"Hoist the colours!"
Hello everyone!
Or should I say arrrrr?
These past two weekends, AXN decided to premiere Pirates of the Caribbean, introducing the first four movies into its regular program, which delighted me to no end because, one, these movies are amazing, and two, you can never, and I mean never, have enough of Captain Jack Sparrow.
Now to be frank, me and Johnny don't really go well together. I admire him for certain of his roles - but definitely not all - and I will admit I can see the appeal he has for women.
Sadly, not for me.
That being said, however, I thoroughly enjoy his portrayal of Jack, and without the iconic character these movies would certainly not be as successful as they are today. And while it's been on choppy seas since the first trilogy, Jack saved the day and prevented the subsequent movie from being a complete disaster, despite the fact that there were very few original characters who returned for the telling.
And as I'm definitely in the pirate vein just before Easter, and also because this year marks its tenth anniversary, I figured to myself: whyever not? Why shouldn't I do a blog post about the third (and at the time final) Pirates movie, At World's End?
For those of you who have been fans of the franchise since the moment the Black Pearl sailed into cinemas back in 2003, welcome back!
For those of you new to this entire thing, allow me to very briefly bring you up to speed:
In The Curse of the Black Pearl we are first introduced to our protagonists, down on his luck Jack Sparrow, blacksmith Will Turner, and governor's daughter Elizabeth Swann, who are all drawn into the tangle of the cursed ship, the Black Pearl, captained by Hector Barbossa, because of Aztec gold which carries an interesting predicament. Anyone who spends even one coin of the load will be destined to never die, never eat, never sleep, never ... nothing. Barbossa wants Will because Will is the son of one of the Pearl's crew members who has met his end at the bottom of the sea; unfortunately for Barbossa, he takes Elizabeth instead, sparking a cross-sea hunt for her, and for the Pearl, which Jack had previously captained until Barbossa's mutiny. Also on the hunt is Commodore Norrington, who wants Elizabeth for himself, but luckily for all of us she knows who she actually wants and picks Will, while in the end, after defeating (and killing) Barbossa, Jack is reuinted with his crew, and his beloved Pearl.
In Dead Man's Chest, this being the second of the first three movies, Jack is trying to hunt down immortality in the form of a ghost ship, the Flying Dutchman, captained by one Davy Jones. According to the enigmatic Tia Dalma, Jones had been tasked by the sea goddess, Calypso, to ferry those dead at sea to the other side, for ten years, and be allowed ashore one day every decade. Now, Jack's time is running out - on two fronts. Jones raised the Pearl out of the depths and made Jack captain, but now he wants his debt repaid, while on the other hand, the East India Trading Company, helmed by Beckett, wants command of the seas, and Jack himself, placing Will and Elizabeth under arrest. All of them are now on the hunt for the chest in which Davy Jones guards his heart, which he had cut out after Calypso's betrayal. What happens next defied audiences around the globe at the time, as a disgraced Norrington trumps them all by stealing the heart, returning to Beckett, and Elizabeth dooms Jack to Jones' pet monster, the Kraken, to save them all.
But, as we learn in the third movie, which is the whole purpose of today's blog post, At World's End sees us on the hunt for a way to Jones' Locker to return Jack Sparrow to the living. And who do you enlist when you need a captain who has sailed those dangerous waters? One Hector Barbossa, returned to the lot of them by Tia Dalma.
Why?
Because both Barbossa and Jack, as it turns out, are pirate captains and members of the Brethren Court, a gathering of pirate lords who must, prior to their death, name a successor to assure the continuation of the lines and prevent collapse.
So, Barbossa, Elizabeth and Will head to Singapore, the area of notorious pirate lord Sao Feng, to beg for a ship and crew - and to steal the special charts that will (hopefully) take them to Jack.
Of course things DON'T go smoothly as the East India Trading Company ambushes them all, and thus begins a game of double-crossing everyone and everything that's ever lived and sailed under any kind of colour on the high seas.
Beckett wants the pirates gone. Will wants his father freed from service aboard the Dutchman (having landed there after being sent to the bottom of the sea by Barbossa, if you recall), for which he needs Jack and the Pearl. Barbossa just wants the Pearl back. Elizabeth wants to work off her guilt - and sudden, inexplicable attraction - towards Jack. Tia Dalma ... has her own agenda. And Sao Feng?
Eh, Sao Feng tends to run for the highest bidder.
The gang acquire the charts AND a ship (Will deals with Sao Feng) and head over the edge of the world to rescue Jack, who, in the meantime, has the ship he's always wanted and is currently stuck in the middle of nowhere with his own overactive imagination (this includes, but is not limited to, multiple Jacks).
Things would have been a whole lot more dire if Jack were allowed to have his way, since he would have preferred to leave Barbossa, Will AND Elizabeth in the Locker, but unfortunately his compass (which points to what one wants most, not north) doesn't point anywhere and he needs both them AND the charts they carry.
Reemerging to the land of the living, the pirates now begin a wild rush against time as the Pearl and Sao Feng sail for Shipwreck Cove, the gathering of pirates and seat of the Brethren Court, and Beckett is hot on their tails with the Flying Dutchman giving chase.
Oh, yes, Jones is now under Beckett's command, considering Norrington brought his heart over, but both Norrington and Governor Swann are having second thoughts at Beckett's blood thirst. After all, Elizabeth is smack dab in the middle of this thing!
Sadly, the situation proves the Governor's undoing and his death, and a chance for Norrington's redemption when the Dutchman captures Sao Feng's ship, killing the captain in the process who gives his token - and captaincy - to Elizabeth before passing. Norrington finally picks a side - the proper side - by freeing Elizabeth and her crew, only to die himself as Bootstrap Bill (Will's father, natch) runs him through.
With the pirates, meanwhile, madness reigns - or is it politics? The pirates can't agree on a course of action, thinking they can weather this storm out in the well-supplied fortress they're sitting in. They can't run, so they'll sit tight, because they don't want to wage a war. Neither, it seems, do they wish to free the sea goddess, Calypso, that the first Brethren Court bound in her bones, aka to a single, human form.
In the end, Jack persuades the lot of them to vote for a Pirate King, putting Elizabeth Swann into that lofty positon and opening the gates to a full-out battle.
Having evicted Will off the Pearl on the way to the Cove, they now face one another during negotiations as Beckett, Will and Jones stand against Barbossa, Elizabeth and Jack. Jack and Will trade places, and we're off!
The flagships of the Company and the pirates, the Dutchman and the Pearl, square off against each other after Barbossa does in fact free Calypso - aka the former Tia Dalma - going into a maelstrom to fight.
What follows is probably one of the most brilliant sea battles ever filmed, then and now, as the two ships circle each other, crash together, and are being sucked ever further in, while every man on board the vessels fights for his (or her) life.
All the key characters have a part to play, and the viewers realize witty Jack's had this in his cards all along: a plan to trump all plans, to gain access to the Dutchman, the chest, and the heart, and take over as captain so that the two strongest and fastest ships could then take on Beckett and his ilk.
Unfortunately, fate intervenes. Or, destiny, rather, as quoted by Tia Dalma.
As foreseen by Calypso, though not in exact manner, Jones stabs Will through the heart (with a sword Will himself made, way back in the first movie, for Norrington, but which Jones acquired after the Admiral's untimely death); Jack faces a terrible choice: losing one of his very best friends, or losing his chance at immortality?
He proves what we've all known from the moment we've seen him, that loyalty runs deep: he chooses Will, using Will's hand to stab the heart, thus killing Jones and effectively switching allegiances for the Dutchman.
And while Beckett thinks that the day is won, a now-immortal Will and Jack lead the two ships against him, eliminating the biggest threat to piracy on the high seas.
But there's a price to be paid: Will married Elizabeth during battle (executed to perfection by Captain Barbossa who officiated the ceremony) but he is now sundered from her for ten years, only allowed one day ashore. His duty? Ferrying souls lost at sea to the other side, as Calypso originally intended.
And while Elizabeth patiently waits for her husband, their son growing by her side, Jack is off on his next adventure! To find the Fountain of Youth and, once again (because Barbossa will always be Barbossa), regain his beloved Black Pearl.
Does he find it? You'll have to watch On Stranger Tides for the answer. And after that, remember to head into cinemas from May 26 forward, when Jack, Will and Barbossa return in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.
As they say: keep a weather eye on the horizon!
xx
*images and video not mine
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