‘Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl’

Swashbuckling Johnny Depp steals the show in Disney’s first PG-13 film.   [R]

By: Bob Brown

Johnny Depp (left) and Orlando Bloom star in Pirates of the Carabbean.

   Modern pirates don’t get laughs. In the South China Sea, their biggest hangout, about 140 attacks were reported by the International Maritime Bureau last year. They have no cutlasses or galleons. Armed with AK-47s, they ply the waters in speedy chase boats and coordinate their attacks by cell phone.
   But Disney is not about reality, it’s about the imagination. Pirates is the first Disney film rated stronger than PG. It’s also the first to premiere at Disneyland, the site of the amusement park adventure that inspired the film. Having taken that ride many years ago, I can affirm that its tongue-in-cheek swashbuckling and flights of fantasy have carried over to the screen.
   Gore Verbinski, who directed a haunting English-language version of The Ring (2002), comes up a winner with this nonstop adventure, penned by Disney Studio veterans Ted Elliott and Terri Rossio (Shrek, 2001). But the biggest winner here, and still champion of oddball characters, is Johnny Depp. As Capt. Jack Sparrow, a deposed pirate skipper, he cuts a mincing figure. With heavy eyeliner, beaded locks and a mouthful of gold teeth (a dentist is named in the credits), Capt. Jack prances and swoops across the screen. It’s overly broad and perfectly appropriate for this fanciful tale.
   Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley, Bend It Like Beckham) is the daughter of Weatherby Swann (Jonathan Pryce), governor of a small Caribbean island. She is betrothed to Commodore Norrington (Jack Davenport), an ambitious career officer. Jack’s arrival disrupts the smoothly oiled British machine.
   Despite saving Elizabeth from drowning in the sea, Capt. Jack is persona non grata after trying to steal one of His Majesty’s ships. He crosses swords with master blacksmith and swordsman Will Turner (Orlando Bloom, The Lord of The Rings), who also has his cap set for Elizabeth, and with Norrington, who claps Jack in irons. "The worst pirate I’ve ever heard of," sniffs Norrington. "At least you’ve heard of me," retorts Jack.
   When a mysterious pirate ship, the Black Pearl, shells the port, Elizabeth goes aboard to negotiate. She’s captured by pirate commander Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), who snarls, "You’d best believe in ghost stories, missie. Now you’re in one."
   Sprung from his cell by the shelling, Jack strikes a deal with Will to chase the Black Pearl and retrieve Elizabeth and a skull-head coin, which is the object of every pirate’s desire. The Navy doesn’t know, but Jack realizes too well, that the Black Pearl and its crew are cursed. They are the living dead, doomed to sail the seas until every skull-head coin is returned to the Aztec hoard from whence it came, and the blood of he who first stole it is shed. What they also don’t know is that Will Turner is the offspring of that first thief.
   Many a swash is buckled à la Errol Flynn. Cannons blaze, rigging becomes a trapeze and bodies fly amid pitched battles. To make these action sequences, the cast and crew endured extended shoots in open Caribbean waters (it looks nothing like a soundstage or southern California). They had to contend with the rigors of acting aboard full-masted sailing ships while the wind and the weather shifted unpredictably.
   The endurance test has paid off. Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski (A Perfect Murder), veteran of music videos, gives the fast-paced action a richly textured sheen. The score by German Klaus Badelt sounds like an afterthought from Gladiator, scored by his mentor, Hans Zimmer.
   But Depp almost single-handedly steals the show. His Capt. Jack is a one-man riot. The chemistry between him and Elizabeth somehow seems more vivid than it is with the comparatively tepid Will Turner — whom she supposedly loves. Depp can pluck laughs from even the thinnest lines and gestures. He invents a boy’s larger-than-life imaginary pirate, the kind lurking in books. Whenever he’s offscreen, you can’t wait for his return to see what he’ll do next. Depp has made all his roles — whether Edward Scissorhands, Crybaby or Ed Wood — one-of-a-kind. Add to them Jack Sparrow.
   Rush comes in a close second as Barbossa, a pirate desperate to release the curse. Like many Disney villains, he is a cartoon menace. His spooky half-living, half-dead pirate is a funhouse creature more than a horror. Despite the subject, the movie is a funhouse ride rather than a nail biter. We know what’s going to happen and who should get the girl. We just don’t know how many variations on the pirate-movie theme it will take to get there.
   The cast includes some fine character actors and a talented monkey (sit through to the end of the credits for a nifty surprise). But they’re just not as high-relief as Depp. And who could be? Let Capt. Jack commandeer your ship this summer. You’ll be swinging from the yardarm singing sea shanties and swigging rum from the bottle. That is, if you know where a yardarm is.
Rated PG-13. Contains action/adventure violence.