Captain Phillips film review

Captain Phillips is great at creating

tension and uncertainty. This makes
the audience fear for the safety of the
innocent protagonists who are in
danger from the much more powerful
antagonists. In this true story
Tom Hanks plays Captain Phillips,
a completely innocent sailor, who's
cargo ship, the MV Maersk Alabama,
comes under attack and is taken hostage from violent Somalian pirates.

The movie uses Strauss' theory of binary opposites, a well educated
American captain with a group of poor Somalian pirates. Two very opposite
ends of the spectrum. Both men have a very different background from each
other. Captain Phillips is from The United States, a rich western country
where the vast majority of its citizens are well off and have the everyday
essentials along with other luxuries. The pirates however are from a third
world country in East Africa which has been destroyed by civil war that has
been lasting decades. The Somalian people have a daily struggle to feed
themselves and their families. There is no safety as there is always the threat
of violence and tyranny from local warlords taking advantage of the civil war
The movie is an innocent-on-the-run thriller based from Derry's theory
however the captain doesn't find himself on the run from the police as well.

The film starts with a calm and eery feel creating an enigma code and
causing uncertanty in the audiences mind about what is to take place. Once
the Captain has been kidnapped the movie becomes very straight forward.
From this point there are no uses of Barthes' hermeneutic codes. There are
no snares, equivocations, partial answers, suspended answers or jammings.
However the movie does use a lot of Barthes' proairetic code. This is used
mostly when the protagonists have been kidnapped and the unpredictability
of the antagonists the audience is never sure what will happen. For example
when the pirate points a gun to the crew member's head, you are not sure
whether he will shoot or not.
Todorovs theory can be easily applied to this movie. State of equilibrium at the outset- Start of
the movie. Everything is peaceful, the captain is at home with his wife, packing, for his job on
the cargo ship. A disruption of the equilibrium by some action- The peace is disrupted by the
pirates first, failed, attack. Then again their second attack which is successful and they board
the ship.

A recognition that there has been some disruption- The remaining crew
members call for help after the pirates have left and taken Captain Phillips as
their hostage

An attempt to repair the disruption- The US navy attempt to negotiate
with the pirates. Offering to let them go freely if they hand over their
hostage. However the antagonists demand money and are determined
not to leave with out it

A reinstatement of the equilibrium- The navy snipers kill three of the
antagonists and take the other prisoner. The captain is rescued and on
screen text after the screen has faded to black explains that
Captain Phillips made a full recovery and returned to work.
The remaining pirate was sent to prison in the US for life for crimes
of piracy


Mise-en-scene

There are only three colours on the poster. This makes it very clear and easy to read. The
producers want the poster to be easy to read as they use it to advertise the high profile names
working on the movie.

The director is mentioned at the very top of the poster; along with his previous work The
Bourne Ultimatum, a big Hollywood movie. Following that is the phrase "Out here survival is
everything" which displays the theme of the movie, possibly suggesting characters ignoring all
morals and focusing on the basic animal instinct survival.

Underneath that is Tom Hanks' name in big red letters above the title. The red letters are to
grab the viewers attention and being above the title shows the movie star is a very famous,
very established actor.

This might also appeal to fans of his previous work. The two
final important bits of information follow and are both in red.
The movie is based on a true story and will appeal to those
fans and also a wider audience, knowing the story is true and
realistic rather that crazy Hollywood fiction may appeal to a
wider audience more. The movie release is the second information
displayed in red.
Editing

The movie contains a lot of cross-cutting
and jump cuts, eyeline matches and
shot reverse shot. The cross cutting
mostly takes place between parties
on two different ships. For example, the captain and the pirates, or the pirates and
the navy.

It is used to show what the two groups are thinking and feeling during the situation
and shows the audience what they are planning to do. This can give the audience
better understanding of the situation and give them more knowledge of the
characters.

The jump cuts were used to show that time had passed. The movie takes place over
many days and to stop the audience from getting bored the movie has to progress
overtime to reach the next entertaining situation for the characters.

The eyeline matches and shot reverse shot are used with close ups and extreme
close ups on the protagonist and antagonist's eyes and face when they have their
stand-off; where the antagonist tries to unnerve the captain by staring at him
menacingly showing his dominance
Camera

The movie uses establishing shots, high angle, low angle, two shots and
close up and extreme close ups, as stated above in editing. The
establishing shots are used to show what ships the characters are on.

I assume they are aerial shots using a helicopter as it would be impossible
to use a crane in the middle of the ocean. The two shots are used on the
pirates and their prisoners.

The shot can easily show the pirate with a gun to his captives head, it is a
simple way to show who is in control and who is the victim.

This situation also takes advantage of
the high and low angle. The low angle
is used on the pirate to show he is the
dominant figure and the high angle on
the hostage to show that he is weak
and has no control.
Sound

The movie uses a lot of dialogue.
All the sounds are diegetic.
There are periods of extended
silences which add to the
unfriendly, hostile atmosphere.

The most notable and effective use of extended silence is at the end of
the movie when the captain knows he is safe and he is traumatised by
the ordeal he has been through, especially after having bullets fired
next to him watching three men be killed in front of him in the blink of
an eye.

The movie is not happy or light hearted and the reflects that with low
sounding instruments used.