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Film: Captain Phillips
Year: 2013
Director: Paul Greengrass
Writer: Billy Ray, Richard Phillips and Stephan Talty
Starring: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi and Barkhad Abdirahman
Review:
This film begins with our star, Tom Hanks, getting ready to leave for his next assignment. He is taking over as captain for a ship for a company called Maersk. The ship is named the Maersk Alabama and it is a cargo ship bringing supplies to Africa. It is leaving from the Middle East.
His wife is played by Catherine Keener and she is a nurse. They ride to the airport together and he leaves.
We then get to see who the other side of this tale, which is of the Somali pirates. We learn that there is a warlord who has them ‘hired’ and they are to go out into the ocean. Their goal is to take over ships, bring back supplies, but mostly to ransom their captives. That is their job and if they don’t do it, their lives and their families’ lives could be in danger.
One of them is not respected by those around him; he is played by Barkhad Abdi. He is going to lead his own band so he asks for volunteers. He takes a strong man who’s a loose cannon, played by Barkhad Abdirahman. They have a younger guy who wants to prove himself, played by Faysai Ahmed. They also have another guy played by Mahat M Ali.
Hanks boards his ship and sees that the crew is lax in their upkeep. There are bulkheads that are not secured, doors are unlocked and Hanks’ first order of business is to whip this crew into shape. The second in command of the ship is Michael Chernus. Hanks tells him to get the ship ready and secure to go out on the sea.
Some of the other crew on this ship is the head engineer played by David Warshofsky. Corey Johnson is a crew member as well as Chris Mulkey. Mulkey quietly butts heads with Hanks, because he thinks Hanks is just being hard about what he wants. The crew has clearly done similar jobs before.
The Maersk Alabama hits the waters and Hanks gets an email saying there is a lot of pirate activity. Hanks decides to drill his crew to get them ready in case something like this happens. The crew treats it as a drill and not too seriously. They hit the open water and pull away from other ships.
Abdi decides the Maersk Alabama will be his target. They push their skiffs engines to max and the drill on Maersk Alabama turns into the real thing. They open their engines up to full speed. They try to report what is happening to the US, but no one answers. He does get through to the British.
They only get away because Abdi’s engine gives out. He tells his men to fix it and he gets disrespected by some other pirates. He attacks him, clearly sick of it.
The next day they try to take the Maersk Alabama again. This time they do catch up and they board the ship. Before they do, Hanks tells his crew to hide and warns the US. He does what he can to get this to end peacefully. His crew behind the scenes does similar things.
Abdi believes something is going on, but there isn’t much he can do. When the crew leaves a booby-trap that cuts Ahmed’s foot. Both sides push as Abdi wants to get a big payday while Hanks is trying to get away and get the pirates off his ship. This gets out of control though when Hanks gets the pirates to leave with the money from the ship’s safe and leave on a lifeboat. The problem is they take him too. Will Hanks survive? Will the pirates get what they want in the end?
First off, this film is kind of long, but it never was dull to me. The acting is great, Hanks is at his best. The supporting cast also plays their roles very well and believable. What the crew goes through is scary, but what makes this film really great is we see the other side of it. These pirates grow up in a horrible life without much choice. They are forced to do things they really don’t want to survive. If they don’t get a payday, they might not survive.
The only downfall I had to say is that this film is long. I think the length though is just right. I think the beginning of the film was a little weird. We get that Hanks and Keener love each other, but they still seem distance because of the jobs they have. The ending makes sense as to why they show this scene, but for much of the film it didn’t fit.
I am doing this review for horror film research, because even though this isn’t a horror movie, this is one of the scariest situations you could be placed in. These guys are doing a job, something you don’t think about a lot. Their lives are on the line and they have to do things that might not be smart, but are needed to survive.
I would recommend seeing this film. You have great acting, coupled with a scary situation that is fleshed out very well in this film. You also get to see the duality of the story where you are pulling for the crew of the ship to make it home safe, but you also feel bad for what the Somali pirates have to do to survive. This all makes for a great watch.
My Rating: 10 out of 10