Movie Review: Captain Phillips

By Mason Plotts, '15

Logo by Megan Lacombe

            A sense of authenticity, uneasiness, and immediacy is stimulated in one's mind when they are fully immersed in a movie that is filmed using hand - held cameras. Yet, this once ambitious idea has become quite generic in Hollywood and cinema today, losing it's appeal by every flop that is produced. However, director Paul Greengrass has proved that once again - when handled correctly - this style of filmmaking is breathtaking. The experienced director stages every angle and scene of his masterful thriller so that it feels as though we are watching a live feed of the actual event. Greengrass first experimented with this method in Bloody Sunday, the sadly often over-looked yet astonishing drama about the 1972 Northern Ireland massacre. His noticeable grand-breaking style was then utilized in his transcendently crafted and thrilling two Bourne films, and then finally - of course - in the renown United 93, the invigorating post-9/11 dramatization that transported the audience into the seats of the doomed flight. 

             In Greengrass's newest film, Captain Phillips, he forces you to the edge of your seat and makes the once apparent reality, yours, for it's feature length of 2 hours and 14 minutes. The greatly tense film is based on the dire incident from April 2009, when an U.S. cargo ship, the MV Maersk Alabama, was overtaken and it's crew held hostage by a band of Somali pirates. As the film unfolds, Greengrass allows the audience to peer into the lives of both the victims and their impending attackers separately, before the (now) inevitable event is underway. 

Photo credit: IMDB.com

             Captain Richard Phillips, played by the renowned and towering Tom Hanks, is a veteran merchant sea-navigator, living in the New England area. Our first glimpse of the level-headed family-man is during his drive to the airport with his wife (Catherine Keener), where they discuss his anxiety about the intemperate economical "new" world his kids are forced to adapt too. Once dropped off at the airport, the film then cuts to Somalia, an area filled with poverty and dismay. In the given gathering of inhabitants, pirates are recruited with such simplistic excitement and eagerness, that the audience feels as though this is a daily occurrence. Not much background information is needed from the director in order to grasp the truly chaotic and desperate society of Somalia. It's able citizens have been manipulated to bare arms to steal, or even to kill, in order to survive. 

             As the Maersk Alabama "inches" through the calm seas of the Horn of Africa, the infamous navigating radar begins to blink two little green dots. The Captain is immediately aware of the pirates increasing speed and ground on their massive ship. With the Captain's ship only being equipped with pressure inducing water hoses as "weapons", the pirates are soon able to board the extensive metal vessel. As the two dissimilar societies meet for the first time, we unequivocally begin to grasp the disparity between the two cultures. We witness at first hand the vast and powerful, privileged Western world, contrasted with the desperate Third world country of Somalia, filled with fear, lack of modern technology, and absolute hopelessness. This pain and despairing aspects of the culture is sufficiently conveyed through one of the pirates, a young male named Muse (Barkhad Abdi). His starving and forlorn face haunts the movie, as well as his remarkable breakthrough performance. Abdi's character, Muse, fluctuates between an array of traits, as he is naive, anxious, demanding, and compelling, fused together into one complex role. In the film (and general knowledge), Muse is poised as the enemy, yet Abdi’s performance influences the audience to analyze the legitimately horrific actions that must have taken place in Somalia in order for a human being to turn to such drastic and violent behaviors.

             We are keyed into every glimpse and nerve running through Phillips's body, as we witness the protagonist protect his crew, negotiate with pirates, and maintain a collective composure; conveyed with such simplicity yet compulsory through Tom Hank's exhilarating performance. Captain Phillips  is strung along as if it were a life-or-death chess game, as the Captain directs the pirates in a breathtaking pursuit throughout his immense ship. However, once Phillips is finally forced upon the notorious enclosed lifeboat (along with the pirates), the film’s second half begins to slow and become slightly (granted, very slightly) monotonous and conventional. This is certainly not due to Greengrass’ eminent style and supplied source information, but rather the loss of inquiry and stimulation of discover as the film proceeds. Captain Phillips, begins with such masterful methods of suspense and immediacy and then suddenly leaves less to uncover and more so to merely observe. 

B+

 (In theaters Now!)