![]() ![]() His Captain Phillips makes Captain Phillips a true-life story that actually rings true. If, at the beginning, Hanks seems suitably cast as yet another ordinary guy thrown into extraordinary circumstances, by the end, it's become an emotionally riveting performance. And while Greengrass and scriptwriter Billy Ray want to explain the whys of Somali piracy and the desperate men behind it, this movie is really about Phillips' survival. "We all have bosses," replies a weary Phillips.īut the stoic Phillips and the skittery Muse and his volatile cohorts are, of course, worlds apart. Later he tells him he's just doing what he's been ordered by his bosses. "This is business," Muse reminds Phillips, during his ransom demands. But, it's not a film about anti-US terrorism. ![]() you can't help but admire the foolhardy commitment of these skinny men pursuing their great white whale in outboard-powered skiffs, the giant ship attempting to spout them away with its firehoses and lumbering evasive manoeuvres.Īt times this movie can feel like a nautical Zero Dark Thirty, especially with its depiction of the US Navy rescue mission drawn as an exercise in all-American ruthless efficiency. The former journalist has already brought his documentary sensibilities to bear on Northern Ireland's troubles in Bloody Sunday and United 93, which told of the one airliner in the 9/11 hijackings that didn't make its target.Īnd like United 93, this - despite being based on Phillips' autobiographical account A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea - takes a wider view. Greengrass might be at sea but actually he's on familiar ground. It’s made for Hollywood: the story of an average American family man, captain of a cargo ship in dangerous waters, his vessel overtaken by armed Somali pirates demanding ransom, saving his crew. The performances of Tom Hanks as Phillips and Barkhad Abdi as Muse, the leader of the Somali pirates, create their own electricity.įrom the moment Muse declares "I am the captain now" as he holds an AK-47 to Phillips' head on the Alabama's bridge, it's clear there will be a battle of wills between the two and any Stockholm Syndrome is a long way off. The movie's snowballing anxiety levels aren't just a product of Indian Ocean swell combining with Greengrass' sharply-edited shakycam. Phillips sends much of his crew to hide within the vast bowels of his ship as he and a few colleagues deal with the boarding party as best they can. Not that it's any easier when the Alabama is first taken over. Those scenes are grim, grimy, claustrophobic and - even if you know how the story ends - unbearably tense right to the end.
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