Captain
Phillips deals with the highly publicized events from April,
2009, in which four Somali pirates took over a freighting vessel, the
Maersk Alabama, commanded by Captain Richard Phillips (Hanks,
Cloud Atlas) in the Gulf
of Aden. While most of the crew lay in hiding in the ship's engine
room, Phillips tried to negotiate with the pirates who were holding
him and a couple of other crewmembers at gunpoint, wanting to make
their way out with millions. Events slowly begin to turn against
the pirates, eventually forcing them to make their way back to Somalia
in one of the ship's lifeboats with far less in their haul than what
they were seeking, except that they take along with them Captain
Phillips, hoping to use him for ransom.
Although what happens after this is something that had been covered in
the news of the day extensively, I'll leave the plot summary at this
for those people whose recollections are hazy or nonexistent.
Even if the events are known by the viewer from beginning to end,
whether they learned of them from the news of from reading Phillips
own first-hand account of his experiences in his book, the ordeal is
made much more personal when we witness the dramatization of the
events as they unfold. Phillips' memoir provides the basis for
the adaptation from veteran screenwriter-for-hire, Billy Ray (The
Hunger Games, State of Play),
who also scripts the dialogue of the Somalis (pure conjecture, as
Phillips didn't understand what they were saying), who only
occasionally speak in English.
There are some early scenes in Somalia that are obviously
fictionalized, set up to draw a contrast between the environs of the
Somalis with that of Americans, which makes Captain Phillips
more a Hollywood story based on a real life event than a docudrama.
Though the Somali pirates are the obvious aggressors, they aren't
painted as evil so much as caught up in circumstances where they feel
they have to do what they're doing due to their "tribal' expectations
and the fact that, outside of becoming fishermen, there aren't many
other career options for a young Somali. Even Phillips, at least
as portrayed in the film, comes to sympathize with their plight,
offering to administer first aid to their injuries and giving them
advice on how to take charge of the situation toward the best possible
outcome.
Captain Phillips is a solid dramatic reenactment featuring
good performances and tense thrills. Perhaps it is a bit long
and loose on occasion, especially in the first 45 minutes, but once it
gets going, there's enough payoff to overlook many of the quibbles one
might have in the build-up. It's directed by Paul Greengrass,
who is best known as the handheld shaky-cam artist who helmed
The Bourne Supremacy and
The Bourne Ultimatum, but who
also exceled in other dramatizations of real-life tragedies in
Bloody Sunday and United 93.
He delivers best when the gripping action begins to take hold, and
adequately during the more quiet moments. While Phillips may not
go down as Tom Hanks's best role, he does deliver powerfully during a
few emotionally resonant scenes in the final half hour, when the
events grow particularly tense and dour.
Even if you already know the details and the outcome, Captain
Phillips gives us a chance to experience what it might have been
like to be in such a terrible predicament, as well as how many smaller
acts of bravery that Phillips performed in order to try to secure the
safety and security of the crew and the vessel they are on.
Along with the more straightforward and equally well-made,
A Hijacking, Captain Phillips shows how terrifying the stakes are for the people on
board isolated ships traversing hostile waters with no ability to
defend themselves except through their own ingenuity and courage in
the face of great danger.
