Captain Phillips

There's a huge amount of controversy around this film, apparently. I did some quick research before writing this to see how it faired in accuracy. Apparently, the captains crew has deemed this work to be a complete work of fiction. Apparently Captain Phillips was a cruel, unforgiving leader, going so far as to force his crew to complete a life boat drill while pirates were coming towards them, completely exposed. I can't really seem to figure out how much of this is true or fabricated. So, unfortunately, I don't really have a choice but to review this film from solely a film stand point, imagining it to be a complete work of fiction.

From that standpoint, it was pretty damn fantastic.

Captain Phillips, for those of you who somehow missed the trailers, Captain Phillips is based on a true story about the captain of a freighter ship who's ship was captured by Somalian pirates in 2009. The story deals with the capture of the ship and pursuing Navy to handle the situation. In the film, Phillips is a cool, collected man who recognizes the potential dangers of piracy despite his crew's initial skepticism. He remains a voice of reason and confidence for his terrified crew, however due to his leadership and faith in his comrades, they do well to cope with such terrifying circumstances. Again, this is the MOVIE'S portrayal of Phillips. Apparently the real captain Phillips is a bit hard headed and uncompromising.

It's hard to talk about this film knowing how controversial the film apparently is. But I can tell you that I felt the suspense and fear that the written character felt every second of the film. It did a great job at allowing us to respect and admire him, while still showing us his humanity and weaknesses. The pirates have enough story to sympathize with their motives and feel pain for their plights, but only enough to recognize them as human. We see their wrong doing and cruelty, and recognize that enough to hope for their failure and consistently support Phillips. In other words, we have incredibly well written villains, with humanity but very little audience sympathy.

The action in this film is unceasing. Similarly to Argo, with very little violence or action, the movie continues to keep you feeling claustrophobic, frightened, even though the outcome of the story might be known to you. It had me crossing my fingers, tearing up, breathing incredibly quickly. At no point in this film was I ever bored, and I never thought about how long I had been in the theatre. The script was fast paced enough to keep the audience interest high, but slow enough and long enough to recognize the gravity and time consumption of the situation.

I really don't know what else to say. It was great. I highly recommend it.

Rank - 5/5