Oh, Captain Phillips, we have a
problem. And so it seems
does Paul Greengrass, Director of the movie adapted from your memoir. “A
Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea” co-authored by Stephan Talty,
concerning the Somalian Pirate attack on the ship you captained in 2009. It seems that some of the
crucial aspects of this story have been challenged by your own crew, including
important aspects of you character, professional integrity and ‘heroics’.
Let us try to separate the film and the story it is ‘based on’.
Paul Greengrass is the British director who has brought the immediacy
and fluidity of documentary film making into mainstream movies. He electrified the Bourne series, and what he
did there raised the bar for the Bond movies. Captain Phillips has some of the same kinetic excitement.
Greengrass’s United 93 used documented evidence to recreate
the fate of those involved in the fourth plane on 9/11, which the passengers
prevented from reaching its target
– and died doing so as it crashed into a Pennsylvanian field. United 93 achieved the
remarkable feat of portraying the hijackers and victims in morally equal terms. The hijackers were not
black-hat villains, but brave and frightened men who were willing to give their
lives for their religious and political ideals. We were left to make our judgments.
The pirates in Captain Phillips are not painted as villains either. When first see Somalian crew they are being recruited for ‘work’ by
the local overlords. The
work is storming merchant container ships and holding them to ransom. But the huge ransoms demanded do
not enrich the actual pirates, who
receive a tiny fraction of the
millions given up by the Insurance companies.
I was reminded of the dockland scenes in ‘On The Waterfront’, where the men with
power, in this case the Union bosses who were virtually gangsters, hand out
work to the desperate men looking for work. One of the conditions of this work was that
blind–eyes were turned on the rampant criminality.
I
So Greengrass does what he so
often does; he brings powerful political and economic realities home to us by
showing their effect on ordinary people. In this case Muse and his team, the ones chosen to go
hunting in their small out-board motored skiffs. The gang are played by non-professional
actors. Muse is played by Barkhad
Abdi, who was spotted working as a chauffeur after immigrating to the USA from
the Yemen when he was 14.
The casting of Abdi is clever. He looks like a man who has known starvation. His seemingly frail body houses a
powerful spirit – and it shines through his eyes, sometimes challenging,
sometimes, arrogant, sometimes thoughtful. Abdi’s performance is crucial, because we have to see
this man as a human being, equal
to us in every way, save that of the economic and political situation that
shape his ends.
Muse is intelligent, and
often wise. He is clear
about the moral justification for his action. He does not want to hurt anyone, and sees no reason why
anyone should get hurt. This
ransom exchange is, as he sees it, simply a tax collected by the poor from the
unbelievably rich shipping lines that use his people’s waters to make
themselves even richer.
Muse is also politically very naïve.
Captain Phillips is played by Tom
Hanks, and so he is bound to be
heroic. Not in the action-man
heroic mould, or course, but in that of an ordinary man reacting to
extra-ordinary event with integrity and quiet courage. Courage does not mean being
unafraid. It often means being
very afraid, but not letting fear stop you from doing what must be done. In this film Hank’s character
does what has to be done with an understated heroism, and deep humanity. Well, we are set up to
believe in him. We have seen Hanks
in Philadelphia, Apollo 13, and Saving Private Ryan, in Castaway and of
course as Woody In the Toy Story trilogy. Hanks' Democratic politics and support
for environmental and gay rights issues are well known so, even if we have seen
Charlie Wilson’s War, we know
what to expect when we see Hanks in a film role. He is the Gary Cooper of our times. So simply
casting Tom Hanks makes Richard Phillips heroic.
And there we have the
problem. Eleven members of
Phillip’s crew are currently suing
his shipping line for $50 million for the
"willful, wanton and conscious disregard for their safety" shown by Phillips. The crew say Phillips
received many warning e-mails
about the increasing threat of piracy near Somalia, but ignored them and kept
them from his crew. "The
crew had begged Captain Phillips not to go so close to the Somali coast," said Deborah
Waters, the crew members attorney.
They dispute the characterization of Captain Phillips as portrayed in
his book and in this film.
They also dispute some events that are crucial to the film’s plot, but
no spoilers here.
So; here we have a well made,
humane, and politically
challenging film, with an
exciting dénouement, outstanding acting by the two leads, terrific direction, camera work and score; but. It purports to be a true account
of true events, and while many of these are undoubtedly true, serious questions have been raised about the central character and
his conduct. This film is called Captain
Phillips, and he is the hero. His
ordinariness and decency are skillfully and economically painted. His sympathy for his
hijackers is powerfully shown. What a hero!
Do we try to
keep this portrait separate in our minds from the questions raised about it
from his actual crew?
Do we criticize Paul Greengrass for not doing enough research – or even
for doing the research and ignoring what it told him?
I encourage you to see this film,
to think about it, and to question it.
