Captain Phillips

I'm a bit behind schedule here as we screened this last week and soon I need to get to work on my notes for Once.

Anyway the film was excellent, and even though I knew that Captain Phillips would survive (not only was he played by Tom Hanks but he's also written a book - a bit of a spoiler really) there were whole sections when I kept forgetting to breath.

Here are my notes:

Captain Phillips

USA 2013                    134 minutes

Director:                      Paul Greengrass

Starring:                        Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi and Catherine Keener

Awards and Nominations

• Nominated for six Oscars including Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor (Barkhad Abdi).
• Won BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor (Barkhad Abdi) and nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.
• A further 12 wins and 64 nominations.

“[Greengrass] has shown us once again that mainstream cinema can be both visceral and intelligent, grabbing the audience by the throat without ever cutting off the oxygen supply to their brains.”

Mark Kermode

 In 2009 Somali pirates attacked an American container ship, the Maersk Alabama, that Captain Richard Philips (Tom Hanks) is piloting on a 10 day around the Horn of Africa and into bandit country.   With the pirates holding the crew hostage and negotiations going nowhere the US Navy plans to mount a rescue attempt.

The film is based on the book A Captain’s Duty that Richard Phillips wrote after his ordeal, with Sony Pictures quickly optioning the film rights.  Tom Hanks joined the project after reading a draft of the screenplay from Billy Ray with Paul Greengrass subsequently joining as director.  Initially Ron Howard had intended to direct the film with Paul Greengrass scheduled to direct Rush, but the two directors swapped projects with significant rewards for both.  

In his career Paul Greengrass has specialised in the dramatisation of real life events as well as his use of hand-held cameras.  He began his career making films for World in Action before directing The Murder of Stephen Lawrence and Bloody Sunday for TV before making his cinema debut with The Bourne Supremacy (2004) with Matt Damon in the leading role.  He followed this with United 93 (2006) a film about the September 11 hijackings and  after The Bourne -Ultimatum (2007) made Green Zone (2010) about the Iraq War and once again starring Matt Damon.

On its release Captain Phillips received widespread critical acclaim both as a film and for the performances of the main actors.  In The Observer Mark Kermode claims that Tom Hanks gives the performance of his life Tom Hanks and comments on the “electrifying presence” of newcomer Barkhad Abdi.

 

Here's the trailer: