Review of Captain Phillips (2013) by David C — 02 Aug 2014

A superb film by Paul Greengrass using his trademark documentary-style of movie making. This is no Die Hard in Pirate Alley, with an all-American action hero foiling the dastardly plans of an army of well-equipped Somali pirates, but a mature thriller that takes you through the experiences of the titular Captain, an unprepossessing commercial captain, played by everyone's go-to everyman Tom Hanks.

His performance is, as ever, flawless, as is that of the rest of the cast, from the inexperienced Somali actors playing the pirates, to the no-fuss performances of those playing the Navy SEALS and the MO in the concluding scene.

What was particularly pleasing was the subtle and sensitive way that Greengrass pointed to the root causes if this problem, a fishing community deprived of the ability to fish and provide for their families because of industrial scale commercial fishing by other countries, being exploited, through a combination of khat addiction, the promise of vast sums of money and violence by the warlords who effectively rule Somalia in the wake of post-Cold War interference in the Horn of Africa.