I don’t think it’s fair to charge audiences full price for screenings of “Captain Phillips.”
While watching this exciting new Tom Hanks thriller I was reminded of the old Monster Trucks ads that bellowed, “You Pay for the Whole Seat but You’ll Only Need the Edge!”
It a film about piracy and I don’t mean the sleazy guys who bootleg movies but the real pirates who were responsible for the first hijacking of an American cargo ship in two hundred years.
Based on the true story of veteran seadog Captain Richard Phillips (Hanks) who took on a routine voyage around the Horn of Africa in April 2009. Piloting the MV Maersk Alabama and loaded with food and fresh water, his ship was stalked by Somali Pirates led by Muse (Barkhad Abdi).
“Chances are its just fishermen,” says his first mate.
“They’re not here to fish,” Phillips replies, watching the heavily armed attackers through binoculars.
He calls for a piracy drill that goes from pretend to “real world” as the pirates prepare to board the ship.
Once aboard Muse makes it clear he doesn’t want to harm anyone. “Nobody gets hurt,” he says. “Its just business.”
But business turns violent when it becomes clear the expected million-dollar payday Muse and company were expecting isn’t going to pan out. Offered $30,000 he snorts, “What do I look like, a beggar?”
As the situation escalates Phillips is taken aboard a life raft, kidnapped, bound for Somalia where he’ll be held for ransom.
Paul Greengrass is a master of action. His work on the second and third Jason Bourne films and “United 93,” which placed the audience in the middle of the action during the 9/11 hijackings are white-knuckle action flicks that don’t simply entertain with explosions, fight scenes and shoot ‘em up scenes. Instead he stages epic action scenes that feel intimate, as if a fist (or worse!) may fly off the screen and bonk the viewer on the head.
His scenes involve the viewer and as such are exciting in a way that Michael Bay’s sequences, despite bigger budgets and giant robots, will never be.
“Captain Phillips” is a case in point. Greengrass does a great job of portraying the vastness of the ocean and the isolation of the ship and its crew, which accentuates the helplessness of the unarmed sailors against the greedy pirates. A quiet scene in the ship’s boiler room with only the pirate’s footsteps to beak the silence is also unbearably tense.
It’s outsized action and setting, brought down to a personal level, which increases the human stakes and the audience’s connection to the story.
At the center of it all are two remarkable performances. Hanks is reliable, despite an uneven Bostonian accent, anchoring the film with his rock solid heroics. (SPOILER ALERT) It’s only in the film’s final moments, when the ordeal is over, that Hanks really unloads with the kind of raw and shell shocked reaction that the Academy is going to love.
Abdi also impresses. This is an action movie and as written he is primarily a plot device to keep the action moving forward, but despite an underwritten part he brings some humanity to the villain role. His explanation for his way of life, that he is a victim of limited opportunity and not a bad man, helps place his actions in context.
“Captain Phillips” is a terrifically tense thriller that is worth the price of a full seat, even though you’ll only use the edge.
SYNOPSIS: Based on the true story of Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) who took on a routine voyage around the Horn of Africa in April 2009 when his ship was attacked by Somali Pirates led by Muse (Barkhad Abdi). “Nobody gets hurt,” Muse says. “Its just business.” But business turns violent when it becomes clear the expected million-dollar payday Muse and company were expecting isn’t going to pan out. As the situation escalates Phillips is taken aboard a life raft, kidnapped, bound for Somalia where he’ll be held for ransom.
STAR RATINGS:
Richard: 4 ½ Stars
Mark: 4 Stars
Richard: Mark, I don’t think it’s fair to charge audiences full price for screenings of Captain Phillips. While watching this I was reminded of the old Monster Trucks ads that bellowed, “You Pay for the Whole Seat but You’ll Only Need the Edge!” Director Paul Greengrass is a master of action who does a great job of portraying the vastness of the ocean and the isolation of the ship and its crew. I was dangling off the fron of my seat from about the 30 minute mark. You?
Mark: Yes, in fact I was so on edge I have a slicemark across my butt. I was so grateful the movie doesn’t waste a lot of time going into the backstories of the crew. The pirates arrive quickly and brutally. I was worried we’d have to endure a lot of bleeding heart nonsense about the pirates and their “point of view”. But that is kept to a minimum and the bad guys get to be bad guys and Tom Hanks, once again, can be a saint among men.
RC: I thought Hanks was terrific here. He is saintly, but he’s also heroic and stoic. I think it might have been easy to overplay this role but he keeps it subdued for the most part. (SPOILER ALERT) It’s only in the film’s final moments, when the ordeal is over, that Hanks really unloads with the kind of raw and shell shocked reaction that the Academy is going to love.
MB: The academy may also love the Somali pirate captain, Barhkad Abdi, who goes toe to toe with Hanks through the whole movie. I haven’t seen such a scary, haunting face since the days of German Expressionist cinema! The movie is riveting, but it isn’t surprising. There’s only one way this movie can end and it should be obvious halfway through. That having been said, I have no fingernails left.
RC: Abdi is great. This is an action movie and as written he is primarily a plot device to keep the action moving forward, but despite an underwritten part he brings some humanity to the villain role. His explanation for his way of life, that he is a victim of limited opportunity and not a bad man, helps place his actions in context.
MB: Greengrass has passed this way before, in United 93. But this is a lesser known story, so it’s easier to tense up and enjoy it.
United 93, a re-enactment of the events leading up to the crash, in a Pennsylvania field, of United Airlines flight 93 on the morning of 9/11 captures both the calm and the chaos of that historic day.
The opening minutes of the film focus on the events just before flight 93 became airborne. We see the terrorists rising for Morning Prayer and carefree passengers and crew going about their day-to-day business. Once in the air the film cuts between the plane’s occupants and military personnel at the Northeast Air Defense Sector and air traffic controllers in New York and Boston. Director Paul Greengrass unfolds the story in real time for the duration of the 91-minute flight.
Greengrass has pieced together his version of events using recordings of cell phone calls made to loved ones in the final moments of the hijacked flight.
Shot in a quasi-documentary style United 93 is harrowing. Because we know the story and the tragic outcome, a sense of dread builds from the opening moments of the film, even before the first of the planes is hijacked. As the events of the day unfurl a sense of confusion develops as the people on the ground try to make sense of what has happened. Scrambling to prevent any more loss of life the military and air traffic controllers struggle to open a clear line of communication that will enable them to work together. Greengrass effectively illustrates the confusion, without pointing fingers or assigning blame for the slow response time.
The actual hijacking of flight 93 doesn’t happen for almost an hour into the film, but when it does Greengrass places the viewer directly in the action. Shot with jittery cameras, it feels as though you are aboard the plane as the chaos and violence of the day erupts.
The intimate shooting style, coupled with Greengrass’ decision not to name any of the on-board characters—your cabin mates on planes are usually anonymous—lends an air of realism to the film. These are average people in extraordinary circumstances and all are treated respectfully as they heroically try to thwart the hijackers plan. Greengrass doesn’t emotionally exploit the situation, he simply presents it in a way that is gut-wrenching, but not manipulative.
With his handling of this material director Paul Greengrass proves himself to be one of the great directors currently making movies. This is a film not simply to be seen, but to be experienced.
I don’t think it’s fair to charge audiences full price for screenings of “Captain Phillips.”
