‘Captain Phillips’ highlights disparity

Published 7:10 am Thursday, October 17, 2013

“Captain Phillips”, the story of the kidnapping of a merchant ship captain by Somali pirates in 2009, surely has not faded from our memories. The facts are pretty much well-known and many of us followed the story on a news channel. So, how does this work as a suspenseful cinematic experience?

Tom Hanks, of course, could play a mute 2×4 and we would be seduced by the charisma of wood. God forbid he should he play Hitler one day or we would get nostalgic for the Fatherland and claim Auschwitz was just a jolly summer camp. This guy is the Jimmy Stewart of our generation.

What is problematic is that he plays a heroic figure, so we hooked all the way and dare not question a single move he makes.

The “bad guys” in the picture are Somali pirates, so poor are they that they look like at any moment they will shrivel into dust from starvation. They look like walking corpses, high on khatt (a natural amphetamine that make them look crazier and act erratically).

To mitigate this, the characters keep saying that they do not want to kill anybody (and they don’t). One line, stated by the leader of the pirates, reminds Captain Phillips, that a career choice may be available in America, but not in Somalia.

Mr. Hanks has the easy role, I must report. All his scenes (except for the last one) could have been phoned in by him. His acting chops (as opposed to his abundant charm) are apparent only at the very end of the film. The real mega-acting displayed in “Captain Phillips” comes from the actors playing the Somali pirates. They had to gird their loins to play their parts and they did just that. They pulled out all the stops and pushed the throttle all the way.

I had no substantial sympathy for their characters, but they were neither cardboard cutout devils nor were they totally misunderstood victims of an evil and heartless world. I was compelled to see them as human, regardless that they were lawless barbarians. The audience did not cheer when they met the fate that was inevitable and that demonstrated that direction and script did not make “Captain Phillips” the usual visceral jingoistic revenge film.

This is not a documentary, however. There are some historical omissions and inaccuracies; none of which are terribly egregious. There is a scene wherein the leader of the Somali pirates decides to attack Phillips’s ship because it was not traveling in a pack of other merchant ships. I wondered for a second, why in heaven’s name he wasn’t with that large convoy and then I forgot it. This was Tom Hanks after all!

“Captain Phillips” (the film) is not “history.” Why the ship was alone and not with the other ships is a very interesting element of the story that was not explored in the film. I think that is a bit of a pity. It would have reminded us that nothing is simple and that all heroes have clay feet and the bad guys may be evil, but that motivations are as complex as a cell phone service contract. .

Perhaps America doesn’t want complicated stories about heroes; it gums up the audiences’ khat-like induced perception of moral superiority. “Captain Phillips” (the movie) hints at these complications, but never makes it apparent enough to spoil the revenge buzz. (However, “for the rest of the story” and after you see the film, please Google the articles about the historical details of the event, very interesting indeed.)

I liked “Captain Phillips” (the film) very much. It works very well and is entertaining (even if it is about pain and suffering, the indignity of kidnapping and the killing of pirates). There is, of course, the point that a super power can be momentarily outsmarted by starving and drugged skeletons… but only for a moment.

I get it. I get it! Somali pirates were not spontaneously created by the Devil himself.

And then, the force of power over the powerless brings about justice, albeit perhaps a tad unjustly. Who cares? We Americans want to return to a time when the world did not mess with Uncle Sam.

“Captain Phillips” is what it is: a breezy, thin layer of history; a film based on a true story, not history. It strips away “complications” so we can be entertained and feel good about the final results. No complaints from me.

“Captain Phillips” earns four bow ties out of five.