"PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN" is the summer's biggest blockbuster, or, from the industry's point of view, shockbuster. Pirate flicks were a staple of the Hollywood Golden Age, Douglas Fairbanks (Snr and Jnr), Errol Flynn and numerous others swashed and buckled through lighthearted, fast-moving and highly lucrative outings which still draw a Sunday afternoon TV audience today.
But recent '80s and '90s efforts have fallen far short of the mark. Roman Polanski's "Pirates and Renee Harlin's "Cut-throat Island" were both fast and tongue-in-cheek but also soulless and unengaging and made costly box-office poison. Since this decade's attempt started life as an exhibit in a Disney Theme Park, insider and audience expectations were understandably low.
There again, on the other hand, producer Jerry Bruckheimer is acknowledged as a steady hand in the deliverance of crowd-pleasing blockbusters, Oralndo Bloom is the hot young ticket in town and neither Johnny Depp or Geoffrey Rush have built their careers on the predictable and soulless. So perhaps it shouldn't have been such a surprise after all that "Pirates Of The Caribbean" is quick-witted, clever, laced with originality and never without heart.
A pirate-crew of damned souls seek the piece of looted gold which will lift their curse; a good-hearted blacksmith strives to rescue the Governor's daughter they have kidnapped and Depp's insane genius, pirate captain Jack Sparrow staggers deftly through everyone else's problems, plotting to regain the ship he lost through mutiny ten years before.
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The plot, however, as in all good pirate movies, is only part of it; taking its' place amid snappy dialogue, gory jokes, sea-battles, pirate raids and the best fighting skeletons since Ray Harryhausen. There's rope-swinging, mainbrace-splicing and sword-fights on land, sea and roof-rafters and almost all the major characters slip clear of caricature.
Depp, whose performance he claims he based on Keith Richards, heists teh film cleanly with his blinkered, deranged but brilliant Jack Sparrow, always engaging but rarely in the conventional sense. The rest of the cast seem to have accepted that as a given and just got on with their own roles and the movie rounds out well with it.
"Pirates Of The Caribbean" may not be great art, but it's great entertainment. And it will probably draw a good Sunday TV audience in 50 years time too.
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