# What Was The Last Good Pirate Movie?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 10, 2003, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476 "2003-07-10T15:03:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476/1 "2003-07-10T15:03:01Z")
In connection with our “Pirates of the Carribean” threads…
When was the last time that they made a good pirate movie?
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### Author:  [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476/2 "2003-07-10T15:08:36Z")
Note: Anyone who says anything along the lines of “They just did!” shall be shanhaiged, and forced to swab the First Mate during the Red Fox’s San Francisco-Chicago raiding expidition.
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### Author:  [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476/3 "2003-07-10T15:35:47Z")
[The Sea Hawk (1940)](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0033028)
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### Author:  [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476/4 "2003-07-10T15:40:28Z")
The Crimson Permanent Assurance, the spoof supporting feature about an insurance office that turns into a pirate ship at the start of Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, although it’s not a full-length movie.
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### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476/5 "2003-07-10T15:42:48Z")
Does _Goonies_ count?
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### Author:  [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476/6 "2003-07-10T15:58:20Z")
As a pirate movie? Maybe. As a good movie? No.
My vote: **The Princess Bride** & **Castle in the Sky**
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476/7 "2003-07-10T16:00:39Z")
I personally enjoyed _Swashbuckler_ (1976) but I realize I’m in the minority here. Other failed pirate movies include _Pirates_ (1985) with Walter Matthau and _Cutthtroat Island_ (1996) with Geena Davis. It appears no decade is complete with a bad pirate movie to call its own.
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### Author:  [@McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McDeath_the_Mad)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476/8 "2003-07-10T16:07:16Z")
“Nate and Hayes”, but I think I’m the only person who ever saw it!
Linkage: [http://us.imdb.com/Title?0085994](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0085994)
MtM
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476/9 "2003-07-10T16:07:31Z")
The Burt Lancaster **The Crimson Pirate** was great fun.
I regard **Dead Calm** as a pirate movie of sorts. Zane is close enough to a pirate as one gets, IMO.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476/10 "2003-07-10T18:07:24Z")
The original Treasure Island
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### Author:  [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476/11 "2003-07-10T18:50:45Z")
I’m a big fan of the forgotten (and, I’m afraid, not-very-highly regarded) **Light at the Edge of the World** (1971) starring Kirk Douglas and Yul Brynner.
I think its got a lot going for it. It’s more about intrigue – mindgames and such between the two main characters – than swashbuckling action.
But the most innovative aspect of the film is the overt (but unspoken) homoerotic behavior of the pirate captain (Brynner) and his crew. That twist, I have learned, is credibly supported by the historical record.
Anybody else like this flick? Or how about, anybody ever see it?
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### Author:  [@galrion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galrion)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476/12 "2003-07-10T19:22:51Z")
Nate and Hayes was fantastic!
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### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476/13 "2003-07-10T20:15:25Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by ArchiveGuy \*
> As a pirate movie? Maybe. As a good movie? No.
>
> My vote: **The Princess Bride** & **Castle in the Sky**
You diss _The Goonies_ and then offer up _The Princess Bride_?!?
**The Goonies**
Set nearly entirely in a pirate’s hidden treasure/trap
Main plot involves a pirate’s treasure
Climactic ending _on a pirate ship_
Comes complete with pirate skeletons, pirate curse, pirate traps, pirate ship, pirate treasure
**The Princess Bride**
Has a pirate
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### Author:  [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476/14 "2003-07-10T21:31:13Z")
Captain Blood – Erroll Flynn
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### Author:  [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476/15 "2003-07-10T21:45:36Z")
> [@](#):
>
> You diss The Goonies and then offer up The Princess Bride?!?
I concede that _Goonies_ has more pirate-related elements. Doesn’t make it a good movie, though. (and I’m speaking as a friend of [Chunk](http://us.imdb.com/Name?Cohen,%20Jeff%20(I))’s
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### Author:  [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476/16 "2003-07-10T23:12:43Z")
Since someone mentioned bad pirate movies - anyone remember **“The Pirate Movie”** with Kristy McNicholl ?
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### Author:  [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476/17 "2003-07-10T23:15:00Z")
Us Yellowbeards are never more dangerous then when we’re dead!
Marc
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2003, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476/18 "2003-07-11T02:23:28Z")
The OP is misleading, in as much as it suggest that there is such a thing as a “bad” pirate movie.
[sub]Arr![/sub]
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### Author:  [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2003, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476/19 "2003-07-11T02:35:37Z")
Actually, it’s misleading, in the sense that I accidentially typed “what” when I meant “when”.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2003, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-last-good-pirate-movie/187476/20 "2003-07-11T04:19:19Z")
**Muppet Treasure Island**.