In 1995 Cutthroat Island released to an abysmal critical reception and is one of the biggest box office bombs in history (only grossing $10 million on a $90 million budget). This kind of unprecedented failure was enough to scare Hollywood into thinking that the pirate sun-genre of action movies was to blame, and that nobody wanted to see pirate films. So, when Disney sought to adapt a film from their famous Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Walt Disney World, they had planned to shuffle it out as a straight to VHS, low budget, low risk venture. But when producer Jerry Bruckheimer joined the project, he insisted along with director Gore Verbinski that the film be given a full theatrical release, and that the budget be increased exponentially to account for the grand scope of the film.
To this day I think it will remain largely a mystery as to why Disney executives ever took such a risk, but it sure did pay off. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl quickly became a massive critical and commercial success, spawning one of the studios biggest franchises, and re-igniting the career of Johnny Depp who wowed as Jack Sparrow. Curse of the Black Pearl recently celebrated its twentieth anniversary, so hoist the sails, raise the anchor, and find out where all the rum’s gone as we journey to the Caribbean for some sun, sea, and undead curses…wait what?
It’s been eight years since Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) was rescued from a shipwreck by Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley). He has since become a skilled blacksmith with a sore spot for pirates (who caused the shipwreck and killed his father), and she is now to be married off to the recently promoted Commodore Norrington (Jack Davenport). But the arrival of the notorious Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) in Port Royal stirs up a pirate frenzy from the British Navy, and it doesn’t take long for the infamous pirate ship, the Black Pearl to arrive and kidnap Miss Swann. Forced to work together, Will & Jack must track down the Black Pearl to rescue Elizabeth and reinstate Jack as the ship’s captain. However, Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and his crew of the damned require Elizabeth to lift a curse that has been placed upon them.
To this day I think it will remain largely a mystery as to why Disney executives ever took such a risk, but it sure did pay off. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl quickly became a massive critical and commercial success, spawning one of the studios biggest franchises, and re-igniting the career of Johnny Depp who wowed as Jack Sparrow. Curse of the Black Pearl recently celebrated its twentieth anniversary, so hoist the sails, raise the anchor, and find out where all the rum’s gone as we journey to the Caribbean for some sun, sea, and undead curses…wait what?
It’s been eight years since Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) was rescued from a shipwreck by Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley). He has since become a skilled blacksmith with a sore spot for pirates (who caused the shipwreck and killed his father), and she is now to be married off to the recently promoted Commodore Norrington (Jack Davenport). But the arrival of the notorious Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) in Port Royal stirs up a pirate frenzy from the British Navy, and it doesn’t take long for the infamous pirate ship, the Black Pearl to arrive and kidnap Miss Swann. Forced to work together, Will & Jack must track down the Black Pearl to rescue Elizabeth and reinstate Jack as the ship’s captain. However, Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and his crew of the damned require Elizabeth to lift a curse that has been placed upon them.
It’s easy to understand why Pirates of the Caribbean became so popular, what with everything that it does so well. But it was understandably a huge gamble for Disney to make. A multi-million-dollar blockbuster based on a ride that was losing its relevancy, in a genre that was seen as cursed. It seemed like a recipe for disaster but Bruckheimer and Verbinski pulled through and delivered on almost every level.
The actual story is Black Pearl’s biggest weakness actually. Clocking in at almost two and a half hours, some elements of the story are spread extremely thin, others have setup and no payoff (clearly banking on sequels that may have never happened), and there’s just a whole lot happening without it ever feeling like much is actually going on. I’m sure this might illicit some boos and hisses, but as I’ve already established, Black Pearl is a great film, it’s just that the story is not its strongest asset; its world and characters are, and they make the somewhat ropey story highly enjoyable.
What Black Pearl does best, which each progressive sequel seemed to lose sight of, is that Jack Sparrow is a supporting character here. It’s Will & Elizabeth’s story, Jack’s just kind of along for the ride because he has skin in the game and skills that Will requires. He works excellently as a supporting character, and whilst he is probably the best character in the film, the sequels move him to main character status and that’s where things start to go wrong. He’s incredible comic relief, and Depp’s performance is nothing short of legendary here, but his best moments are when he’s kept at arm’s length from the main plot and he’s just kind of mucking about doing what he does best. But he still has intrigue, layers, and he feels necessary unlike most comic relief characters in Hollywood films.
The actual story is Black Pearl’s biggest weakness actually. Clocking in at almost two and a half hours, some elements of the story are spread extremely thin, others have setup and no payoff (clearly banking on sequels that may have never happened), and there’s just a whole lot happening without it ever feeling like much is actually going on. I’m sure this might illicit some boos and hisses, but as I’ve already established, Black Pearl is a great film, it’s just that the story is not its strongest asset; its world and characters are, and they make the somewhat ropey story highly enjoyable.
What Black Pearl does best, which each progressive sequel seemed to lose sight of, is that Jack Sparrow is a supporting character here. It’s Will & Elizabeth’s story, Jack’s just kind of along for the ride because he has skin in the game and skills that Will requires. He works excellently as a supporting character, and whilst he is probably the best character in the film, the sequels move him to main character status and that’s where things start to go wrong. He’s incredible comic relief, and Depp’s performance is nothing short of legendary here, but his best moments are when he’s kept at arm’s length from the main plot and he’s just kind of mucking about doing what he does best. But he still has intrigue, layers, and he feels necessary unlike most comic relief characters in Hollywood films.
Rush also delivers a standout performance as the villainous Barbossa. He’s having a great time with it, and he strikes the perfect balance between being sinister and being funny. The way he bounces off every cast member he interacts with is the sign of a true professional at the top of their game, the act just disappears, and he fully embodies that character.
To be fair, most of the cast deliver great performances, but Depp & Rush really do steal the show. Bloom was on a bit of a winning streak at the time with the Lord of the Rings trilogy and this. Knightley seems like an unlikely casting choice, but I think she’s really good as Elizabeth. We also get an early career appearance from Zoe Saldana, we all know what she went on to achieve through Marvel and Avatar and she brings that same energy to her role here, even though it’s a much smaller supporting role.
The film does move when it wants to though and that’s thanks to some really fantastic action sequences that are weaved quite well into the main narrative. For example, rather than Will & Jack’s first encounter being a conversation where they establish why Will doesn’t like pirates and why Jack is particularly interested in Will’s heritage, it’s actually a swordfight in Will’s workshop. It’s funny, it’s engaging, and it communicates everything we need to know in a way that’s far more interesting than the two characters just talking about it.
The ship battles are also epic, feeling like they’ve been ripped straight out of a naval drama, rather than being a part of a Disney family adventure film.
That’s also something that really stands out, just how high the production values are, and how good looking of a film this is. Dariusz Wolski’s cinematography is nothing short of gorgeous at times, and I could go on forever about how great the set and costume design is. Disney just don’t make films like this anymore, the use of CGI is reasonably minimal (pretty much limited just to the undead pirate models), and you get a real sense of epic scale from everything, including Klaus Badelt’s iconic score which just lifts everything up even higher. Even the sequel films don’t capture this sense of awe.
Curse of the Black Pearl was exactly the right gamble to take. It could have gone so wrong, but thankfully all the pieces just fell together near perfectly. There are definitely some wobbly bits here and there, but the overall experience is just magnificent. This film launched one of Disney’s most successful brands, and it brought to the screen one of their most beloved characters in Jack Sparrow. It was a cultural phenomenon for an entire generation, and you can bet that Disney will never make another film like it ever again. Curse of the Black Pearl may be twenty years old, but it feels just as fresh and fun as the day it came out.
To be fair, most of the cast deliver great performances, but Depp & Rush really do steal the show. Bloom was on a bit of a winning streak at the time with the Lord of the Rings trilogy and this. Knightley seems like an unlikely casting choice, but I think she’s really good as Elizabeth. We also get an early career appearance from Zoe Saldana, we all know what she went on to achieve through Marvel and Avatar and she brings that same energy to her role here, even though it’s a much smaller supporting role.
The film does move when it wants to though and that’s thanks to some really fantastic action sequences that are weaved quite well into the main narrative. For example, rather than Will & Jack’s first encounter being a conversation where they establish why Will doesn’t like pirates and why Jack is particularly interested in Will’s heritage, it’s actually a swordfight in Will’s workshop. It’s funny, it’s engaging, and it communicates everything we need to know in a way that’s far more interesting than the two characters just talking about it.
The ship battles are also epic, feeling like they’ve been ripped straight out of a naval drama, rather than being a part of a Disney family adventure film.
That’s also something that really stands out, just how high the production values are, and how good looking of a film this is. Dariusz Wolski’s cinematography is nothing short of gorgeous at times, and I could go on forever about how great the set and costume design is. Disney just don’t make films like this anymore, the use of CGI is reasonably minimal (pretty much limited just to the undead pirate models), and you get a real sense of epic scale from everything, including Klaus Badelt’s iconic score which just lifts everything up even higher. Even the sequel films don’t capture this sense of awe.
Curse of the Black Pearl was exactly the right gamble to take. It could have gone so wrong, but thankfully all the pieces just fell together near perfectly. There are definitely some wobbly bits here and there, but the overall experience is just magnificent. This film launched one of Disney’s most successful brands, and it brought to the screen one of their most beloved characters in Jack Sparrow. It was a cultural phenomenon for an entire generation, and you can bet that Disney will never make another film like it ever again. Curse of the Black Pearl may be twenty years old, but it feels just as fresh and fun as the day it came out.