I want you to sit back, close your eyes, and remember. Remember a very important point in your life. Remember the way you felt when you first saw
Captain Jack Sparrow.
It began as something epic, with Klaus Badelt’s music ("The Medallion Calls") overtaking all sound, Johnny Depp’s character
standing straight on the top of a ship as he gazes into the distance, searching for adventure
while the wind dramatically whips his hair...
Then he looks down, sees something that makes him take a
rope and slide down to the ship, the camera following him, only to reveal that
his vessel is not a grand pirate ship but a little water logged boat that
desperately needs bailing, which Jack frantically begins to do.
He sees and charmingly salutes some dead pirates, then we cut to a few reactions from people at the dock, and the
music swells majestically as Captain Jack is once again on the top of the boat,
serenely sailing towards his destination.
Then we are once again let in onto the whole scene, and see that the
boat is nearly completely underwater.
However, Jack doesn’t blink an eye and smoothly steps off of the sinking
boat onto the dock, and despite the suaveness of the landing, begins walking in
that now-famous drunken gait.
You guys. SO much
happening here, which set the absolute perfect tone of this film.
For one, you get the epic adventure. Hollywood (and its audience) loves its
adventure movies- from Errol Flynn’s pirates and Robin Hoods to Harrison Ford’s
archaeologists and smugglers, larger than life characters and situations are
important foundations in movies.
But sometimes epic-ness, almost ironically, can get boring. One of the problems of a foundation is that
it can quickly become cliché. However,
just as we think, “Oh, another hero,” the tone quickly changes to show that “hero”
is not the case. We laugh as we see the
problem- laugh because it is unexpected, laugh because it’s a funny situation,
laugh because we realize this character is more human and therefore more
relatable than we thought- and suddenly we are even more intrigued. The epic foundation is suddenly fresh because
it has something new built onto it.
This trick is played on us again, as Jack’s boat* sinks- we
get yet another epic shot, and yet another shot of the problem- this time even
worse, and we laugh harder.
The third time this happens- the smooth landing at the dock
and then the ridiculous walk- we are completely hooked. We love both epic and funny, and to see both
in the same character in such a short time and in such a well done way easily
sucked us in.
This pattern also shows us what to expect about Jack’s character-
he often acts like he knows what he’s doing while making it up as he goes
along, or acts like he has no clue while working on a very clever plan. This complicated characterization is part of
what made this story so interesting- you never knew what you were going to see
next. It was fresh, it was fun-
And it was nothing short of awesome.
If you think this is the last entry about Pirates of the
Caribbean, you have another thing coming.
*Yes, I’m aware it wasn’t technically Jack’s boat. It was Anna Maria’s, and the name of it was The Jolly Mon. I didn’t even have to look that up.
