Treasure Island
Cayman’s national festival, Pirate’s Week, is this month, so why not take a look at some of the best classic pirate-themed movies to appear on the big screen.
The granddaddy of the modern pirate movie is the 1950 classic Treasure Island. Produced by the Walt Disney Company, which had historically kept to animated features, this take of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic novel is one of the top family-oriented adventures ever filmed. Bobby Driscoll plays Jim Hawkins, a young cabin boy who finds himself embroiled in a search for hidden treasure via a map. On the journey to the titular island, he discovers mutinous plots and double crosses by the pirate Long John Silver (Robert Newton). Newton steals the movie and is the prototype for every modern pirate portrayal. The cadence and tone of his lines are the best part of the film. Driscoll, on the other hand, with his singular mashed-up facial expression is painful to watch. Having recently re-watched this film, I’m sad to say that it doesn’t age very well. The action seems flat, the drama is nonexistent and much of the performances are overacted. It’s probably because movie goers today are bombarded with loud, over-the-top characters, massive special effects, jump cuts, and grand orchestral compositions (I’m looking at you, Pirates Of The Caribbean movies), but for a younger viewer, Treasure Island is a great choice. The character of Long John Silver got his own sequel, not produced by Disney, in 1954 with Newton reprising his role.
With tongue firmly planted in cheek, Burt Lancaster stars in the titular role in 1952s The Crimson Pirate. This rough and tumble adventure story is about 30 minutes too long for most modern audiences, but is still a classic pirate film. Lancaster is Captain Vallo, a pirate-with-a-heart-of-gold who sees an opportunity to cross and double cross a King’s envoy in the Caribbean, and find love in the process. While watching the drama unfold, I could have sworn that Lancaster’s Vallo and his trusty mute sidekick Ojo (Nick Cravat) were using a stunt doubles, as the acrobatic swinging from rigging to rigging aboard the pirate ships and around the island sets were spot-on and impressive. Only after doing research on the film did I discover that before becoming a movie star in the 1940s, Lancaster was a bona fide circus acrobat. Realising this now, the action is extremely impressive; especially if the only image of Burt Lancaster is his cameo as Doc “Moonlight” Graham in Field Of Dreams. The Crimson Pirate also features the very attractive Eva Bartok as Consuela, the daughter of El Libre (Frederick Leister), the revolutionary who is being held by the King’s men and supposed to be handed over to the envoy Baron Gruda (Leslie Bradley). Noted film critic Glenn Lovell puts the action scenes in excellent context: “The broadly played action scenes, including the climactic 18-minute battle aboard a frigate, wouldn't be improved on for another three decades--by Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark. The big difference: Harrison Ford needed a stunt double, Lancaster didn't.”
Perhaps the best classic pirate themed film for modern audiences is The Black Swan (1942). Starring Tyrone Power as Captain Jamie Waring, Maureen O’Hara as Lady Margaret, and Laird Cregar as the reformed pirate Henry Morgan, The Black Swan is based on the novel by Rafael Sabatini in which Morgan has reformed from his pirate ways and made Governor of Jamaica, tasked with ridding the Caribbean of his previous mates. Morgan recruits his old friend Waring to be a pirate hunter and the adventure begins. The Black Swan was nominated for three Academy Awards and won one for Best Cinematography, Colour. With a running time of 85 minutes, the film doesn’t lag as much, and the swashbuckling adventure and requisite romance will give you a great perspective on how pirate films became hugely popular and spawned hundreds of copycats.
Fare thee well ye landlubbers, and fire up the projectors for Cayman Islands Pirate’s Week is nigh! WH
Top 10 pirate movies
1. "The Sea Hawk" (1940)
2. "Captain Blood" (1935)
3. "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" (2003)
4. "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935)
5. "The Buccaneer" (1958)
6. "Treasure Island" (1934)
7. "Peter Pan" (1953)
8. "The Pirate" (1948)
9. "The Pirates of Penzance" (1983)
10. "The Black Swan" (1942)