Movie Analysis: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: the Curse of the Black Pearl

Themes: freedom, rebellion, rules
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Year: 2003

The fun of Pirates of the Caribbean relies strongly on its incredibly plucky, resilient heroine, Elizabeth Swann. She is probably the best action-adventure heroine to come along in decades. It isn't often that this typically testosterone-dominated genre entrusts a woman with driving the main action of the story, but it works quite enchantingly here.

The theme of the story cuts clearly through the battles on sea and on land. It is a motto placed in the mouths of particular characters, reflected in timely props, and embodied by significant supporting characters.

The first suggestion that this story is all about the rules and how to break them arrives in the first three minutes of the story, when young Elizabeth's fascination with all things pirate clashes with a young naval lieutenant's legalism. Norrington, who later becomes Elizabeth's by-the-book suitor, embodies judgment without mercy.

Two sets of rules are put to the test and ultimately rejected in this story. One is the set of rules for civilized society. The other is the Pirate Code seeking to establish a standard of behavior and responsibility among those outlawed by civilized society. Elizabeth comes from civilized society, but exerts the greatest influence upon the Pirate Code. Jack Sparrow comes from the pirate culture, but exerts the greatest influence upon the laws of civilized society. These characters both profess to desire freedom, but actually symbolize rebellion and serve a twin purpose regarding the story's theme. The dreadlocks-topped Jack tells Elizabeth in the original shooting script they are two "peas in a pod, darling." This scene was cut from the story's final release version, probably because it told the audience something that was shown in other scenes.

In Pirates of the Caribbean, adhering to the rules always results in loss of relationships and sometimes near loss of life. When Will Turner, the hero, follows the rules of society, he holds his tongue around the heroine and regretfully creates emotional distance between them... When Norrington proposes to Elizabeth (symbolizing a thematic call for her to wed herself to legalism), she collapses from suffocation (direct result of society's new fashion rules) before she can answer and nearly dies... When Norrington follows the rules of law regarding punishment and execution, he refuses to delay Jack Sparrow's "short drop and sudden stop" on the gallows, even at the possible cost of Elizabeth's life... When Jack's crew sticks to the rules of piracy, they leave him behind to fall captive to the villain, Barbossa... When Jack's crew persists in abiding by the Code, they refuse Elizabeth's request to rescue Jack and Will from Barbossa... When Norrington threatens to apply the law for trying to help a prisoner escape, Will faces the prospect of being separated from Elizabeth forever.

On the flip side of the theme in this story, bending the rules becomes a bridge to recover relationships. When Will breaks the law by helping Jack escape from jail, it advances his purpose of rescuing Elizabeth... When Will breaks the law again by stealing a naval vessel, it brings him closer to rescuing Elizabeth... When Elizabeth implores Jack's crew to break the Pirate Code, it's to rescue Jack and Will... When Will breaks the class rules of society by declaring his love for Elizabeth, it binds her willing heart to him forever... When Jack's crew abandons the Pirate Code by returning to rescue him from the ocean in the end, it reunites them with their captain and the captain with his ship.

This same theme of viewing laws to live by as general guidelines appeared in another movie forty years before Pirates of the Caribbean. The same dominant attitude was held by the title character in the classic 1963 film Hud. The difference between these two popular movies is that Hud shows this relativistic regard for rules as directly detrimental to relationships. By the end of the story, Hud's rejection of society's rules results in the loss of the woman who cares about him (against her better judgment), the death of his father, and rejection by his nephew. He gets everything he wanted, but he's left all alone because no one can live with someone who doesn’t care, value, or respect anything.

Pirates of the Caribbean and Hud are complete opposites in tone. One is colorful, fun, and swashbuckling. The other is colorless, serious, and thoughtful. But, try to guess which one of the following quotes belongs to Pirates of the Caribbean and which one was spoken by Hud:

"I always say the law was meant to be interpreted in a lenient manner. That's what I try to do. Sometimes I lean to one side of it. Sometimes I lean to the other."

"The Code is more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules."

The first quote belongs to Hud, but might just as easily have been in the mouth of the main characters in Pirates of the Caribbean. In Hud, the worthiness of the title character's belief system is refuted by the story's resolution and is ultimately rejected by the story's protagonist, Lon. But in Pirates of the Caribbean this same belief system is rewarded in the end and embraced by the protagonists. The theme spreads through the characters like a contagion.

Readers (and audiences) are trained to look for the significance of anything used once in a story. If it occurs twice, the reader becomes confident of a major payoff later. The motto of Pirates of the Caribbean is repeated three times.

Watch the progression.

First Barbossa inaugurates the motto when he reveals he has tricked Elizabeth. He only intends to keep the part of their bargain he has personal motivations for fulfilling. "The Code is more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules."

Then later this motto appears in the mouth of the heroine. Elizabeth begs Jack's reluctant crew to brave the villains and save Jack (and Will). "You’re pirates. Hang the Code! And hang the rules! They're more like guidelines, anyway."

Lastly, Jack's crew picks up the motto in the end when they haul Jack to safety aboard the Black Pearl. Jack: "Thought you were supposed to keep to the Code?" The leader of the crew: "We figured they were more actual guidelines."

This relativistic belief system travels verbally without significant metamorphosis from the villain to the heroine to the supporting characters. It infects the actions of the hero and his romantic rival, too. The direction of this thematic current suggests that the villain performed the role, at least temporarily, of mentor to the protagonist. Great films that make this scenario work require that the villain-mentor's lesson undergo significant, though perhaps subtle, alteration before the protagonist embraces it fully. The true power of a villain comes from the fact he advances a negative ideology throughout the story, in contrast to the protagonist's fight to advance a positive ideology. In Pirates of the Caribbean the only thing preventing Elizabeth, Will, and Jack from being as abominable as Barbossa is a whim of nature. Their ultimate purpose for action or restraint is not because something is right or wrong, but rather depends upon the shifting winds of desire and impulse. Barbossa happens to enjoy being bad; Jack's tastes run toward amorality; Elizabeth and Will favor anything that's fair in love and war. Though Elizabeth rejects her fascination with pirates for a brief time, ultimately she (physically and philosophically) embraces the soul of a pirate. Barbossa perishes in the end of the story, but his ideology lives on strong and unchanged within the protagonists.

In this story, legalistic and excessive adherence to law is contrasted against the characters' quest for freedom and independence, which are very sympathetic values. Elizabeth starts the story humming "a pirate's life for me," and Jack finishes it humming the same tune after ordering the crew to set the Black Pearl to "run free!" Elizabeth's chaffing beneath the bonds of class rules, etiquette, and Parisian fashions fairly shouts that she is a heroine who will be satisfied with nothing less than independence to choose her own course and destiny.

But, if rewards such as freedom and true love are to be found in breaking the law, as Pirates of the Caribbean suggests, then what about Hud's conclusion? A controversy of thematic statements exists between the two.

The first and best place to resolve such questions is the Bible. There, we see the example of God's gifting men with the Ten Commandments... not the Ten Suggestions. Chaos would surely reign in any society if "Do not murder," (Exodus 20:13, NLT) was merely a guideline rather than a law. Law is the hedge separating order from chaos, freedom from oppression.

A legalistic adherence to the law often oppresses the innocent while letting the guilty go free. But the answer to legalism is not found in lowering society's respect for the necessity of law. Law is society's protector. The answer for legalism is in developing a higher respect for the intent of the law. James 2:13 says mercy triumphs over judgment. Judgment is the end, the reward, the inevitable consequence of a specific action. The answer to legalism is Love. Jesus Christ, the personification of pure Love on earth, said in Matthew 5:17 (KJV), "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." Romans 13:8, 10 says love meets all the requirements of the law and fulfills it without doing anybody wrong.

Only by esteeming the law of love can true justice be served, because love values the moral intent and purpose of the law. Love protects the innocent, believes the best of the accused until proven guilty, and seeks redemption for everyone.

Pirates of the Caribbean gives the audience a fun ride and an engaging heroine. The chaste love story and unflinching honor of the hero are reminiscent of the best of Golden Age Hollywood storytelling. The theme, though seriously flawed in worth, is artfully threaded through the story in ways that directly pivot the plot. This makes the story thematically strong and memorable. But by blurring the ideological lines between the villain and the protagonists, the conflict is reduced to a superficial level. The characters' external goals are credibly strong and satisfyingly complex in nature, but their only inner conflict is how long will it take for them to adopt a pirate's life? The battle towards victory is demoted from a struggle between good and evil to a wrestling match between "what I want" and "what you want."