Summers are made for simple things—basic food, easy-does-it exercise, mindless movies. With the horrendous heat, I’ve been sticking to quick, cold dinners, like gazpacho soup and pasta salads, and I’m running early in the morning before the really hot stuff kicks in. The summer is a great time to go to the movies, but this year I’ve not seen many, at least none of the ‘true summer sort.’ My husband and I did see Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” but with all the talk of floods, droughts, epidemics, killer heat waves, and overall problem of planet survival, it hardly qualifies as a summer feel-good flick (though I do highly recommend it.)
Unlike me, my daughter has been an active participant in the genuine summer movie circuit. Earlier this summer she saw “X-Men: The Last Stand” and “A Prairie Home Companion.” She liked both. A few weeks later, she joined a group of her friends to watch the original “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl” on DVD before heading off to the midnight premier of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.” Though the sequel has received mixed reviews, my daughter thought it was great. Next on her list was “The Devil Wears Prada,” (excellent), “Superman,” (an okay movie made even better by the 3-D version), and then “The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”—a second time!
Though I’ve not seen the sequel, I liked the first “Pirates of the Caribbean” film. I agree with swashbuckling movie connoisseurs that Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow is the best pirate to sail the seas in decades. His look is pirate-perfect, with his black-rimmed eyes, beaded, braided hair—and beard!—and gold-capped teeth. His wildly bizarre characterization is definitely one of those you-have-to-see-it-to-understand-and-appreciate-it type performances. Yes, Depp makes an utterly charming, though somewhat unconventional pirate.
As an old movie buff, though, I can’t help but drift to the films of the past for my summer swashbuckling fix. Among my favorite pirate movies is the 1935 film “Captain Blood” starring the roguish, dashing Errol Flynn. Sold into slavery, Peter Blood falls in love with the beautiful heroine played by Olivia deHavilland, Flynn’s leading lady in many other films. Flynn’s on-the-beach duel with French pirate Levasseur (Basil Rathbone) is up there with one of the best swordfights ever filmed.
As much as I enjoyed “Captain Blood,” there is one old pirate film I think is even better—“The Sea Hawk.” Before my daughter began her summer-pirate movie marathon, she suggested we watch it again together. A few minutes into the film, with Captain Geoffrey Thorpe (Errol Flynn) leading a raid on the Spanish ship and with Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s magnificent score playing in the background, my daughter reminded me what makes this film so great. It has no dramatic special effects or spectacular stunts. It has no computer-generated character make-up or complicated plot. It does, though, do something that is not always done well in modern films. It tells a great story—simply, perfectly.
The “Sea Hawk” has everything anyone could ever want in a summer pirate movie—action, adventure, romance, political intrigue, not to mention thrilling battles at sea. On the heroic side, there’s Errol Flynn, of course, as the dashing Captain Thorpe, leader of the Sea Hawks, a band of fearless ‘privateers’ who raid Spanish ships, stealing treasure for the good of England. Flora Robson turns in one of the most engaging and believable portrayals of Queen Elizabeth in all of movies. “The Sea Hawk” also has its share of terrific bad guys—old reliable Claude Rains, and Henry Daniell as Lord Wolfingham, with whom Flynn engages in a spectacular (and famous) shadows-on-the-wall sword fight at the end of the film.
As far as summer film recommendations, I’d have to say don’t miss the Al Gore movie. It may be hard to watch, but it is a definite must-see. And though he’s no Jim Carrey, Gore manages to crack a joke or two as he delivers both bad news and his inspirational “we all need to care about this” message. To keep your personal ‘earth in the balance,’ you may want to follow up with a feel-good pirate flick. Whether you favor Captain “savvy” Sparrow or the more traditional Captains Blood or Thorpe, a pirate movie is a great way to spend a lazy summer afternoon.
(This column was originally published on townonline.com July, 2006)
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