Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003): Favourite Films Series

 

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003): Favourite Films Series

 

The first film in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is probably up there as one of my favourite movies that I’ve watched the most. I saw it from beginning to end no less than a dozen times between the ages of 10 and 15 alone, never mind that I’ve seen it as an adult likely just as many times. The three big reasons for that were, 1) It was among the earliest additions to my DVD collection, 2) It was a movie that pretty much everyone I knew enjoyed, making it easy to watch with my mom and dad or friends at a sleepover, and 3) it’s simply a great movie. For this Favourite Films entry I’m going to try to focus on just the original because that’s the one that has always been and always will be my favourite, but I’ll touch on the others here and there as I unpack some of the reasons why I consider The Curse of the Black Pearl to be one of the most fun and exciting movies I’ve ever seen.

If you don’t know what this one is about, here’s what you’re missing. Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) has arrived in Port Royal to commandeer a ship so he can take back his own ship, the legendary Black Pearl, from the pirate Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) who led a mutiny against him and marooned him on a deserted island in the middle of the Caribbean, which Jack somehow escaped. Now, he has to team up with the son of one of his deceased mates who is trying to rescue the love of his life, kidnapped by the same pirates who mutinied Jack, and they are all destined to convene on the Isla de Muerta, where Barbossa and his crew stole some cursed Aztec gold that made them turn immortal. The only way to lift the curse is to return all the coins to the chest they came from with the blood of the coin’s original takers on them. Action ensues, including intense sword fights and ships getting blasted with cannons, and there’s deception, lies, laughs, love, and even an undead monkey.

I didn’t realize it as a kid, but looking back on it now, Pirates of the Caribbean’s mainstream success is thanks largely in part to the director bringing his horror-movie-making sensibilities to the project in the same way as 2002’s Spider-Man. I wasn’t allowed to watch too many scary movies as a young child, but I loved Spider-Man, and I loved Pirates of the Caribbean, and one reason I loved them both is because they were serious interpretations of ideas that were very appealing to kids, and they had a lot of freaky moments and eerie atmosphere. Sam Raimi made his mark in Hollywood with The Evil Dead many years before he got the Spider-Man gig, and the year before Curse of the Black Pearl came out, director Gore Verbinski directed The Ring, which proved to be one of the biggest horror hits of the 2000’s. Even though Curse of the Black Pearl is not that scary and the PG-13 rating was more a result of the constant action (it’s worth noting this was the first Disney-produced film to have that rating), many of the best parts are supposed to be creepy, and effectively are, with Elizabeth’s realization that Barbossa and his crew are all undead being the one that stands out the most to me.

I don’t want to blow this aspect of the film’s success out of proportion because I recognize the main reason for its success was due to Johnny Depp’s performance as Captain Jack Sparrow. I mean, what more can I say about him that hasn’t already been said? I think Roger Ebert said it the best in his review: “There has never been a pirate, or for that matter a human being, like this in any other movie.” Even though Depp got all the credit for making the first movie so great and funny and engaging and went on to get a bigger role with each sequel, I think Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley are also great as Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan, respectively. I especially like that Elizabeth is clearly not your typical damsel-in-distress right from the very beginning, and even though she needs to be rescued, she has her own agency amidst Captain Barbossa and his crew and doesn’t just need Will to save her, and then she ends up saving Will later on. Will is an interesting character because of his resistance to pirates, but he has no choice except to cooperate with Jack, which makes for an amusing and frequently tense relationship. Every character’s wants are clear and easy to follow, and therefore everyone is easy to root for.

As great as the primary characters and the actors portraying them are, I think the side characters are what really give this movie and the sequels their unique charm. It doesn’t feel like there are too many characters in this one because some are just in the background a lot of the time or only have one or two lines—or, as in the case of the pirate Cotton, have no lines (he had his tongue cut out and has a parrot that talks for him), but the comedic moments come from all corners of the cast, not just Depp. Obviously the characters and acting and dialogue are all excellent, but I think the screenplay is also a huge reason it’s so good, and while future Pirates movies had arguably better action or special effects, I don’t think any of them have been as well written as the original. I do think Dead Man’s Chest (2006) and At World’s End (2007) are great follow-ups that satisfyingly conclude the unresolved parts of the story left when Curse of the Black Pearl ends, but they just aren’t as well balanced or as well paced. The story is over after At World’s End. On Stranger Tides (2011) didn’t feel like a worthwhile continuation, in my opinion, and I never even bothered to watch Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) all the way through. Jack Sparrow is a great supporting character or co-lead, but getting him as the main character following Curse of the Black Pearl seemed like an idea that everyone thought would be fun, only it didn’t live up to the hype.

Something I’ve noticed about nearly all of my favourite films is that the original scores play an integral part in how memorable the movie is and how emotionally affected I am by them. This is not a hot take—the greatest film composers are always aiming to create a theme or piece of music that perfectly complements and enhances the film and will stick with the audience after they leave. If you hear the Pirates of the Caribbean theme, you know adventure is afoot. It’s no wonder the track “He’s a Pirate” became used in memes so many times and has reoccurred in every sequel. The song Elizabeth sings, Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me) comes from the theme park ride the movie was inspired by, but the memorable themes for Jack and the Black Pearl were mainly written for the movie by Hans Zimmer. He collaborated with Klaus Badelt, whose name ultimately ended up on the soundtrack, even though both Zimmer and Badelt had help from several other composers to finish the score in just three weeks (including Game of Thrones composer Ramin Djwadi), and though Zimmer would go on to score the next three films, I think the first film has the best overall score. Some critics have lamented that it doesn’t sound “swashbuckling” enough, but they don’t know what they’re talking about. When I think of epic orchestral pirate music, this is what I think of, and any future epic orchestral scores for any cinematic pirates will be held to this standard. 

One of the overall biggest criticisms the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has received since the beginning is every film overstays its welcome. All of them are undeniably stuffed with action and have runtimes that are over two hours, and both of those things became truer with each sequel, though they did reduce the lengths a bit for the fourth and fifth. There’s a part in Curse of the Black Pearl when a ship gets blown up and we think Will was still on it, only for it to be revealed he survived moments later, and this is always the part where I become aware of how much time still remains in the movie, for whatever reason. I disagree that it’s too long and too action-packed, though. I think we get to spend enough time with the characters and in each setting to be invested in the adventure, but I always feel satisfied with how much action there is, and maybe that’s because I just like well-done action in movies, but I also think the action in this one in particular is well balanced with genuine intensity, comedic moments, and great coverage without too much shaky cam or any repetitive shots. One of my all-time favourite moments that brings all of these things together is when Will is under the blade of a pirate in the streets during the raid on Port Royal, and the pirate shouts “Say goodbye!” seconds before a cannonball hits him, launching him into a building, and without missing a beat Will replies, “Goodbye!” 

I can see how this movie’s success helped shape the template for modern blockbuster movies to use in the years that followed, but to me, it is still more than just another one of those all these years later. It isn’t all just jokes and action, there’s a balance to everything, and an undeniable authenticity to the world building. When you watch Curse of the Black Pearl, you feel like you are actually in the days of the pirates. The ships and the buildings and the natural environments all feel real, even though most of them were sets built for the production, and the CGI blends in quite naturally, with effective techniques used that don’t shatter the reality too often. While Dead Man’s Chest pushed the boundaries with more CGI characters, bigger action set pieces, and deeper lore, it didn’t capture quite the same simplistically satisfying story as the first one, and At World’s End became too comedic and too sprawling, though both sequels have scenes that are truly captivating and new characters that rival those of the original. All of the most successful parts of the sequels that followed, though, originate in the first movie.  

In grade three we had to make a time capsule for a class assignment and fill in a sheet with all of our “favourites” in that moment, and I put Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl as my favourite movie, which I think is funny looking back on it, because I wouldn’t put it in my top ten of all-time anymore, but it’s definitely still up there as one of the best fantasy/action films of the 21^st century for me. Even though I know swaths of dialogue off by heart and every action and story beat, I never get tired of going on the adventure again and again.

“Drink up me 'earties. Yo ho!”