]
The change in government was something that people were hoping would come soon, so that they could see a better life ahead of them. As Peter Blood became governor at the end of the movie, of the same place where he had been a slave, realities and dreams must have collided for the viewer. They wished for someone who knew their troubles and misery to be in charge of the government, so that they could have some understanding of the national situation by the political bureaucrats. They also wished it was they who were in charge of the politics; it would be only natural for someone to believe that they were the ones best suited for the job. Although when the audience walked outside reality would sink in, they had enjoyed a few hours’ relief from their daily misery, and were strengthened by Peter Blood’s courage to stand up to the suffering and bear it, because he knew one day he would be free of it. This determination provided some people the strength to make it through the Depression.
1940-1949
Tyrone Power and Maureen O’Hara graced the silver screen together during World War II in The Black Swan (1942). Power’s Jamie-boy Waring is the archetypical drinking, womanizing, coarse pirate captain; O’Hara’s Lady Margaret Denby is beautiful, high-class, and, as is typical for O’Hara’s characters, a strong-willed spitfire of a woman. Jamie-boy is first shown drinking from a barrel of wine with some other pirates. Around him are women the pirates had taken from the town, tied up for the men, and some pirates going through clothing and various goods they had stolen. In the next scene, Jamie-boy is being punished by the governor of Jamaica and then saved by his pirate crew. When they have saved him, and the beautiful Lady Margaret comes running down the stairs, the viewer saw how fiery Lady Margaret was in comparison to the women in previous decades. Gun in hand and threatening to kill Jamie-boy if he got any closer, she exuded strength and confidence.
Filmmakers in 1942 wanted to encourage such strong character among women. In the midst of war, the government had been trying to get the female population to work in industries that had previously only employed men. Rosie the Riveter and similar slogans and advertisements showed the average woman as strong and proud, doing men’s work while the men were overseas fighting. Instead of previous movies where the lead actresses were demure, the war-time films gave the actresses strength and strong wills. Because most of the audience was female, women needed and wanted to see women standing up for themselves against more dominant, even coarse pirates. Maureen O’Hara gave a brilliant performance that must have emboldened the women to do their share in the war effort, to be strong and confident. No longer relying on men, women were taking care of themselves.
Even as O’Hara gave a performance to strengthen the resolve of women to do their part and to be strong in their beliefs, Powers’ coarse, uncultured pirate does his share to work against corrupt politicians. When he finds that there is treachery in the Jamaican government in an attempt to get rid of pirate-turned-governor Sir Henry Morgan, Jamie-boy goes after the traitors. He fights misunderstandings and battles poor first impressions as he does so. A conversation between Jamie and Henry show the feelings of the time towards politicians:
Henry: I wish my nature hadn't changed. I'd have made that whole assembly walk
the plank.
Jamie: Can't go wrong drowning politicians, Henry.[2]
There are many times when people felt the same way, and it probably would have made some people smile and nod at the thought. A true pirate at heart, Jamie attempts to woo the gorgeous Lady Margaret. Although he kidnaps Lady Margaret when he goes after the traitors, and she fights him all the way, he is courteous to her. By no means a gentleman, he attempts to be a decent man who does all he can to fight for his friends. Even Margaret, in her rebuffs against him, cannot help but see the strength of character he possesses.
This courage and determination Jamie shows, as well as his attempt at manners, would have affected young men who wanted to go to war to either ‘fight the Japs’ or ‘fight the Nazis’ when they were old enough to enlist. They saw that they did not have to be perfect to be good people, and that it was the attempt to do the right thing that counted. They saw adventure and excitement around every turn. Starry-eyed children could watch the movie and dream of being the swashbuckling hero that could do anything, and still win over the pretty lady. They would have booed the traitorous court of men who advised the governor, cheered when Jamie-boy won his battles, laughed when Lady Margaret put him in his place, and sighed each time she refused to fall in love with him. The movie allowed for an escape from reality, where real people were being killed daily, and instead offered up a place where people were not perfect, the bad people lose, the attempting-to-be-good people win, and the pirate gets the girl. In a time when families had no tires for weekend trips, or gas to even fuel the cars, the local movie theatres were the place where the entire family could go for entertainment; therefore, the entertainment had to appeal to everyone.
1950-1959
Burt Lancaster’s The Crimson Pirate (1952) allowed audiences enduring the harshness and fear of the Cold War and the Korean War a chance for pure escapism. Full of comedy and escapism, it was the perfect choice to forget about daily troubles for a while. Beginning with Lancaster’s Captain Vallo speaking to the audience and telling them to only believe half of what they see, viewers are immediately brought into the story, action and acrobatics filling every scene. They are taken to a world where everything does not always go as planned for the good guy, people are ready to betray him, and the government is corrupt. As a mutiny brews, Captain Vallo tries to convince his men to follow him through a series of events that will bring them more money than they would otherwise come by. Through distrust and dishonesty, a winding comedic story pulled the viewers along.
In a time when spies were everywhere and the government itself was full of corrupt politicians, people could relate to the pain Vallo felt as the people he trusted betrayed him. With the Red Scare sweeping the nation, and the actors of Hollywood being singled out as Communists or holding communist sympathies, distrust and fear was everywhere. No one seemed to be who they said they were anymore. A snippet of conversation between Consuelo, the main female character, and Captain Vallo, the Crimson Pirate, put the emotions of the American public into words:
Consuelo: You are a fighter. Fight with us. Fight for something
decent.
Captain Vallo: Not I. All my life I've watched injustice and
dishonesty fly the flag of decency. I don't trust it.[3]
During the McCarthy Era, the government was finding people guilty of espionage and breaching security and was blaming others for being Communists, often with little or no evidence. After watching everything going on around them, people would have most likely felt that the government was so fanatical about finding people who were attempting to overthrow the government that they forgot to take time to look at the facts. While the government claimed to be looking for spies, they only increased the fear and lack of confidence the people had in the American government.
People watching the movies would have seen some similarities to their present governments, national and international, where things were not always as they seemed and the truth rarely came out. In a nation of distrust, what better than to have a movie where they take the distrust of people and make something good come of it, with the traitors meeting their tragic ends.
1960-1969
In the experimental decade of the 1960s, the whimsical film Blackbeard’s Ghost (1968) tried something new: bringing pirates into the present. With a bit of hocus pocus and more than a little humor, the movie has Peter Ustinov’s Blackbeard (Captain Edward Teach) returning from limbo, all but invisible to everyone but Dean Jones’ Steve Walker, an athletic coach of an unathletic team. As odd occurrences begin to happen around Walker, people become wary of him and believe him to be crazy, although he tries to assure people that there is a ghost that is actually doing all these pranks, including stealing a police motorcycle and driving it around to the point that it crashes into the tree.
The movie embodies what the rest of the 1960s embraced: freedom, imagination, and a detachment from reality into the realm of the impossible. Although it seems more of a hallucination of Walker’s than a real ghost that is invisible, the story has a sense of realism. Walker is a sane man who finds a piece of parchment that has strange words written on it, something he believes to be gibberish until he speaks them aloud and a ghost appears. He then enters the mythical, magical world that exists between dreams and reality, and his ghost companion attempts to help out his modern-day counterpart. Filled with humor, attempts at good will that go awry, and a sane man who appears crazy, the story takes the viewers through a wild tale that entertains and delights without the use of drugs or rebellion. It has the classic humor of the 1960s, keeping it clean and enjoyable. In a time when television has begun to take over the film industry, this movie strives to bring people into the theatres, and succeeds by having the twisted, humorous plot it has.
1970-1979
Star Wars (1977) overshadowed the film industry of the 1970s. Fitting into no single genre, it took the world by storm. Vietnam had ended two years earlier, Nixon had been involved in the Watergate scandal, and people had little confidence in their government. Star Wars took the audience to a far away galaxy, put it back in history, and set off on a galactic adventure that people could associate with. There was the damsel in distress Princess Leia Organa, the farm boy Luke Skywalker, and the smuggler/pirate Han Solo. Leia is a strong female character during a time when women were fighting to have equality with their male peers. She embodies the strength and courage of the men, has brains and guts, and uses them with sharp accuracy. She shows her ability to reason well, holds her own in a male-dominated society, holds an office of power, and is comfortable being in command. This is a dramatic change from the early days of cinema when women would wait to be rescued, and even in the 1960s, women in film often let the men take charge. Instead, in Star Wars, Leia is the one in charge of the situation and will do what it takes to get the result she desires. The men are, at times, submissive to her and acknowledge her skills. She fights against the evil Empire that rules the galaxy, and instead is in league with the Rebel cause.
Luke is the complete opposite of Leia, but also becomes the easiest to identify with. Neither a lawbreaker nor royalty, he is the typical farm boy, a bit unsure about his part in the world, but full of courage and hope. He is from a backwater planet, as similar to farming communities and small towns in the United States as is possible for an extra-galactic planet. It is his story we follow through the movie, the tale of a typical teenager, dreaming of being a pilot, and wanting to just get away from the constraints of home. He is sick of chores and being told what to do, and dreams of leaving home. He wants to join the Imperial Academy, but when he leaves home and planet with his newly formed Jedi mentor and sees an entire planet destroyed by the Empire, he immediately switches allegiances to do whatever he can to fight such a vile government. He sees that the Empire is not what it claims to be, and promises to fight against its cruelty. Just like Americans in the armed forces, Luke wants to fight for freedom and justice. He is the galactic equivalent of the American soldier, and this gives him a credibility that he may not otherwise have had.
Han Solo represented the lawlessness in everyone. He was the one who did not care what other people thought, owed allegiance to no one, did whatever it took to get money, and was being hounded by bounty hunters due to having lost a shipment of illegal goods. He provided the escape that people needed at the time. He was that one person the audience was never quite sure of what he would do in a given situation. His wild card personality is what kept people on the edge of their seats. Luke was a known good guy, Leia was the known good girl, the Empire was bad, Darth Vader was evil, but where would Han Solo stand? While Luke was easy to relate to as a farm boy making his way in the world, Han Solo was that bit of rebellion against the law that people wanted to be, wanted to act out, but never could.
Han: Look, I ain't in this for your revolution, and I'm not in it for you,
Princess. I expect to be well paid. I'm in it for the money.
Leia: You
needn't worry about your reward. If money is all that you love, then that's what
you'll receive! [to Luke] Your friend is quite a mercenary. I wonder if he
really cares about anything... or anybody. [4]
Han is not an idealist; he looks at things in a practical and realistic light. He keeps a bit of unidealistic reality in the story, a bitter foil for the two freedom fighters he is associated with. He is sure to look out for Chewbacca, his partner, and himself before all others, doing what it takes to keep his head on his shoulders and the money coming in. He still manages to have some smooth charm when he needs to, however, giving him a lawless appeal.
The pure escapism that everyone could relate to is what made Star Wars so popular. It had a strong hint of piracy and rebellion, but put into a futuristic setting that completely removed it from all reality. While pirate films before 1960 put pirates in their historical atmosphere, Blackbeard’s Ghost began to try something new, putting a pirate into modern times. Star Wars put pirates into the future, as well as knights, princesses, farm boys, and rebellions. Instead of swords of steel and guns with bullets, there were swords made out of energy and guns that shot lasers.
1980-1989
After years of having few films dealing with pirates of any sort, and a decade in which there was little discontent in the United States, The Princess Bride (1987) was released. Although not directly dealing with swashbuckling pirates on the open seas, the main characters deal with the same issues all previous movies have had: corrupt government, some sort of damsel in distress, and a pirate-like, rather lawless swashbuckler. Put into a fairy tale, it, like Star Wars before it, took the viewer to a faraway land where anything could happen and immediately brought them into the tale. Once again a farm boy, Westley, leaves in search of a new life and instead finds himself, several years later, as the Dread Pirate Roberts. Buttercup, the girl for whom Westley had worked and who also believed him to be dead, was now engaged to a cruel prince. When Buttercup is kidnapped, and a masked man comes after her and her kidnappers, there are a series of fights that endear the viewer to two of the kidnappers and the masked man more than they persuade viewers to dislike them. The movie has lines in it that refer to a point in history, such as Vizzini’s “You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia…” in reference to Vietnam. Although there are many versions of who said this first, and to which nation in Asia, it dates back to the 1960s and the wars carried on during the time.[5] This then brings some of reality into the fantasy, in an amusing manner.
They are very human characters, and have humorously polite conversations with each other before starting a fight. The masked man is polite yet strong, full of witty retorts that make him an enjoyable character. He plays the part of a pirate well until his true love gets to the man behind it, making him forgo any pretense of being a hard-luck pirate that kills on a whim. More of a mythical love story than any true pirate cause, Westley is treated as a pirate throughout the story, but a lovable pirate with whom people can identify. All of the characters are down to earth enough to identify with, partly due to the fact that they are people that have made mistakes and have changed from who they used to be, but still attempt to be good people, even though they have faults. They band together to defeat the prince who wants his fiancée murdered on their wedding night, and to blame it on a neighboring nation. Through all of their faults, they manage to do the right thing and take the viewers on an adventure of mythical proportions.
1990-1999
Hook (1991) follows the lead of many other pirate films of the time: a return to the past. Peter Pan has finally grown up, but is then sent back to Neverland along with all the loyal Peter Pan fans that grew up with him. Instead of being a child, he has grown into a harried business man, where work comes before play, and who has lost his sense of fun. He takes the movie goers back to Neverland along with him to remember what it was to be a kid, to have fun. There, people had the ability to remember what they had lost, and to try and rediscover the fun and freedom they had as children, where imagination ran rampant and everything was a game. The movie requires the audience to think about how they are living their lives: are they enjoying every moment, or has work taken over? It gives the audience a reason to think about what they are doing every day. Peter’s wife, too, makes him think about what he is doing, causing him to realize his job is taking over his life:
Your children love you, they want to play with you. How long do you think that
lasts? Soon Jack might not even want you to come to his games. We have a few
special years with our children, when they're the ones that want us around.
After that you're going to be running after them for a bit of attention. It's so
fast Peter. Just a few years, and it's over. And you are not being careful. And
you are missing it.[6]
Through Peter Pan, the audience left their jobs and busy lives long enough to go back in time and have a food fight, fight the bad guy, do all the things they longed to do deep inside, but were no longer able to do. A nostalgic movie, it makes an impact. The frantic lives of businessmen (that were a large part of the 1990s) is brought to the forefront and given some much required attention.
The movie allows for the internal struggle and desire to be a child again coming alive in a colorful and exciting way, a nice break from reality. Besides having Julia Roberts, Dustin Hoffman, and Robin Williams as the main characters, it was filled with humor and childlike antics that the typical adult could not easily play out. The cast and screenplay made Hook to be a film that everyone could enjoy and would allow a temporary escape from reality. Hook shows some humanity, and the Lost Boys show courage and a will to fight the evil that is in Neverland.
2000-2007
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) took the United States by surprise. Although an already popular ride at Disney World, most of the true pirate films since the mid-1950s have been remakes of once-popular movies, poor to mediocre screenplays, or simply non-existent. Pirates of the Caribbean was different; millions of dollars were poured into the special effects in an attempt to make it as realistic as possible. Authentic clothing was constructed for the actors to bring in a bit of historical accuracy, a ship was made for filming, there were various locations for shooting, and there was spectacular swashbuckling action and drama that never slowed down. Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow was both the typical pirate yet a strange man that no one really understood. Geoffrey Rush’s Captain Barbossa was the classy yet coarse pirate that had committed mutiny against Jack Sparrow, and became cursed after getting a bad batch of gold. Kiera Knightly’s Elizabeth Swann is the Governor’s daughter, like in so many films before, but has a backbone and holds her own in the pirate lair. Orlando Bloom’s William Turner, a blacksmith that hates pirates but is unknowingly the son of a pirate, joins the pirate Jack Sparrow to save the girl he loves.
With swordfights around every corner and the action never slowing down throughout the entire film, it is little wonder that the audience kept returning for more. It had enough wit and intelligence for those who wanted something more than a comedy, humor for those who wanted it, and action and adventure to places and with people that were as interesting and diverse as the next. It brings the beloved childhood Disney amusement park ride to the silver screen and portrays the government and the pirates both as a mixture of good and bad. It lets the viewer escape to a faraway reality, filled with people we would like to become. Jack Sparrow manages to convey what pirate films are all about, both for the pirates and for the audience:
Wherever we want to go, we’ll go. That's what a ship is, you know. It's
not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs but
what a ship is... what the Black Pearl really is... is freedom.[7]
Freedom to get away from the war broadcasts on the television. Freedom to get away from a hard day at work or school. A chance to get out frustrations and get lost in a world that has long disappeared yet never really existed.
With everything that is going on in the world thus far, such as Iraq, the War on Terror, the September 11th attack, and a lack of confidence in the President, people are frustrated with how things are playing out in the real world. Governor Swann, in Pirates of the Caribbean, said, “Even a good decision if made for the wrong reasons can be a wrong decision,”[8] conveying the feelings that many people have about the current wars in the Middle East. And now, with a presidential election approaching, there are more frustrations with the government and the legality of the system than people care to imagine. Jack Sparrow is the person so many people want to be: lawless, free, witty, saying what comes to mind and dealing with the consequences, always managing to get free. It is a reality and a freedom few people will ever experience, and so it leaves the silver screen to provide it for us.
Conclusion
Through the tides of war and politics, the pirate genre continues to renew itself whenever there is a push toward war or a general desire to have carefree entertainment. Pirate films always include a corrupt government and a pirate hero that is nearly impossible to dislike; they twist the truth of the world to something that the normal population can only consider in their minds and dreams. What pirate films portray is a fantasy, an escape from the real world. They allows us to see things in such a way that we see the modern problems of our lives reflected within, but set back to a more historical reference. These films give us the feeling that we are not alone in our often rebellious thoughts, and although we know it to be wrong to have such thoughts acted out, watching them unfold on screen is a sort of therapy. It is hard not to root for the pirate when he is living the nightmares and dreams that plague us, both through the reality of day and the fantasy of night. When we are at war, and when we are at odds with our government, the unspoken desire of rebellion is imminent, and it takes the escape through film to deliver the peace we need and crave. From the 1960s to the 1990s, instead of going to the theatres for escape, the American population was attempting other sorts of escape, such as drugs, television, and the internet. When the trend of working from home began to take over the country, and the nation was hit by terrorists, the escape needed to be away from the confines of the homes we live in. We instead took refuge in the neon lights and darkened rooms of the theatres, soft drinks and the aroma of popcorn filling the senses. Even kids kicking the chairs and the crinkle of snack bags could not diminish the need to escape, once more, into the world of piracy and rebellion. The movies give us freedom, and that is one of the reasons the renaissance of pirate films returned this decade. The Black Pearl gave us freedom. Jack Sparrow gave us rebellion. Will Turner gave us the right to choose our destinies. Keira Knightly gave us the strong female personality that allowed her to weather her pirate company. Barbossa gave us the Captain that we would love to hate. It was escape and freedom from reality. A different land, a different time, a different world, yet strikingly familiar. Pirate films allow us enough of an escape to forget about our lives for a while, but still anchored enough in reality to keep it feeling plausible.
Endnotes:
[1] Flynn, Errol, Captain Blood, DVD, directed by Michael Curtiz (USA: Cosmopolitan Productions, 1935)
[2] Power, Tyrone, The Black Swan, DVD, directed by Henry King (USA: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, 1942)
[3] Lancaster, Burt, The Crimson Pirate, DVD, directed by Robert Sidomak (USA: Warner Bros. Pictures, 1952)
[4] Hamill, Mark, Star Wars: A New Hope, DVD, directed by George Lucas (California, USA: Lucasfilm, LTD, 1977)
[5] IMDB, “The Princess Bride (1987),” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093779/trivia
[6] Hoffman, Dustin, Hook, DVD, directed by Steven Spielberg (California, USA: Amblin Entertainment, 1991)
[7] Depp, Johnny, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, DVD, directed by Gore Verbinski (USA: Walt Disney Pictures, 2003)
[8] Ibid.
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