The film industry, based in Los Angeles, began developing in the early years of the twenty century. America fell in love with this new phenomenon as it swept audiences to other worlds, for just the cost of a few pennies. These new worlds encompassed an array of many dreams and exotic places. Interestingly enough a beloved plot, even in those early years, that of piracy, stood to fill any screenplay and any theater. This fascination with the pirate’s life has never left Hollywood evident by the latest Disney film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides released in 2011. However, as with any outside depiction of a foreign world, Hollywood often tells another story than reality holds. One clear example of this is Hollywood’s use of pirate crews. By looking at the classics Captain Blood (1935), Nate and Hayes (1983) and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) Hollywood’s depiction of crews proves to solely mirror the character of the hero or villain, when in all actuality crews were their own dominant and powerful force on the high seas.
In every strong plot there exists a hero; someone to fall in love with, root for or relate with. Tinseltown has always understood and followed said rule, apparent by their many blockbusters. In 1935 the release of Captain Blood brought such a character to the stage. The notorious Errol Flynn, played Captain Blood, his first portrayal of a pirate hero. The plot of this early film revolves around Blood, a doctor wrongly accused and sent to the Americas as a slave. It is here he meets his crew, former revolutionaries, on the wrong side of the law. Together they become the finest pirate crew on the high seas, when their story comes to an end all is saved and Capt...
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... are once and for all silenced. As seen above the crews mirror the character of the captain pushing the plot along. However, in history this is not the case. The multiple existing studies on pirate life, concerning motivations lifestyles and true desires, prove crews able to stand alone in power, ability and strength even without a gallant main character. Perhaps through these realizations the true pirate’s life can be discovered and understood. Hollywood will only continue creating fascinating stories that draw in thousands of minds hungry to escape to another world where the only limit in sight is the horizon.
Bibliography
Exquemelin, Alexander O. The Buccaneers of America. Translated by Alexis Brown. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, INC., 1969.
Rediker, Marcus. Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age. Boston: Beacon Press, 2004.
Expectations of Heroes in Wonderful Fool and The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea
Elements such as mermaids, the “Fountain of Youth”, and everlasting life are not realistic and are clearly added to the film for entertainment value. However, this film could be helpful in sparking an interest in the general public on the subject of pirates. The film includes actual pirates, like Edward Teach, that may spark an interest in a viewer enough to look into the character. This interest may not have been sparked through a historical documentary because it does not have the same entertainment value as Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. The use of Hollywood films in understanding the history of pirates can be important in the visual representation of pirates. While reading about the history of pirates is the clear and scholarly way to gain information, it may be difficult for some students to create a visual of the people that were involved in piracy. Films allow for an instant visual to the people involved in the history that inspired the story. Reading can also be a useful way to teach the public factual history, empathy and emotion are much easier to obtain through film because the viewer is able to connect to the characters and find similarities between the content and their own lives. Through this ability for viewers to connect to the characters and themes in the film, it makes this film useful in understanding the history of
Blackbeard began his pirating career sometime after 1713, as an ordinary crewmember aboard a Jamaican sloop commanded by the pirate Benjamin Hornigold. In 1716, Hornigold supplied Teach with a small crew, and a small captured vessel to command. By 1717 Hornigold and Teach were sailing in alliance, and together were feared throughout the seas. In November 1717, Hornigold and Teach were able to capture a 26 gun French vessel called the Concorde (recent research has shown that the vessel had originally been built in Great Britain). Blackbeard’s pirate partner, Hornigold, decided to take advantage of a recent offer of general amnesty from the British Crown- and retire in comfort. Teach rejected t...
...rates to succeed in the open waters alone. Pirates also lost their justification when the Spanish accepted the independence of their former colonies in South and Central America so piracy all but vanished when the governors in Cuba and Puerto Rico stopped providing support. The Navy’s relentless fighting contributed to a great decrease in piracy within ten years which not only led to greater United States prosperity but that of all nations with commerce paths through that region.
Blackbeard was one of the most feared pirates in history, because he was a ferocious and fearless man who took over many ships in his years of being a pirate. He wasn’t a good man but he was good at what he did. There was some information that was unsure of because of the time period, but there are many interesting facts about him.
In the first case the judge would like to show the 3 men sympathy but he believes he isn’t above the law, he sentences the death penalty. The philosophical label of this judge is legal positivism. One thing that the judge says to back this up is “As much as I would personally wish that these men could return to their families and put this tragic event behind them, I cannot permit them to do so. I am not free to make the law”. This quote showed that this judge was a legal positivist because he says that he wants to show them sympathy and let them return to their families, but he is not free to make the law and he is not above the law. Another quote to back this up is “I have sworn an oath to apply the law that authorized legislators have enacted”. Similar to the last quote, the judge is showing that whether he wants to be sympathetic or not he cannot because he has sworn an oath to the law that he cannot break. One weakness of this theoretical approach is that it is very ruthless. These men did not have a choice, killing Ozzie was the only way for the men to
Being one of the world’s most popular art forms, it was inevitable that these archetypes would find their way into film as well. In this essay I will argue that the films Pulp Fiction, Taxi Driver, Watership Down, and Trainspotting are all versions of The Hero’s Journey, consequently demonstrating just how prevalent these archetypes have become in modern cinema. And that mythology and storytelling are important parts of each culture because they prevent the darkness in our hearts from spreading.
Cordingly’s book Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates tells the story of many different pirates of different time periods by the facts. The book uses evidence from first hand sources to combat the image of pirates produced by fictional books, plays, and films. Cordingly explains where the fictional ideas may have come from using the evidence from the past. The stories are retold while still keeping the interest of the audience without having to stray from the factual
Phillips, Richard, and Stephan Talty. A captain's duty: Somali pirates, Navy Seals, and dangerous days at sea. New York: Hyperion, 2010.
The Golden Age of Piracy began around 1650, and ended around 1730. Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea, but can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the criminal. The term has been used throughout history to refer to raids across land borders by non-state agents. A pirate is one who commits robberies at sea, usually without being allotted to do so by any particular nation. The usual crime for piracy can include being hung, or publically executed. Some of the most famous pirates who were killed either because of piracy, or because of natural causes, are Barbarossa, Stede Bonnet, Anne Bonney, Sir Francis Drake, Captain Greaves, William Kidd, Jean Laffite, Sir Henry Morgan, Mary Read, and Giovanni da Verrazano.
Tharoor, Ishaan. "How Somalia's Fishermen Became Pirates." Time. Time Inc., 18 Apr. 2009. Web. 08 Feb. 2014.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Prod. Jerry Bruckheimer. Perf. Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. Buena Vista Home Entertainment, 2003. DVD.
The pirate code as it is called in the movie could be considered an analogy to U.S. Constitution for being rules that it’s citizens follow that make up the very being of what makes an American an American or what makes a pirate, a pirate. Becoming a pirate was basically the original American Dream, the idea of coming to America to free oneself and be given a chance to make a name for themselves as well, this is the same for pirates leaving British control and being able to live freely and claim fame for themselves. This is shown in the movie when they go to Tortuga and the town is in anarchy, yet everyone is happy to be free and even though it doesn’t look like it the town is still thriving. Pirates are just men who are looking for a better life beyond what they are living now without the constraints that the government put on them while they were citizens. Americans are the same way and that was how the United States came to be formed because the US didn’t not accept the control that Britain had, so they fought back to free themselves and develop a new country. The diversity of America could also be seen in the Captain Jack Sparrow’s crew, which included African-Americans, women, midgets, and a parrot. This also goes for any of the pirate crew presented in the movie, while the British soldiers are all Caucasian and almost all the citizens
This story is about a boy named Jim Hawkins who lives at an inn that his mother and father run and watch over. So one normal day, a pirate looking man walked into the door for somewhere to stay in for a couple of nights. This pirate looking man was called the captain {Bill}, because he never told the Hawkins family what his real name was. So every day the inn family would provide him with food and shelter and Rum. He would always drink to much rum and he would become every drunk and inconsiderate of others.
“Protecting Ships from Somali Pirates – The Navy vs. Private Security” Ed. Forbes, gCaptain, March 2013. Accessed March 26th, 2014. http://www.forbes.com/sites/gcaptain/2013/03/11/protecting-ships-from-somali-pirates-the-navy-vs-private-security/