Had pirates on the mind tonight, what with the ride announcing a change of the famous auction scene. A bit expanded on what I've been thinking about since seeing the latest PotC movie a few weeks ago.
The Pirates franchise predates what we would consider a cinematic universe, and was something of a surprise even then: a pirate movie that was financially successful was nearly unheard of.
Yet it happened, and I have a weird socio-political theory why. Curse of the Black Pearl opened in 2003, only a few months after the Invasion of Iraq and marking when Dubya really began to attract the haters. Cue this movie, starring a swaggering, rum-soaked, bisexual pirate fighting mostly for his own selfish reasons and stealing the entire show. And who is the voice of reason and authority? The gray-haired fuddy-duddy of Governor Swann and stuck-up officer Norrington. (Seriously, Norrington's an Ivy league college Republican born three centuries too early).
The original trilogy was filmed and released entirely during the Bush administration, and it's popularity had almost nothing to do with piracy.
I mean, the entire cast pretty much sucks at being pirates. Fighters, ship thieves, and adventurers, yeah. But they never really commit actual piracy. But they spend the entire base trilogy fighting for, ostensibly, the freedom to live their lives as they will, opposing an increasingly oppressive British Empire. (Seriously, tell me the opening scene of At World's End doesn't look like a worst-case-scenario of a 1700's Patriot Act).
The trilogy wraps up in epic fashion, the characters vanishing over the horizon, freedoms found.
Then On Stranger Tides kicks in, the only film in the franchise made and released in the Obama years. With nothing to effectively rebel against, once again the pirates don't commit any piracy. Instead they're pawns caught in a brawl between Spain and England that barely notices them. Most of the main cast have moved on, vanished, or sold out, leaving Jack to bounce between the other leads.
Then we have Dead Men Tell No Tales, released in the early months of the Trump administration. And now we again have an empire worth rebelling against. Jack's new companions include a woman persecuted for standing up and proving herself right, and a brilliant young man constantly berated for not knowing his place. We couldn't build better analogues for Millenials if we were trying.
Jack, while still a scoundrel, also winds up atoning for past sins, and seems less than interested in his formerly carefree, lecherous ways (witness the joke about the governor's wife falling completely flat. The old Jack would have played that up for all it was worth.)
Personally, I think it should be opened up as a cinematic universe. For fuck's sake, it already has two female pirates in-universe played by actresses A-list enough to carry their own films. And we haven't even met the universe's Anne Bonny or Mary Reade. It's time to spin off from Jack and find new adventures over that horizon.
Besides, while there's nothing inherently wrong with, "We wants the redhead," it's a touch unnecessarily exclusive. (Not to mention unambitious, for us old-school rogues.)
The Pirates franchise predates what we would consider a cinematic universe, and was something of a surprise even then: a pirate movie that was financially successful was nearly unheard of.
Yet it happened, and I have a weird socio-political theory why. Curse of the Black Pearl opened in 2003, only a few months after the Invasion of Iraq and marking when Dubya really began to attract the haters. Cue this movie, starring a swaggering, rum-soaked, bisexual pirate fighting mostly for his own selfish reasons and stealing the entire show. And who is the voice of reason and authority? The gray-haired fuddy-duddy of Governor Swann and stuck-up officer Norrington. (Seriously, Norrington's an Ivy league college Republican born three centuries too early).
The original trilogy was filmed and released entirely during the Bush administration, and it's popularity had almost nothing to do with piracy.
I mean, the entire cast pretty much sucks at being pirates. Fighters, ship thieves, and adventurers, yeah. But they never really commit actual piracy. But they spend the entire base trilogy fighting for, ostensibly, the freedom to live their lives as they will, opposing an increasingly oppressive British Empire. (Seriously, tell me the opening scene of At World's End doesn't look like a worst-case-scenario of a 1700's Patriot Act).
The trilogy wraps up in epic fashion, the characters vanishing over the horizon, freedoms found.
Then On Stranger Tides kicks in, the only film in the franchise made and released in the Obama years. With nothing to effectively rebel against, once again the pirates don't commit any piracy. Instead they're pawns caught in a brawl between Spain and England that barely notices them. Most of the main cast have moved on, vanished, or sold out, leaving Jack to bounce between the other leads.
Then we have Dead Men Tell No Tales, released in the early months of the Trump administration. And now we again have an empire worth rebelling against. Jack's new companions include a woman persecuted for standing up and proving herself right, and a brilliant young man constantly berated for not knowing his place. We couldn't build better analogues for Millenials if we were trying.
Jack, while still a scoundrel, also winds up atoning for past sins, and seems less than interested in his formerly carefree, lecherous ways (witness the joke about the governor's wife falling completely flat. The old Jack would have played that up for all it was worth.)
Personally, I think it should be opened up as a cinematic universe. For fuck's sake, it already has two female pirates in-universe played by actresses A-list enough to carry their own films. And we haven't even met the universe's Anne Bonny or Mary Reade. It's time to spin off from Jack and find new adventures over that horizon.
Besides, while there's nothing inherently wrong with, "We wants the redhead," it's a touch unnecessarily exclusive. (Not to mention unambitious, for us old-school rogues.)
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