Captain Phillips

LEAD CAST:  Tom Hanks, Barkhard Abdi  DIRECTOR: Paul Greengrass  SCREENWRITER:  Billy Ray  PRODUCER:  Michael De Luca, Dana Brunetti, Scott Rudin, Kevin Spacey

EDITOR:  Christopher Rouse  MUSICAL DIRECTOR:  Henry Jackman  GENRE: Drama  CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Barry Ackroyd  DISTRIBUTOR:  Columbia Pictures  LOCATION:  United States RUNNING TIME:  134 minutes

Technical assessment:  4

Moral assessment:  2.5
MTRCB rating:  PG
CINEMA rating: V 14 (For ages 14 and up)

Captain Richard Phillips is skipper of a US-flagged container vessel Maersk Alabama, sailing via pirate-infested Somalia Sea with a crew of 20 unarmed men.  A band of Somali fishermen pirates-to-be led by Muse (Barkhad Abdi) hijacks the ship in the horn of Africa and holds Capt. Phillips hostage.  After a harrowing chase when Phillips’ and his men think the pirates have given up, Muse’s determined bunch succeeds in boarding the ship using a crude ladder.  Phillips, whose primary concern is to deliver the goods intact to their destination, tries to negotiate with the pirates but his good intentions are no match to the money-hungry Somalis.  The movie is based on a true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.

      Another Oscar-worthy performance by Tom Hanks in another Everyman role—an ordinary character played extraordinarily well.  Matching Hanks line by powerful line is Barkhad Abdi in his first movie role—impressive for a newbie, and definitely qualified for a Best Supporting Actor award.  There are very few actors but they come across so real the viewer cannot but feel for them.  Captain Phillips is a good story in a tautly edited film; the screenplay is suspenseful, and the cinematography makes sure the tension is seen and felt by the viewer, from the opening scene (Phillips and wife Andrea, played by Catherine Keener) to the devastating last frame.   

      Due perhaps to the fact that it could happen to anyone, the story of Captain Phillips has that unique “pull” on the viewer’s empathy.  For one thing, there is no need of CGI, an indispensable sci-fi device, but the story is most demanding of gut level acting.  The film presents various moral dilemmas but holds judgment.  It’s in a way a rescue story but praises no hero; rather it underscores power disparity, particularly military power: the pirates are but amateurs working for a warlord; their captors are US navy SEALS directed by politicians.   It clearly shows piracy as a crime, but also pricks the viewer’s sense of justice by subtly asking if it is not a crime, too, to neglect the poor and ignorant in our midst.