By Joseph Taverney
(Moving Pictures Icons issue, June/July 2006)
Although the classic Age of Piracy is as fascinating and eventful as any other era and is peopled with some of the most colorful real-life characters in history, Hollywood has more often chosen to satirize the genre than play it straight. While other historical film genres, like the Western, have for the most part been portrayed soberly and seriously, with their conventions revered and respected, the "Pirate Film," a subgenre of the traditional "Swashbuckler," has not been accorded the same dignity as other historic categories. The majority of the most successful entries in the genre range from tongue-in-cheek to out-and-out burlesque. History has shown real-life pirates to be ruthless thieves and cold-blooded killers, but their Hollywood counterparts are often portrayed as larger-than-life, endearing rascals like Long John Silver and dashing rogues like Captain Blood. Combining elements of town drunkard, bumbling clown and colorful raconteur, the Hollywood pirate is often no more intimidating than the parrot on his shoulder. This tradition began even before the first cinematic pirate stepped before a camera, with Gilbert and Sullivan's 1879 operetta, The Pirates of Penzance, and James M. Barrie's 1904 Peter Pan. Dashing hero Douglas Fairbanks was the first to buckle his swash in 1926's The Black Pirate, one of the first films to use the new Technicolor process. When audiences watched the athletic Fairbanks swinging from mast to mast, riding a dirk down a sail or dueling six opponents at once, it was clear that being a pirate was fun. The film also introduced what would become the standard clichés of the genre, including walking the plank and burying booty on a sandy island. Desperate for a leading man for their 1935 adaptation of Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood, Warner Brothers gambled on an unknown Tasmanian in the title role - and Errol Flynn became the silver screen's most successful pirate. Flynn's roguish charm (and infamous off-screen exploits) allowed him to play many of his roles with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek. Robert Newton's hammy eye-rolling performance as Long John Silver in Disney's Treasure Island became the accepted paradigm for the "Ar-ar, me hearties" piratical stereotype in the same way that Brando's Don Corleone became the benchmark for Mafia godfathers. Newton followed with Long John Silver and Blackbeard the Pirate as well as the weekly TV show "The Adventures of Long John Silver," played strictly for laughs and "shiver me timbers" cliches. Among the many full-time comedians who have successfully sailed the Spanish Main in search of box-office treasure are Bob Hope (The Princess and the Pirate), Abbott and Costello (Abbott & Costello Meet Captain Kidd), Monty Python (Meaning of Life), Walter Matthau (Pirates) and Cheech and Chong (Yellow Beard). Prior to 2003's Pirates of the Caribbean, the only pirate film to be nominated for an Oscar has been Flynn's 1940 The Sea Hawk (for its magnificent score and special effects). Depp has upped the ante with the most unique contribution to the genre in 50 years, combining elements of Keith Richards and Hunter S. Thompson into his Oscar-nominated characterization: a swashbuckling dalliance that will undoubtedly see Captain Jack Sparrow regarded (especially to younger generations) as the yar-chetypical pirate. Pirate Progression
1926 - Douglas Fairbanks rides a dirk down the enemy's sail, defying all rules of physics in The Black Pirate. 1944 - Bob Hope tries to hide the treasure map tattooed on his chest while bathing with rich dandy Walter Slezak in The Princess and the Pirate. 1945 - The crude but socially ambitious Captain Kidd (Charles Laughton) hires a gentleman's gentleman to teach him how to eat soup - with a spoon! 1952 - When the popular Crimson Pirate (Burt Lancaster) is set adrift to die in an open boat, a sad crew member wipes away a tear with a metal hook. 1952 - In a running gag, Lou Costello gets a bucketful of sea water thrown in his face by an off-camera stagehand every time he opens a particular porthole in Abbott & Costello Meet Captain Kidd. 1952 - A gallant Errol Flynn tries to teach tomboy pirate Maureen O'Hara how to wear and lift a dress while bending over as he spies on maps in her room in Against All Flags. 1965 - Pirate captain Anthony Quinn accepts responsibility for a murder he didn't commit in order to shield a young captive girl. When First Mate James Coburn objects to the decision that will hang them, Quinn smilingly shrugs his shoulders and says, "Surely you must be guilty of...something!" in A High Wind in Jamaica. 1976 - When challenged by effete villain Peter Boyle to keep his word, pirate captain Robert Shaw retorts, "I'm not a gentleman; I'm an Irishman!" in Swashbuckler, which also has a first: the only Polish buccaneer in film history, named Polonski and played by comedian Avery Schreiber. 1986 - Ten years later, director Roman Polanski has rebellious prisoner Walter Matthau being forced to sit at the captain's table and eat a dead rat as punishment for trying to foment a mutiny in Pirates. 1983 - Corporate takeovers get a new take as Monty Python's Meaning of Life satirizes the practice by showing an actual office building commandeered by pirate ships. 1983 - Yellow Beard has an all-star comedian cast: Cheech and Chong, James Mason, Peter Cook, Marty Feldman, Monte Landis, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman and Madeline Kahn. -MPM
Published with companion articles:
"Johnny Depp - Looking Up to Johnny"
"Pirates of the Caribbean: The Ride" | 
