True story about piracy off the Horn of Africa is tense and showcases the talents of Tom Hanks as the titular skipper.
USA
3.5*
Director:
Paul Greengrass
Screenwriter:
Billy Ray
Director of Photography:
Barry Ackroyd
Running time: 135 minutes
What stands out more than anything from Captain Phillips, master director Paul Greengrass’s film about a hostage drama on the high seas, is how ill-equipped the cargo shipping industry was for the wave of piracy around the Horn of Africa in the mid-2000s instead of being prepared to face the very real threat, known to everyone else around the world, of its crews being kidnapped.
The film tells the true story of Richard Phillips, captain of the MV Maersk Alabama container ship, who was kidnapped by pirates, many of them looking like they are mere teenagers, in 2009. This moment marked the first time in more than two centuries that an American ship had been taken by pirates.
Phillips, played by Tom Hanks in a welcome return to form, is a serious man who likes to think he is prepared for all eventualities. He is aware of the dangers that he may be confronted with on the way from Djibouti to Mombasa, and therefore he ensures the crew knows what to do if pirates suddenly decided to attack.
However, there is a bit of a credibility issue here, as it is obvious the fire hoses that the ship uses to repel the pirates’ little boats are not up to the job, and yet Phillips is confident that by pushing his ship to its limits and using the hoses, he and his men will triumph over the greedy Somali pirates.
Common sense prevails, however, and the pirates take the ship, because they have guns and the crewmembers don’t want to risk their lives for cargo that isn’t theirs, which is a completely understandable position. But things take a turn for the worse, as the younger leader of the pack, the gaunt Somali named Muse (Barkhad Abdi), decides to kidnap the captain and demand a ransom more in line with his desires of millions of U.S. dollars.
Greengrass, whose previous project was Green Zone, the best film so far to treat the madness of the Iraq invasion and the subsequent bureaucratic nightmare on the ground, is no stranger to docudrama (he also directed United 93, about the only 9/11 plane that didn’t crash into a government building), and his work here is exemplary.
He keeps the tension by hanging the threat of death over Phillips like a Damoclean sword. We are always aware of the possibility that he may be killed at any moment, but while the tension is dramatically successful, we have to ask ourselves why the pirates don’t know the rules of the game: If Phillips dies, they die.
Greengrass pretends to give us a balanced impression of the pirates, with one even having second thoughts about carrying out aggression against the captain because he seemed to be taking care of his injured foot, which his fellow pirates don’t deem necessary despite the obvious pain he is enduring. He also suggests the pirates have their own bosses who demand their workers to make big money on the open sea, or he will take their heads.
It is a savage business, and although Muse says he would like to go to the United States one day, when given the chance he still decides to take the money back home to his boss rather than flee. That may be the principled decision, but it doesn’t make us like him all that much.
Besides Hanks’ stunning portrayal of the captain, especially in the film’s closing scenes when the events leave him speechless, the film is at its best when it digs deeper into the fight for power among the pirates. Although Muse chose Najee (Faysal Ahmed) to help him, Najee constantly second-guesses the orders of his “captain”, and at many points in the film he almost takes out Phillips. He is scared and hysterical, and he keeps on screaming when everyone else is keeping calm, but while we may question his behavior, it keeps the dynamic between him and Muse interesting and tense.
Captain Phillips is nerve-racking even when the actions (or the lack of actions) don’t always make sense. Greengrass’s use of a hand-held camera is effective and so are the hollow sounds on deck, often only of feet on metal.
It remains a stunning revelation that the shipping industry didn’t see this kind of situation coming, or that the respective shipping lines kept hoping it wouldn’t happen to their ships. Even if just for that reason alone, the director’s use of film to highlight historical (and historic) breakdowns that led to some big and dramatic moments is one that should be seen.