Movie Review

If you don't go see Captain Phillips you'll need to walk the plank

By: Avery Clark

     We all have seen movies like Pirates of the Caribbean with pirates and everyone jokes about them and dresses up as them for Halloween. This movie revolves around pirates but not just any pirates they are Somalian pirates. They are very violent and intense unlike some pirate movies they have today.

This movie would be characterized as a biographical thriller/action drama.

     The movie is set around the horn of Africa in 2009. Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) is the captain for the ship M.V Maersk Alabama to take cargo around the horn of Africa to Kenya. While on their ship they are ambushed and hijacked by four pirates, Adan Bilal (Barkhad Abdirahman), Nour Najee (Faysal Ahmed), Walid Elmi (Mahat M. Ali) and the captain of the pirates, Abduwali Muse (Barkhad Abdi). The story follows the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama.

     Tom Hanks was a great selection for the role of Captain Phillips. He really helped tell the story and all his acting and reactions were well chosen to fit well with the context of the scene. Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, Mahat M. Ali, and Barkhad Abdi all did a very good job of not only playing the intense role of the pirates but also being able to portray the relationships between each one of them flawlessly. There was a lot of ensemble effort put into this group of 4 pirates to really tell the story. I felt Caroline Keener as the wife of Richard Phillips was not a major role but her acting and character seemed to have lacked in the beginning scene. Overall I feel that Barkhad Abdi made the movie with his intensive role as Abduwali Muse.

    I was very impressed with the movie as a whole. I expected the movie to be cheesy and not as intense as it was. After the pirates hijack the ship, the movie is very intense for the rest of the duration of the film. I could not stop watching the movie because it is so interesting and I would definitely call this a high-concept film. I felt that some of the general scenes of the crew together before the hijack weren’t really needed. I liked the aspect of the pirates speaking their own language at certain parts but when they spoke English is was slightly hard to understand what they were saying at times. Just as a warning there is a spoiler in the next paragraph.

    In this movie, the message to me was always have faith in others that you trust. This message is shown multiple times throughout the film. The first time it occurs is when the pirates first try to hijack the ship and Captain Phillips tells all the crew everything they need to do to make sure the pirates do not reach the boat and even when he is increasing the knots and the crew members are getting worried they put their trust and faith in Captain Phillips that he knows what he is doing. The second instance of this is when the pirates make it onto the boat and he gives orders of how to handle this and when the pirates take him hostage, the crew has to put faith and trust into their captain to make those smart decisions and do what is right for all of them. I think others could definitely learn this from the movie and that you need to trust others in drastic situations.

    This movie is rated PG-13, which I think is a good MPAA rating for the film although this could be a little too intense for some kids 13-15 years old. This film is very intense so I do not recommend this movie to those who do not like intense thrillers or the sight of blood because those are both evident in this movie. Overall I think most people would enjoy the movie as a whole. This movie is very good and is a must see movie. 

Rating from 1-5 stars:

**** out of *****