![]() At its heart the true story of Phillips and Muse has been the stuff of pulp adventure for generations, yet Greengrass underscores the extent to which both men are really working stiffs. Phillips worries that his kids will face a tougher world than he does, but he already observes that there's intense competition for commands, even on ships bound for dangerous waters - ships that inexplicably provide no weapons for their crews. Muse is under pressure from his elders to earn more money by capturing more ships, and there's intense competition merely for places on a pirate crew. ![]() Both men live in an increasingly competitive and demanding world. Greengrass practically drives the point down the viewer's throat by drawing obvious parallels between the life of pirate Abduwali Muse (Barkhad Abdi) and that of his destined antagonist, Alabama skipper Rich Phillips (Tom Hanks). Paul Greengrass's film about the 2009 pirate attack on the Mersk Alabama probably would preempt any fantasies of 21st century piracy, for Captain Phillips makes clear that for Somalis, piracy is little more than a job of work. You can't do that for the best-known pirates of our own time, the raiders from Somalia who capture ships for ransom off the Horn of Africa. They asked him if he wanted beer, thinking that all Americans loved beer.Do children still dream of being pirates? Their teachers do sometimes, if you judge by books that idealize the egalitarian, multicultural or otherwise transgressive pirate republics of yore. (Though Phillips says he just darted past him, rather than pretending to go to the bathroom himself.) After that, Phillips says the pirates beat him, started playing mind games with him (he was becoming paranoid), and performed mock executions. But the real hijackers might not have been quite so isolated: According to the Associated Press, officials said they were communicating with other pirate boats via satellite phone.Īs in the movie, things got much worse after Phillips tried to escape, while one of the pirates was urinating off the boat. (Phillips says he really did have to suggest that they remove their clips before using a gun to break the window.) Phillips also describes how the pirates “claimed they were former fishermen who’d been forced into banditry when their livelihoods disappeared,” just as they do in the movie. Over those five days, the extreme heat raised tensions, and the pirates broke the boat’s windows to let in some air. ![]() In the movie, Phillips says things like, “If you want to shoot someone, shoot me!” But Phillips says that he never meant to sacrifice himself for the crew. Though he was made a hero by ensuing media reports, Phillips doesn’t call himself a hero for these actions. ![]() But after Phillips went down to the lifeboat to help the pirates get it started, the hijackers kept Phillips and reneged on the deal. This shifted the balance of power, and the crew was eventually able to negotiate an exchange of Muse for Phillips. (According to the book, they all had sandals.)Īs in the movie, it was chief engineer Mike Perry that scuffled with Muse in the dark of the engine room and, after badly cutting Muse’s hand, used the knife to take him hostage. ![]() The book, for example, never describes a barefoot pirate stumbling on a field of broken glass, left by the crew as a booby trap. The crew’s efforts to take the ship back are also largely accurate, though some details seem to be invented. They really did offer the pirates the $30,000 from Phillips’ safe, but the hijackers wanted much more. He pretended he didn’t understand them, that the ship was “broken,” and he surreptitiously turned on his radio to sneak news to his crew. Business or not, Phillips tried to slow their progress any way he could. ![]()
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