I recently purchased and watched the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy and was hit with a sudden realization -on which I felt compelled to blog about.
It had been some time since I had give the Pirates films any thought and so over time I began to regard it as simple Hollywood tosh. And I have now identified that that is exactly what they are.... and it's great!
With the exception of 'the Curse of the Black Pearl', the pirates films are in fact mindless, action driven, sword swinging, theme less 'Movies' in which story and plot are suspiciously dodgy. They seem to hold no underlying message or theme and the story gets so out of control and ridiculous in can seem fairly laughable. And in my opinion that's EXACTLY what makes it fantastic entertainment.
The pirates of the Caribbean films are movies that you can just put on, sit back and enjoy the ride -pure entertainment.
I'll note a comparison to make my point clear. After watching 'Big Things' in production class this week I felt so drained of life and happiness I can't really convey. I won't go into too much but the film was what I would describe as pure NON entertainment.....But I'm sure it had a message or theme somewhere. After the soul crushing experience of watching this film I REALLY felt the need to watch a good entertaining film (to remind me of the quality of films). And my first thought was (you guessed it) Pirates of the Caribbean.
Sure, it may not have the depth of Citizen Kane or the classic artistic direction of Nosferatu, but it's a damn entertaining movie. I enjoy films that make you think of course but sometimes there's nothing better than sitting down and enjoying a kick-ass swashbuckling, epic, hysterical Pirate movie.
I can see it's flaws but I think it's power to entertain outshines them all.