MOVIE: Captain Phillips

Captain Phillips: a Paul Greengrass movie.   There are a few directors that if I know they’ve made a movie, I’ll make a point of seeing it.   With this excellent movie about Somali pirates and a ship’s captain played by Tom Hanks, Greengrass stays on that list.  As with United 93, you know how the movie will end because the film is based on true events.  In this case, what took place over 5/6 days is condensed into 134 minutes, including a preamble showing Captain Phillips with his wife before arriving in Oman and heading out to sea.   It is the British filmmaker’s camera work that initially draws you in, however, it is the excellent acting that keeps you involved.  Hanks is superb as Captain Phillips but what also holds you is the fact that the primary Somali characters are presented as real people.  Barkhad Abdi, as Muse, the “captain” of the small pirate boarding party, matches up quite well with Hanks.  Muse is the only member of the boarding party who is still alive; he is serving time in a U S prison.  These four pirates, as were the ones I read about as a youngster, are in it only for the money; they have no knowledge of the cargo they are hijacking.   One of the interesting twists in this storyline is that the cargo on Captain Phillips’ ship included a significant number of food containers from the United Nations’ World Food Program bound for various African countries.   There has also been some controversy over the incident.  A lawsuit was filed by crew members against Captain Phillips and the ship’s owner questioning whether the course navigated by the Captain was too close to shore; the movie has a scene where some of the crew raise this issue.  However, the movie points out that the pirates were operating from a mother ship and that the cargo ship itself was hundreds of miles off the African coast.  I believe the lawsuit is still pending.  A pirate side note: pirates also operate off the coasts of Vietnam and the Philippines; the Strait of Hormuz is not the only area infected with pirates.  Although the movie focuses on Captain Phillips, it also shows that other crew members acted bravely.  Shane Murphy and Mike Perry, played by Michael Chernus and David Warshofsky respectively, are two of the crew who are highlighted.  What I found incredible was the merchant ship’s utter lack of any defensive weapons.  I understand this has now changed but even as of 2009 when the incident occurred, there had been sufficient pirate activity in the Hormuz Strait to render the total lack of any weapons shocking.  The SEAL rescue operation is all business with no light talk.  Greengrass has the reputation for being factually accurate while engrossing the viewer in a storyline we already know.  United 93 was one of the best films of 2006 and more people should have seen it.   With Tom Hanks being at the top of his trade, this film is deservedly receiving a wider viewer audience.