I was not initially keen on Captain Phillips, a film in which I was sure Tom Hanks would cry and would be all very worthy, but a few amazing reviews convinced me that I should put my preconceptions aside and give it a try. And, like after my change of heart for Rush, I was glad I did.
The film is a “based on true events” story of Captain Rich Phillips (Hanks) is the commander of a freighter attacked by Somali pirates and who is then kidnapped to be held for ransom. The film also briefly follows the story of the leader of the Pirates, Muse (played by the incredible Barkhad Abdi), and the events that brought him to this place and time.
The tension rachets up early on in the film, as the pirates chase down the Maersk Alabama, and from then on, it rarely eases up. The Captain does everything by the book and, somewhat surprisingly how these things are often portrayed in film, the book works pretty well, though eventually the pirates board and events become less text book and more improvised. Eventually, the pirates leave with Phillips in a life boat, and then the US Navy steps into the chase.
It’s odd that the military seem the least human of anyone in this film. The pirates are given depth, and as their mission becomes more and more doomed, I even found myself rooting for them given their underdog status. Meanwhile the military seem to be completely reactive in an almost incompetent way (the US Navy “911” number seems engaged to start off with and then they seem to wait before someone is kidnapped before they even send ships anywhere near the cargo freighter), but once they are on the case, they are an efficient and ruthless machine, almost completely devoid of humanity – and all the better as soldiers for it. The speed with which they identify the Somalis is surprising considering how poor intelligence seems to work back in the US itself, but then they have been gathering a lot of information for a while now so perhaps I should have expected it.
The Somalis are shown as great improvisers and desperate, though not always the sharpest sticks in the forest. Their extreme skinniness and poor teeth are a stark contrast to the soft padding of the mostly white Alabama crew (or the heavily muscled and mostly white Navy SEALS for that matter too), and Phillips and Muse exchange the odd bit of banter that emphasise the differences between the two cultures, and the driving forces behind them.
Overall then, the film is really quite incredible. It does drag though. At over 2 hours long, and with the tension of the final confrontation drawn out for what seemed like half an hour, I reached a point where I went past entertained and into “just get it over with”. Trying not to give too much away, the quick cuts between scenes on the lifeboat and on the navy ships may make things seem more “action”, but I found it detrimental to the sense of tension, as there was more tension on the lifeboat than anywhere else, and the ending to the situation was inevitable.
Verdict: Captain Phillips is a tense film with amazing performances (Hanks crying is expected but also understandable, given the circumstances his character finds himself in), the Somali actors in particular making their characters both terrifying and sympathetic, while Max Martini also stands out as the Navy SEAL commander, portraying a Terminator in his complete robotic interpretation of the military. The film does drag in the end, Phillips character becoming a bit grating in the attempts to make him seem a good guy, and the tension bubble bursts a long time before the film draws the action to a close, but it is still a really good film. Not as good as Gravity though. 8 Captain’s pips out of 10.
No comments:
Post a Comment