Review of Captain Blood (1935) by Devon B — 22 Feb 2010

Captain Blood marks the star-creating, breakthrough performances of both Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. It's also one of the great epics of early Hollywood. Flynn stars as Doctor Peter Blood, a man who finds himself in prison after treating a wounded man who was injured fighting in rebellion against the king.

Though Blood himself was not apart of the rebellion, he's sentenced to death for treason. At the last moment, the king issues a decree that all condemned men (remaing alive) are sentenced to slavery in the island colonies.

Here, he's purchased by Arabella Bishop (de Havilland), on a whim that he's so much more sophisticated than the other slaves, but Blood wants no part in being her "toy", and is sent to work among the other slaves doing hard labor.

When it's discovered he's actually a very competent doctor, he's sent to treat the governor's game foot and becomes a sort of in-house doctor for the ailing old man. Blood concocts a scheme for escape which is aided greatly by the timely attack of spanish pirates upon the port.

With the aid of several fellow slaves, Blood takes over a spanish ship and soon sets off for the high seas to live the life of a pirate. There are so many things that go into making this a great picture, most obviously, Flynn's performance as Captain Blood.

Direction and story are also simple yet eloquent. Action/adventure blockbusters are nothing new, and while modern times have shown improvements in special effects and sound editing, there's nothing that can take the place of good old fashioned human effort.

For pirate adventure, I daresay Captain Blood is better than Pirates of the Carribean any day. According to my favorite reliable source, wikipedia, swash "is the water that washes up on shore after an incoming wave has broken".

I'm not sure how you buckle water the washes up on shore after an incoming wave has broken, but I can assure you Errol Flynn has buckled it.