Captain on the Rocks

Captain Phillips

Director: Paul Greengrass

Cast: Tom Hanks, Catherine Keener, Barkhad Abdi

Released: October 11, 2013

Viewed in theaters: November 3, 2013

Much like he did with United 93, Paul Greengrass cast mostly unknowns in his latest movie based on a true event with the exception of Tom Hanks who I'm sure you have heard of! The capturing of Richard Phillips onboard a huge cargo ship happened in April 2009, but despite being old enough to remember this, I don't recall this story at all and wasn't even aware of it until I heard about the movie and how that was based on a true story.

It is an interesting story and I can see why it was made into a film. I wasn't aware that Paul Greengrass had directed it until his name came up at the end credits and I think to myself, Of course, I should have known. This is a movie that he would direct.

The movie begins with Captain Phillips (portrayed by Tom Hanks) and his wife (Catherine Keener) on their way to the airport so Phillips can fly to Oman where from there, he, along with a crew, will navigate a large cargo ship called the Maersk Alabama to deliver food to the nations of Somalia, Kenya, and Uganda. Their route sends them to Djibouti from Oman and then to Mombassa, Kenya, which they have to sail along the Somali coast where pirate activity is so heavy that Phillips gets an e-mail warning about it and has drills to prepare his crew in case they should ever have a run-in with pirates.

On the sonar, he notices two small blips gradually getting closer to the Maersk Alabama and with binoculars, sees that they are two skiffs each with four Somalian pirates on each one. He fibs to the pirates when he gets on his radio and tells them that the Navy will be arriving in five minutes. Only one skiff calls him on his bluff while the other changes course. The skiff that is still coming after them breaks down and Phillips and his crew are safe...for now.

Phillips has a conversation with his crew about the incident. Their boat is not armed so if they are captured by pirates, they have no fire power to scare them away. Many of his crew want to take a detour to get out of the heavy pirate activity which would mean not reaching their destination. Phillips tells them they have a job to do and that's what they're to do and if anybody wants to leave, they can. I can see the points of both sides. It does seem pretty ridiculous to risk your life in an area of the world that's known for its piracy when your ship isn't even armed (that has since changed and firing warning shots help scare pirates off), but Phillips was right saying they have an obligation to deliver the food to Mombassa and this is what they signed up for.

The next day, four of the pirates are back, led by Muse (played by Somalian-born, Minnesota-raised Barkhad Abdi). They get a lot closer to the Alabama than the previous day and water hoses spaced all around the boat are activated to keep the pirates away, but one is broken and despite one crew member desperately trying to fix it, the pirates make their way to that part of the boat and hook their ladder onto it so they can climb up. It is crazy to think that four men in one small boat can overpower a crew that outnumbers them in a boat that is 508 feet and 6 inches long (footnote, Wikipedia).

As he sees the pirates boarding the ship, Tom Hanks' expression is of pure fear and he does a brilliant job of portraying it. Expect a few acting nominations on the way for him in the near future. Phillips tells his crew to hide in the engine room and not to come out no matter what. He and a couple other crew members are in the control area where they steer that boat. The pirates find them and asks Phillips where the rest of his crew is and he replies with, "I don't know!" He tells the pirates that he will help them search the boat and suggests they start from top to bottom since the engine room is at the bottom and will give the crew members plenty of time to shut the power off so they will be hidden.

There is an intense scene where one of the pirates has a gun pointed at the head of one of Phillips' crew member when he won't tell them where the rest of the crew is, but no blood is shed...at least not for awhile.

After a standoff between the pirates and the crew members, Phillips offers them the $30,000 in their vault and the lifeboat on the Alabama if they just leave them alone, but after he is explaining how to work the lifeboat, they won't let him leave and take off with him in it and the movie continues on to show us how he is eventually rescued by the Navy Seals.

Something interesting that Greengrass does is he never cuts back to Keener at home worrying about her husband who is in peril. In fact, the only time we see her is at the very beginning.

The ending of the movie is very effective and another great scene from Hanks. He has an interesting accent as the real Captain Phillips from Massachusetts. It was a bit distracting at times because he sounds a lot like Mayor Quimby from The Simpsons!

Terror on the airline

United 93
Director: Paul Greengrass
Released 4/28/06

Oscar nominations:
Best Director - Paul Greengrass (lost to Martin Scorsese for The Departed)
Best Editing (lost to The Departed)

"We have to do something; they are not going to land this plane."

United Flight 93 is different from the other three planes that were hijacked nine years ago today for several reasons: it was the only plane not to reach its target. It was the only plane that had four hijackers instead of five. It was the only plane where the terrorists waited about forty minutes before taking it over instead of right after the flight took off like the others. It was the only plane that was delayed on the ground for about forty minutes. It was also the only plane where the passengers decided to attack the terrorists.

Looking back, I wish I had seen this in the theaters, but I didn't know if I would be able to handle seeing such an emotional film. It wasn't that I thought it was "too soon" for a 9/11 movie to be made, (although I was a little surprised that two 9/11 movies (the other being Oliver Stone's World Trade Center), were released five years later), but I just didn't see how someone could make a film about such a tragic and catastrophic event without exploiting it, and, to me, it wouldn't feel right to buy a ticket to see such a movie.

However, after reading rave reviews that stated Greengrass did not exploit the event or made the movie too "Hollywood", I changed my mind. It was also a relief to know that he got permission from the family members of those aboard the plane to make this film (although in a situation like that, you would have to), so I rented the DVD when it was released. I thought it was done well and with respect and was very glad I watched it alone because I was a wreck during the last 15-20 minutes.

It's been four years since I've seen the movie (obviously I re-watched it again to write this review) and nine years since the actual event. Even though I knew the events that transpired that day and even though I had seen the movie before, I watched with anxiety and horror and my heart was pounding. The image of the second plane hitting the tower with the word "LIVE" plastered on the TV still freaks me out. (And I am quite glad I did not see that live on TV, as I was in my American history class - the irony has never been lost on me - when it occurred.)

Unknown actors were cast as the passengers of flight 93. This makes sense because if, say, Matt Damon, had been cast along with other famous faces, it would have been very distracting and would have taken the viewer out of the film. The actors met with the families of those they were portraying (there was a DVD feature dedicated to this and I would advise watching this with Kleenex handy because it is SAD) so they could learn about that person and look at photos. Families also told the filmmakers what their loved ones were wearing that day and what books or magazines they might had been reading or what snacks they might had been eating to make the film as authentic as possible in that regard. The passengers are shown doing mundane things like reading, listening to music, talking to their seatmates and their names are never uttered (except in a couple exceptions).

The movie cuts from the airliner to the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) where the Operations Manager is played by the real-life Operations Manager Ben Sliney. Originally he was supposed to have a cameo as an air traffic controller, but Greengrass asked him to play himself. He also used real air traffic controllers, many of them who were there on 9/11 and he cast real pilots and flight attendants, again to give the film that authentic feel.

Now obviously the only people who knows what really happened on United Flight 93 all perished in the crash and Greengrass got all the information he had from phone calls the family members received and the 9/11 commission report and whatever other sources were available to him. We know there was a revolt and that the flight attendants were boiling hot water and finding any objects that could be used as weapons against the hijackers. In the film, it is depicted that the two terrorists who were not in the cockpit are beat to a bloody pulp, and while it would be satisfying if that were true, who knows what really happened. Also, the movie shows several of the passengers ramming the drink cart into the doors of the cockpit and trying to take the controls, but nobody knows for sure if they did reach the cockpit or not.

The movie seems so realistic sometimes (and perhaps that's a stupid thing to say since it was based on an actual event), that I felt like these were the actual people who were on the plane and those were the real terrorists and I had to keep reminding myself I'm just watching actors and while I watched the film in horror, I'm sure it didn't even compare to the horror those poor people felt on the actual United 93 flight.