As is frequently the case, the first movie is the best. “Pirates of the Caribbean: the Curse of the Black Pearl” is the movie that started a whole pirate craze, and for good reason – this movie is funny, romantic, adventurous, and just a little scary.
When Elizabeth Swann was just a young girl, she and her father were out on a ship and came upon another vessel that had been destroyed by pirates. They rescued a young boy named Will from that wreck and helped him apprentice with a blacksmith in town. Years have gone by, and Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) and Will (Orlando Bloom) have maintained a friendship, but Will is very aware of the difference in their stations in life. He is just an apprentice, but she is the governor’s daughter.
Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is a pirate and proud of it. A little eccentric, he’s also fiendishly clever. He comes wandering into town one day, just in time to save Elizabeth, who has fainted and fallen off a high parapet into the ocean. Jack dives in, makes the rescue, but finds himself under arrest for piracy. Meanwhile, the Black Pearl, a famous pirate ship, has docked in harbor and takes Elizabeth captive. Jack wants to go after it because it’s his ship and has been stolen. Will wants to go after it because he’s anxious to save Elizabeth, his true love. Will and Jack team up to go after the Black Pearl, forming a strange and yet wonderful friendship.
Captain Barbossa, the man in charge of the Pearl now, tells Elizabeth a horrifying story. He and his mates stole a wealth of Spanish gold that bore a curse—anyone who took the gold would be forced into an eternal life of being undead. They would live forever, but would not be able to enjoy anything. They can’t taste, they can’t touch – they have no sensation whatsoever. The only way to break the curse is to track down all the gold they spent and return it to its original chest, and so they are sailing the seas to collect all the missing gold.
This movie has some fabulous comedy, mostly delivered by Johnny Depp, who shines in this role. It also contains quite a lot of swash-buckling violence, which is probably not suitable for a child under the age of thirteen. This film is rated PG-13.
Related Blogs:
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest