Late to my own thread, I know. Damn fine movie. It’s not going to be one of the Best Movies of All Time, but it doesn’t have to be.
And that Patrick O’Brien book, I’ve seen the trailers for the movie and it looks amazing.
Oh, and this is one of the few movies I’ve walked out of wanting to see again, wanting to buy the soundtrack, and wanting the DVD.
He said he based the character largely on Keith Richards, Pepe le Pew (yes, the skunk) and a dash of Dean Martin.
From this interview.
Because Will Turner was a part of their crew before he was drowned, and he sent off the last piece of gold to his son.
Morelin, thanks for answering, and that part I understand. What I am clueless about is:
How did they discover they needed his blood?
I thought the whole pirate-port was a reference to the ride. The drunks sitting on top of barrels while drinking, the men literally chasing women, etc, is very reminescent of how I remember parts of the ride.
Re the anachronisms and technical nitpicks:
The Dauntless was a bit large for a pirate chaser. She looked like a 74 or bigger to me, and I believe frigates and brigs were more commonly used against pirates. The British ship also looked a bit modern, seeming to me to fall into the 1750 - 1800 period while the styles of dress looked late 17th - early 18th century to me. I believe I also caught a glimpse of a carronade aboard the Dauntless, which was also a later innovation.
On the other hand, the Black Pearl looked more appropriate for the time period (high stern and was there a Lateen mizzen sail?).
The storm scenes were exciting, but the ships would have shortened sail in such conditions. There’s a scene involving the dropping of an anchor to perform a manuver that could have been accomplished as easily by turning the ship’s wheel.
My only other nitpick is in the area of crew size. Sailing warships were incredibly crowded vessels and it’s difficult to imagine an occasion when one would have been left unmanned (Insert joke about “skeleton crew” here).
All this being said, the innacuracies didn’t ruin or even harm the story for me. I’ve got similar nitpicks with the Hornblower series that’s been running on A&E, but I’m so incredibly pleased to see ANY sea stories out there set in the age of sail that a few problems like these seem like a small price to pay. I’ll expect more from “Far Side of the World,” but only because O’Brian himself raised the bar so high.
Yeah, me too. I’m surprised there wasn’t a woman chasing a man in there somewhere.
Overall, it’s an excellent summer movie. Depp is great as Jack Sparrow (excuse me, captain Jack Sparrow) and I could see a little sir Keith in the act.
I thought it was great when he Told Elizabeth that they would never have worked out together. That was so perfectly in character for Jack Sparrow.
I saw the movie today right after I got off work. Excellent movie, lots of action and surprises. It was nice to see a woman take charge of her fate and do something about it. The special effects were excellent and didn’t take the place of the acting–not that Johnny Depp would have allowed it. In fact, the whole success of the movie rests in his hands. Geoffrey Rush was excellent, chewing scenery, but Johnny Depp was superlative. I loved the scenes of Captain Jack Sparrow and Barbossa sword fighting amidst the treasure and the beams of moonlight. The skeleton and human shapes shifted beautifully.
All in all, this was an excellent movie, I might have to see it again. Who wants to bet that if this makes a huge pile of money, it’ll be turned into a series?
Just got back, and I second that this movie was a whole 'lotta fun. Easily one of the best summer popcorn flicks I’ve seen in awhile.
I have another question, though:[spoiler]Wouldn’t Will Turner Sr. be undead as well? Couldn’t he wander about the ocean floor (as the pirates did in attacking the British ship) until he made landfall?
For that matter – did the other pirates have to spill blood from every person who had one of the medallions? Aren’t they all undead as a result of nabbing the medallions in the first place? Wouldn’t, well, none of them therefore have any blood to spill? [/spoiler]
How IS the Hornblower series? (Yes, I know it’s a hijack, but it’s my bloody thread.) I keep seeing the DVDs and it LOOKS tempting, but I want to hear from someone who’s seen it before I start buying/acquiring/watching.
I enjoy it quite a bit. They follow the books somewhat loosely, play around with chronology, characters and some events, but in all I found the series to be very enjoyable.
As for some other nitpicks/inaccuracies:
The Commodore seemed to be played as the leader of the British Armed forces at Port Royale. This would not be the case, the West Indies squadron would have be commanded by an Admiral.(I could tell you who, but the movie skillfully neglects dates :P)
And a Royal Army garrison commanded by a Colonel. There was no reference to the Army in the movie at all, all the soldiers were lobsters (royal marines).
(Very Minor) Elizabeth’s maidservant was caucasian. We saw the dockmaster had a small black boy as an assistant, the Governor’s daughter would likely have had a slave woman as a maidservant aswell. Though I suppose its possible the Governor was rich enough to bring his entire household staff with him.
The Royal Naval vessels were flying a blue ensign, which British custom vessels DID fly, but customs ships were limited to brigs and cutters and other small vessels. Certainly not the 2nd/3rd Rate 2 decker (74) that was the Dauntless. A ship of the line would have flown the white naval ensign.
The female pirate was annoying on so many levels.
Exploding cannonballs will always irritate me. Although it was nice to see the undead pirates loading chain-shot.
Eh, I could go on, but I won’t. With all that, I still really enjoyed the movie and these are such tiny nitpicks that only an Age-of-Sail geek could point them out.
I was actually kinda surprised they had the black boy assistant in the movie–figured it’d be too…iffy for a Disney flick, but thought it was a nice and probably pretty authentic touch.
Interesting commentary, though I wish I understood more of what you said. I get the gist, but not some of the technical stuff (2nd/3rd Rate 2 decker, etc.).
I, too, wondered about the elder Will Turner. I couldn’t remember if they said they shot a cannon ball that was attached to his legs out to sea or just tied one to his legs and dropped him, but either way, he was probably “alive” the whole time until the curse was lifted. Maybe he couldn’t free himself of the cannonball and so had to sit there for about 5 years or so, or however long it was.
As far as the curse goes,
The way I figured it worked, was that everyone who took some gold out of the chest had to have the gold put back in along with some of their blood. Thus, when Will Turner Sr. sent off the gold, they were unable to undo the curse. Of course, they didn’t know about the blood thing at this time, so they did the whole dropping him into the sea thing, (that’s what you call ironic 
) and then realized too late that they also needed his blood. So basically, every pirate but Will Turner Sr. was able to do his part but returning a bit of gold along with their blood. As far as the blood goes, it seems that all the pirates had blood as long as they weren’t in the moonlight. For instance, when the super hottie heroine stabs Captain Badass with the butter knife, he pulls it out without flinching because he feels nothing, but if you look, it has blood on it.
The whole curse thing was actually a pretty subtle concept, at least to me, since I didn’t manage to understand the whole thing until after I’d left the movie theater. This movie was definitely high on the totally sweet pirate movie meter.
-audiobottle
I liked it a lot, Johnny Depp was awesome, etc. But there were a couple things that bothered me a little.
[spoiler]First was Jack Sparrow sliding down the rope with the chain on his manacles, which were still attached to his wrists. He would either have to untie the end of the rope, pass it through, and retie it; or, if there was enough gap between manacle and wrist and there was enough slack on the rope, he could pass the rope through the manacle, around his hand, and back through the manacle. Either way, it would have taken a hell of a lot longer than a couple seconds. There should have been a conveinient pulley or something instead.
Second was when Elizabeth was running around the deck upon first seeing the crew’s undeadiness. Why were the people down in the hold waiting with a tarp to bounce her up in the air? Why was someone swinging around on a rope to catch her? That scene would have been much better if the pirates went about their normal business, with just some shoves and mutterings if she got in the way.[/spoiler]
I saw it last night with Mr. Ujest.
WE LOVED IT.
Loads of great piratey fun! (BTW, best film review thread title I’ve seen. Ever.) Arrrr matey.
The entire film, Mr. Ujest kept asking in a hypnotic state,
" WHOOO is that girl?"
“Dunno, honey, but she’ll be in Maxim soon enough.”
The special effects were cool. I liked the story line. Kept you guessing. Not a rehash of Hollywood and that was refreshing. Great romping fun for kids 10 and up, I’d say. Great slumber party movie for boys and possibly girls.
Johnny Depp was superlative in every way. ( Actually, they all were, but he was so outstandingly great I am at a loss for words.) He was swoonable the entire way.
Some of the subtle gags in there were priceless.
I wonder if a sequel will be made, involving Will Turner’s father if he survived the curse and whatnot. Possible.
I give it a 12 for loads of fun.
Fun movie. Dragged a bit, especially when it came to endless sword fights between people who couldn’t be killed. What was the point? There are other nits I could pick, but I was thrilled to have a smart, light-hearted movie filled with pirates and the occasional tight bodice.
A question about the curse, though:
At the end of his fight with the undead pirate captain, Depp seems to cut HIS OWN hand and toss the bloody gold piece to Turner, who drops it into the chest and lifts the curse. I didn’t see any evidence that TURNER’S BLOOD was spilled. Can someone explain the sequence of events there?
Depp has to cut his own hand as he also took gold out of the treasure. If you look at Turner’s hand as he drops the gold in, it has blood on it, so I think that he also cuts his own hand before dropping the gold into the chest. I guess they just didn’t show it so that it’d be more of a surprise when the curse is lifted.
-audiobottle
I was under the impression, Clark K, that Depp short Barbossa, killing him, as it were, and the bullet went through him and nicked Bloom, who already had the coin (Depp had tossed it to him before shooting Barbossa…didn’t notice blood on it yet). Bloom’s blood dribbled onto the coin and Bloom dropped the coin into the chest.
I must know:
Were they able to work in Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life For Me)?