Yo ho

[sorcyress]

Okay, so I was poking around the movie server, looking for something to watch, and lo and behold there were all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. It's been a good long while since I saw Black Pearl, and maybe we're cool with Depp again? Whatever, I figured I'd go ahead and watch the first ten minutes or so, because Cap'n Jack Sparrow's entrance remains one of them great cinematic moments.

Holy shit, it turns out this movie holds up!

There's a fully unnecessary dudes-in-dresses bit, and the whole corset drama in the beginning is just painfully inaccurate¹ but the movie is full of swagger, good expressions, flashy swordfights, and grand heroics. I knew that I had the remnants of a desperate crush on Sparrow (and they're still there, mostly buried deep and vestigial at this point), and I'm pleased to report that Will is still way _way_ more boring than his love interest, but uh...when did Barbossa get hot?

(Is it the retrospect of knowing he comes back in the rest of the trilogy and becomes a good guy? Is it just getting old enough to develop a thing for Geoffrey Rush?)

Meanwhilst, Norrington really is the only damn grown-up in this movie, with the exception of him being a total dick to Jack at the beginning. I would like him to get scruffy now plz, and I recognize that I have to wait until the second movie for that. And yes, he is Also Hot Now but I think I've known that.

It is a crime Annamaria didn't get her own movies.

Anywho, it's something kinda neat to rewatch something that was _so_ deeply a part of my childhood but also _so_ totally not in my current zeitgeist anymore. I remembered many of the beats as they happened, but had only a vague recollection of the overall plot. Good times!

And yes, dear slash-happy past Kat, obviously I sniggered when Will declared that his place was between Sparrow and Norrington. Because it so is, you sweet little twink.

~Sor
MOOP!

1: Look, like plenty of the movie is historically inaccurate I am sure, but a corset is equivalent to a good bra and ain't no one fainting because their bra was too tight.

Comments

1.

[lauradi7dw]

I had a whole plan to borrow 1750s clothes to try to ring (including mostly persuading someone to do it, over a passable linen shift I had), thinking that at least one of the teen's mothers would have to demanded a handling lesson before allowing him to take it up. That's probably not true - by fifteen, wouldn't they already be doing other dangerous things as apprentices? I never followed through, but did have someone put stays over my t-shirt at a Colonial fun day in the courtyard. No problem waving my arms up and down. No problem breathing. (I also bought a cheap plastic fife that day and didn't really follow through with that either).

[mindways]

Have you seen any of Jill Bearup's videos? She does stage combat, analyzes fight scenes in movies (in ways that let you appreciate them even more) (and if they're truly terrible she offers rewrites which make them awesome), and tries things out like "OK, so how hard *is* it to fight effectively in a wedding dress?"

Among her videos relevant to this post:
* A breakdown of the initial fight between Jack and Will and why it's so awesome
* Testing corsets vs. knives - for science!

She is awesome, and one of the two creators for whom I subscribed to the CuriosityStream / Nebula bundle.

[(Anonymous)]

" Look, like plenty of the movie is historically inaccurate I am sure"

Yeah, you don't want to hear me go on about everything they get wrong in the naval combat scenes...

[joshuazelinsky]

And that anonymous comment was from me when I neglected to be logged in.

[ckd]

Is it just getting old enough to develop a thing for Geoffrey Rush?

Perhaps it is. Have you seen Mystery Men? He gets to play a supervillain while chewing on more scenery than Pac-Man.