CAPTIN PHILLIPS MOVIE

His body is covered in both his own blood and the blood of his captors. At the end of this movie, our hero is in shock.

In many movies like this, following the death of his captors, our hero would walk triumphantly onto the deck of the battleship, secure in his status as an American citizen and ready to take whatever the non-American world might throw at him next. Most remarkably, though he is saved, things don’t exactly end well for Captain Phillips either. There is never a moment of doubt that this story is not going to end well for the Somalians.Ĭaptain Phillips may be a complicated movie, but one thing is absolutely clear – don’t mess with the Empire. Lit by green and blue LEDs and speaking only of protocols, the American military is shown to be a force of mechanistic terror. SEALs descend from the sky like angels of death. Three gigantic gunships surround and monitor the Somalians’ one small lifeboat.

CAPTIN PHILLIPS MOVIE

At the same time, the movie also depicts the might of the American military. It shows their resourcefulness, their fear, and their compassion toward their captors. Yes, we should care about these men, but yes, what they are doing is wrong.Ĭaptain Phillips is also, of course, kind towards Captain Phillips and the other American hostages. Violence has become their only resort, but that violence is still criticized by the movie. It also shows them to be desperate to survive and prone to violence in their desperation. SPOILERS follow, though given that the events the movie depicts are so well known, do SPOILERS even count in this case?Ĭaptain Phillips is kind towards its antagonists, the Somali pirates. In its final moments, Captain Phillips accomplishes something that makes me value it even more, something that made we want to meditate on it afterwards and watch it again, something that elevates it above even other accomplished cinematic fare. Barkhad Abdi’s pirate Muse doesn’t feel like an alien threat but rather like a kid from a few blocks over, albeit one who hasn’t yet shed his native accent, and, depending on where you live, that might also be true of the actual kids a few blocks away from where you live.

Tom Hanks manages to disappear into his role in a way he hasn’t for a while, and that enables us to identify with him (more on that in a moment). Navy feel incredibly urgent and intimate. Greengrass’ hand-held style (reportedly adopted early in his career because he couldn’t afford a tripod) makes this movie whose outcome we know that’s set in international waters about cargo ships and the U.S. Captain Phillips encourages us to be more compassionate, to be more human, to see our enemies as more human, and to therefore become even more human ourselves.īut that’s not all Captain Phillips accomplishes in its lively 134 minute run time. One of the defining characteristics of Christ’s humanity is his compassion, so to be more compassionate is to be more Christ-like, more human. We are human, or at least we can be when encouraged toward human-ness.Īs Christians, we believe that Christ is fully human in a way that we most often are not. It is simply the base inclination out of which the worst of nature lives. It gives us a competitive advantage, no doubt, but competition isn’t the Great Good in the world. Personifying threats to our economic security as inhuman pests allows us to do terrible things to them with a clear conscience. If all Captain Phillips did was show us that our “enemies” are not the monsters the demagogues make them out to be, but show us instead that they are just kids trying to make their way in an increasingly competitive world, the movie would be worthwhile. Their socio-economic options are just fewer. So, it’s not that the young Somalians are like us. Then, the film cuts to Somalia and shows a crowd of young men Captain Phillips’ son’s age competing for the job of hijacking Captain Phillips’ ship. Fifty guys competing for one job.”Īt the time, Captain Phillips’ conversation with his wife about his son, while pertinent to the world we live in, seems disconnected from the events we know are to come, the hijacking by Somali pirates of the cargo ship Richard Phillips captains. “Back when I started out, if you kept your head down, did your work, you’d make captain one day,” Captain Richard Phillips says (more or less) to his wife while driving to the airport as the movie bearing his name begins, “It’s not like that anymore.

Captin phillips