Captain Phillips -- November 2013

NOT THE PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN

Moe: Hey Joe, guess what? For once I've got a movie to recommend to you – if you haven't already seen it, that is.

Joe: Well, good. What movie is it?

Moe: Captain Phillips – it's the one about that American ship that was commandeered by Somali pirates about four years ago.

Joe: Oh, yeah – no, I haven't seen it, but I've been wanting to. So tell me about it. What did you like about it?

Moe: It's really intense – and exciting. It never slows down so you can catch your breath. Great performances, too.

Joe: So what happens? I know basically what it's about, but give me some details.

Moe: It's based on a true story that happened in April of 2009. Richard Phillips was the captain of a cargo ship called the Maersk Alabama. Their task was to take the cargo from Oman on the Arabian Peninsula to the port of Mombasa in Kenya.

Joe: Did they have any idea they'd be attacked by pirates? Were they prepared?

Moe: Yeah, they were more or less prepared. They had water cannons that were supposed to repel pirates if they attacked, and Captain Phillips was a stickler for preparing the crew. Actually, most of the crew members were reluctant to go through drills, but Phillips insisted. And then it happened. A group of four Somali pirates managed to board the ship and take it over.

Joe: So how in the world did they manage that? This was a gigantic ship, right? How big was the Somali boat?

Moe: It was just a skiff – but the pirates were really determined. The State Department found out later that they were all 17 to 19 years old, so I guess it had to do with the impetuosity of youth. They probably thought they were invincible. And the Maersk Alabama was so big it couldn't maneuver quickly. The water cannons weren't really effective either.

Joe: What happened once the pirates commandeered the ship?

Moe: Well, I'm not going to tell you everything; if I do it'll spoil your viewing. The pirates do succeed in capturing the captain. It appears they don't want to kill anyone; one of the Somalis says, "This is just business." They demand an astronomical amount of money. 
Eventually the U. S. military enters the fight.

Joe: You said the performances are good?

Moe: They sure are. Tom Hanks does his usual solid job of acting. And the guys who play the Somali pirates are really strong. The one who plays the lead is a Somali actor named Barkhad Abdi. He's pretty amazing. At the end of the movie the credits say that the Somali communities of Ohio, Minnesota, and London were part of the filming.

Joe: Any reservations about the movie?

Moe: Well, it's pretty violent in places, and there's some offensive language. Some of it is painful to watch. The other thing, though, is that I'd like to have seen more of a historical context. There are some scenes of pirates planning the raid in Somalia, but I wish there'd been at least a little more about Somalia and why the pirates were so desperate and how piracy got started there. Even so, it's really worth seeing. Hanks plays Captain Phillips as a committed family man, and he comes off as a real hero.

Joe: Well, Moe, can I take the kids?

Moe: It's rated PG-13, so I guess it'd be OK to take your teenagers. I don't think I'd take anybody younger.

Joe: What kind of rating would you give it?

Moe: Let me think – I guess I'd give it 3 ¼ stars.

Joe: OK, you've convinced me. Thanks, buddy.

Twelve Years a Slave -- October 2013

CRUELTY ALMOST BEYOND BELIEF

Most of us have the general idea that the Civil War was a horrific experience and that slavery was an evil institution. We tend to think, however, that slavery was the plight only of the blacks who lived in the Confederacy. Few of us know that there were free blacks living in the North who were kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South. I certainly didn't. That's why the new movie Twelve Years a Slave made such an impression on me when I saw it and why it is currently making a major impact in the U. S. and around the world. It's one of the most intense films I've ever seen.

Here's the gist of Twelve Years a Slave, based on Solomon Northup's 1853 autobiography of the same name. The story opens in the year 1841 in Saratoga, New York, where free man Solomon lives with his wife and two children. He is a violin player and part-time carpenter who has a satisfying life in a town where he is respected. Solomon is about to leave Saratoga for a two-week job and says good-bye to his wife and family. However, he inadvertently meets two men from Washington D. C. who work with a circus in the nation's capital and offer him a two-week violin-playing gig. The three men have dinner together, during which the two nefarious men get the unsuspecting Solomon drunk and drug him in the process. When he wakes up, he is in shackles in a prison and is almost immediately subjected to a beating. Shortly thereafter he is put on a paddleboat and taken into the Confederate states. Solomon resists at first, proclaiming that he is a free man, whereupon he is subjected to more beatings. He meets a young black mother named Eliza, and the two are sold to a plantation owner named William Ford. Unfortunately for Eliza, Ford refuses to buy her children. Eliza is of course extremely distraught but is cruelly told by Ford's wife that she will soon forget all about them. For his part, Solomon quickly learns that if he wants to survive he must not admit that he is educated and was previously a free man.

Slaveowner Ford is a somewhat kind person in certain ways. He speaks nicely to Solomon and even gives him a violin. But Ford is morally weak. Solomon is cruelly mistreated by Ford's overseer, who attempts to hang him when he resists. Ford discovers the attempted hanging but is unwilling to confront his overseer directly. He cuts Solomon down, takes him into his own house, and then decides to ship Solomon off to another slaveowner, one Edwin Epps, who is about as cruel as they come. Unfortunately, Solomon must go to Epps because he is the only one who will take on Ford's debt. Once he is the property of Epps, abuse begins in earnest. Solomon is beaten repeatedly, but his suffering pales in comparison to the treatment inflicted by Epps on Patsey, a young, black woman whom he apparently fancies more than he does his own wife. These scenes of violence are painful to watch, to say the very least. Interestingly, both Ford and Epps regularly preach to their slaves on Sundays, saying all the right things. It seems, though, that they are Christians in name only. One doubts that they have a personal relationship with the Lord.

The years pass, but Solomon never gives up his determination to return to his wife and family. Toward the end of his slave experience, he meets Mr. Bass, a freelance Canadian carpenter hired by Epps to do work on the plantation. Bass is outspokenly against slavery and is not afraid to voice his opinions. He tells Epps that slavery is evil, that all men are equal in God's eyes, and that there will come a time of reckoning. In a private conversation Solomon prevails upon Bass to contact his family and friends in New York, which Bass does at considerable danger to himself. The triumphant scene where Solomon's friends come to the plantation to rescue him is immensely satisfying.

The picture is well acted, with British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor shining in the role of Solomon Northup. (Those who saw the Angelina Jolie film Salt may recognize Ejiofor as the good CIA agent in that picture.) Benedict Cumberbatch as Ford, Brad Pitt as Bass, and especially Michael Fassbender in the role of Edwin Epps do impressive jobs of interpreting their characters, as do most of the other members of the supporting cast.

I have only a couple of quibbles. One concerns the passage of time: We're dealing with a 12-year span here, but it seems as though there should be some periodic markers to indicate how much time has really passed – e.g., even such simple devices as superimposing years on the screen. My other quibble is in regard to the character of Bass. By the time he appears on the scene, we viewers have been through a great deal. We know from the film's title that Solomon will escape somehow and that there must be a breakthrough soon. However, Bass's appearance seems almost too miraculous. It needs at least a bit of additional explanation. Nonetheless, the picture rises to the moral and substantive level of films such as Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, and The Passion of the Christ. Twelve Years a Slave is an important film that is often difficult to watch, especially for those of us whose images of the Civil War and the institution of slavery are drawn largely from Gone with the Wind. We need a realistic look, and Twelve Years a Slave gives us that.

Film Rating: R – largely for violence. Not for children or younger teens.

My rating: 3 ½ stars.