Film Review: Captain Phillips

Director: Paul Greengrass

Paul Greengrass who directs her is well known for using International locations from his work on the Bourne franchise (he directed The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatium). Here he struggled to find convincing African-American actors in the states to play the parts of the Somali pirates, so he found some locals with little acting experience to play the parts.The screenplay by Billy Ray is based upon the book, A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea by Richard Phillips who is played by Tom Hanks here.

The film was marred by questions of inaccuracies by the real crew members who were on the boat that day saying that the film portrayed Phillips as a self-sacrificing hero when in reality he was not. Many said he was reckless in his disregard for the threat of piracy by sailing just 100 miles off the coast of Somalia when it was agreed that you needed to be at least 600 miles to be safe. One even described Phillips as having a "death-wish" and "an actual desire to be attacked by pirates" as he cut costs by travelling a shorter route through dangerous waters.

Captain Phillips (Tom Hanks) with the pirates

The ship MV Maersk Alabama leaves from Oman with Captain Phillips (Tom Hanks) at the helm with orders to sail its cargo through the Gulf of Aden to Mombasa. Sailing round the horn of Africa is always a huge risk due to the actions of the Somali pirates nearby who decided to pick off the V Maersk Alabama as it is travelling alone in an isolated part of the sea. The crewmates try their best to thwart the attempts of the pirates to come aboard but ultimately fail and must deal with the consequences.

Naturally the comparisons to the Danish film A Hijacking (review here) which was released earlier this year have arisen. In fairness they are two very different films about the same topic of piracy around the Horn of Africa. Captain Phillips very much deals with the one character at the centre of the film and heavily involves the US military's intervention whilst A Hijacking focuses heavily on the political and bureaucratic side of negotiating a ransom with the pirates over a long drawn out period. It is easy to tell that Captain Phillips is the Hollywood film with the bigger budget and clear ratcheting up of the tension throughout the movie.

The scene off the Horn of Africa

The director does a great job of maintaining the tension and intrigue throughout as the film moves through different premises and issues for the Captain. There are numerous precarious scenes which keep you engrossed and many standoffs that the pirates face with crew members and the US Navy that seem very difficult to resolve. Unfortunately this is pushed too far by the end as the film slows towards its climax where you can see what is likely to happen way before it does as we wait and wait. It means the end is an excruciating wait and it makes the film feel very long at over two hours and the plot does become tiresome which is a shame. Hanks is excellent as you would expect him to be and the Somali actors who play the pirates are also excellent and much more authentic than any possibly American actors would have been.

3/4 Thrilling if not slightly overplayed biopic of the kidnapped Captain Phillips