Captain Phillips sails to SA shores

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Captain Phillips sails to SA shores --

Fri, 04 Oct 2013 13:03

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Set for nationwide release in South Africa as from 15 November, Captain Phillips (starring Tom Hanks) is a multi-layered examination of the 2009 hijacking of the US container ship Maersk Alabama by a crew of Somali pirates.

Through the distinctive lens of director Paul Greengrass (United 93, The Bourne Ultimatum), the film is simultaneously a pulse-pounding thriller and a complex portrait of the myriad effects of globalisation. It focuses on the relationship between the Alabama s commanding officer, Captain Richard Phillips (Hanks), and the Somali pirate captain, Muse (Barkhad Abdi), who takes him hostage. Phillips and Muse are set on an unstoppable collision course when Muse and his crew target Phillips unarmed ship; in the ensuing standoff, 145 miles off the Somali coast, both men will find themselves at the mercy of forces beyond their control.

The story begins in Vermont, where Captain Phillips leaves his family to sail cargo (partially food aid) halfway around the world and at the same time in Somalia, where a former coastal fisherman, Muse, aims to overtake one of the high-value ships that passes through his coast every day. At the heart of the confrontation between Phillips and the desperate Somali pirates who take him hostage, Greengrass reveals the rift between those who are part of the lucrative ebb and flow of international trade, and those who are caught outside of it.

We ve had a lot of very good films in the last decade that have looked at issues of national security and terrorism, but I wanted this film to look at a broader conflict in our world the conflict between the haves and the have-nots, says Greengrass. The confrontation between Phillips, who is part of the stream of the global economy, and the pirates, who are not, felt fresh and new and forward-looking to me. This stand-off between Phillips and Muse is a thrilling high seas siege, but one that speaks to the larger forces shaping the world today. Greengrass continues, I ve always felt that a story should be told in a way that is compelling and thrilling, but also thought-provoking.

As a former documentarian, Greengrass has long been drawn to stories that dig beneath the surface of contemporary events from Bloody Sunday, about a British Army massacre in Northern Ireland, to United 93, about the 9/11 hijacking thwarted by passengers, to Green Zone, about the Iraq War. At the same time Greengrass has also emerged as the game-changing director behind high-octane thrillers of refreshing realism The Bourne Ultimatum and The Bourne Supremacy.

These two strengths Greengrass s investigative instinct and his mastery of the thriller form merge in Captain Phillips. At the core of Greengrass s approach to Phillips was his decision not to tell the same story of a hostage-rescue triumph that had been seen in news headlines.

When Paul joined the project, it was clear that he was committed to portraying the events around the Alabama s hijacking in a much more nuanced way than what had been reported, says Michael De Luca, who produced the movie with Scott Rudin and Dana Brunetti, and with Brunetti aided Columbia Pictures in acquiring the rights to Phillips story. Paul made it clear from the outset that he wanted to tell the story as authentically as possible, he adds. As Greengrass explains: I want veracity. I want to convey the reality and immediacy of the event, as it happened. And that means immersing ourselves in research during the pre-production stage. I ve always felt that, from conception to shooting to post-production, you have to earn the right to the audience s attention and you can t ever take it for granted.

Greengrass wanted the film to reflect a complete picture of the world the pirates came from. Phillips book was written from his point of view, naturally; from the beginning, Paul wanted to tell a story that went beyond that, recalls screenwriter Billy Ray. Greengrass believes that audiences will feel a great sense of moral clarity at the end, of what is right and what is wrong, but also a sense of compassion that the world should be as it is.

Co-producer Michael Bronner, Greengrass s long-time collaborator, dove deep into researching the history of Somali piracy and the economic imperatives that drive it. The depletion of fish in Somali waters due to industrial overfishing was one factor that spurred the growth of the pirate economy on Somalia s coasts, which had formerly relied on a healthy domestic fish trade.

Phillips recorded the events in his memoir A Captain s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea, which provided the bedrock for the film s script, which was written by Billy Ray (Shattered Glass, State of Play, The Hunger Games).

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