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« on: June 10, 2007, 01:58:10 PM »
I just saw the film and there is one thing I really don't get: why are the viewers supposed to sympathize with the main characters? These pirates aren’t even like Robin Hood, who at least gave some of his money to the poor. They are just thieves, robbers and mass murderers. But here we have an idealization of piracy, while the East India Trading Company is portrayed as something evil. This is underlined by some scenes, like the hanging of a child at the beginning of the film. But, sadly, the producers didn't show us anything of what THE PIRATES did with the inhabitants of the cities they pillaged and the crews of the ships they captured. They slaughtered much more innocent people than any corrupt politician like Beckett did. So why are we supposed to sympathize with them? In the first film it was not that bad: the main character didn't even want to be a pirate: he was forced to join them by the circumstances and the plot was centered on an opposition between a really evil and cruel pirate ( Barbossa) and one who was not THAT bad ( Jack Sparrow). The second film was focused on Will's attempts to save Elizabeth from the gallows and then his father from Davy Jones's ship. At least there were some noble purposes and some distinction between good and evil. And in the third film everything is different – nearly all noble intentions of the characters seem to pale into insignificance. The main purpose of everything they do is to save the piracy from destruction. They also resurrect Barbossa and accept him as their friend, not bothered in any way by the slaughter that his crew did in the city in the first film. What kind of morality is that? And what do we get at the end? The East India Trading Company is defeated and the pirates are free once more to rob, steal, and slaughter everyone in the seas, without any more obstacles in their way. In my opinion, it would have been better, if Beckett won the war at the end. Of course, he was a murderer too, but at least, most of his victims were thieves and murderers themselves ( though not all of them, of course), while the pirates' victims were mostly innocent people.
There is also another thing that really bothered me: when the pirates raise their flags before the battle, there is one with a red skeleton on a black background: I wonder if the producers of the film ever remembered, whose symbol it was. That, in fact, is the flag of Edward Low, one of the most cruel pirates in history, particularly famous for his brutality and sadism, which included acts such as cutting off a victim's lips, cooking them, and forcing the victim to eat them. Not a particularly appropriate characterization for a character we are supposed to sympathize with, isn't it?
One minor question: why did Beckett order to kill the kraken? He could use him against the pirates.
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