Pirates

Back when I was a kid, this was one of the movies we taped from TV and watched several times. Turns out it's so obscure the imdb search function doesn't even turn it up when you write the exact title..

As an adult, I learned that the critics hated it for being messy, jumbled, and for Polanski's morbid sense of humor. This didn't really surprise me - as a kid I could never get a grasp of the plot, but I remembered the rat dinner scene *very* well, and I didn't laugh.

Rewatching it as an adult, I agree it's messy and has tonal issues. Is it an action/adventure movie, a light comedy, or a black comedy? There's a kind of nihilism to it, but then there's also a lot of innocent slapstick. Either way the sets and costumes remain fantastic, the acting is uniformly excellent (with one important exception), and there are a lot of great details, especially in the Captain's interaction with other characters, that I didn't discover before. I also enjoy the score.

However, another thing that strikes me as an adult, is exactly how terrible Cris Campion's performance as the Frog is. The man doesn't act. He has this sad-eyed/gloomy/tired look that you sometimes think is his acting, but then you realize he has that same expression all throughout the movie! And with his role being so central, and the others acting so well, he really stands out. And it really hurts the movie, not least the love story. (Except the moment when they kiss under that bed. I...like that moment.) I realize it was Campion's first movie, and that's probably why, but what was Polanski thinking, casting a newcomer in a lead role like that?

Come to think of it, it reminds me of Orlando Bloom's casting in the equivalent "passionate lover" role in Pirates of the Caribbean. They hadn't realized yet what a terrible actor he is, because as Legolas he was meant to be stone-faced. I'm not sure who was worse... Maybe Campion.

One more thing: Anyone else find the "eating the Frog" scene ridiculous? Yes you'd feel thirsty, but the hunger dulls after a while of starving, and even if you felt the hunger, there's no way you'd have the energy to chase someone like that after days (weeks?) on a raft. You'd be exhausted from the sun.

Oh well. It was fun to see the movie again.

Watch this movie. Walther Matthaus acting is quite superb. People are talking about Pirates of the Carribean these days, and Depps performance, which is also quite funny but it is my opinion that Matthau personifies that which Depp (tries to) plays in PotC. Matthau is the perfect old-school pirate drunkard and simply hilarious. As an extra notable performance is Frog (Cris Campion) playing a french retard which falls in love with the fair Maria-Dolores. This Polanski film is a gem. I cant call it the best pirate movie ever made because i haven't seen them all, but i can tell you that its the best I've seen yet, and i suspect that it will stay that way. Its just a shame that it never got the credits that it deserved.

Pöetzsch

This film is one of Polanski's masterpieces. He did to pirate movies what Sergio Leone did to western: showing the opposite of the usual sancticised glamorous movie portrayal of an era, yet achieving an epic effect, and images you want to see again and again.

But a difference to Leone, beyond a high dose of irony and situation comic, is the bittersweet ingredient of the Central-Eastern-European experience, of lack of success and constant failure, constantly hitting all of our heroes in the film.

Memories of living under communism might have also played a role in the (for me) most memorable part of the movie, the failed mutiny followed by the successful mutiny aboard the Spanish ship: the way the aristocrats have power over the people, and make Captain Red and The Frog eat the rat. And then, hilarious juxtaposing, the mutiny is like a parody of a communist revolution.

But the best thing about the film are the actors. Walter Matthau is at his best as the grumpy old liar Captain Red, Damien Thomas is terrific as Don Alfonso the hyper-arrogant Spanish aristocrat who'll never loses his superiority, Roy Kinnear the embodiment of ugliness as the Dutch, and also the young no-names Cris Campion (playing The Frog, the naive young Frenchman at Captain Red's side) and Charlotte Lewis (playing the even more naive daughter of the governor).

Pirate movies are few and far between. Its hard to get people to buy off on a script containing ~40 minutes of "Arrrr" and "Aye Matie".

However, Pirates is just a great fun romp through being a nasty, dirty, pirate. This is one of Walter Matthau's best roles. He literally becomes Captain Red. At no moment do you associate this man w/ any of this other roles.

Too many jokes and gags to list, but not a comedy in the traditional sense. It is an adventure first with humor thrown in.

Less of a comedy and more adventure than Yellowbeard. Darker, deeper, better, and less glitzy than Cutthroat Island. All around, a great classic pirate movie and virtually defines the genre.

Captain Red (Walter Matthau) runs a hardy pirate ship with the able assistance of Frog, a dashing young French sailor.

Featuring a peg leg, cannibalism, a mutiny... this has everything that a pirate film should have. Fans of the Johnny Depp films may like this -- many of the scenes look like the exact same sets were used.

Written and directed by Roman Polanski and unlike anything else he has down. I could draw a line to "MacBeth" because of the period costumes, but that is the biggest connection i can force. Roman Polanski conceived this film several years before he actually made it. He had hoped to cast Jack Nicholson as Captain Red, and himself as The Frog. I think I would have enjoyed that more.