POTC: Dead Man's Chest

[qos]

My daughter is spending a few days with my parents, so the night before last, I took myself out to dinner and then to see the new POTC movie.



I didn't enjoy it as much as the first movie while I was watching it, but it also left me thinking more than the first movie, so it has a better after-effect.

What I keep coming back to is Elizabeth shackling Jack to the ship and leaving him. It's a disturbing sequence, even more so in retrospect. Heroes don't deceive and abandon their companions to save their own skins. And in the past, Elizabeth has been quite heroic.

It was only when I remembered the scene in which she was trying to find the place to dig for the chest but the compass was pointing to Jack, that her decision started to make sense -- although not pleasantly so. She wasn't betraying Jack to save the lives of everyone else in the boat. She was leaving him there to die because she couldn't face the feelings he was arousing in her.

At least, that's how I read it.

Elizabeth and Norrington have both been overshadowed by their dark sides. It's going to be interesting to see whether or not the screenwriters have done anything truly interesting with that fact in the third movie. And while it's obvious that Will is going to have to face his jealousy, I wonder if he will also have to confront the truth about what Elizabeth did, whether he ever understands her motivation or not. The woman he loved used seduction to deceive and kill another man. How is that going to go over with our heart-of-gold hero?

It was also interesting to see the Governor finally getting to display some dignity and resourcefulness after being primarily a fool in the first movie, while Norrington, who I loved for his grace in defeat at the end of Pearl, and for his overall officer-and-a-gentleman demeanor, had come so undone. I'm going to be interested in seeing what kind of privateer he makes. (I have hopes that he'll be both a fine pirate and redeemed in the end.)

I think that in the end this movie is about prices: what price are people willing to pay, and for what? And do they understand the true cost of the transaction? From the deals with Davey Jones to the deals with the East India Company, to Elizabeth's 'deal' with her own honor and honesty, exchanging her peace of mind for Jack's life (or that was the theory), to Will gambling with Davey Jones and swearing to free his father, everyone made some kind of bargain, some kind of exchange.

This is a romantic adventure from Disney, so everything should work out in the end, but in a way that's too bad. There could be some dramatic consequences to mine from these transactions, if the screenwriters had the guts.

I liked the witch in the swamp -- and I was tickled that I had been on the ride recently enough to recognize the swamp set from the attraction. How many other people noticed that the heart-shape on her necklace that Will observed was also on DJ's chest? My guess is that she's the woman Jones loved.

And I think that the last seven seconds were some of the best in the entire movie. It's not often I get taken by surprise, but they got me. It was perfect.

Comments

[bodhibird.livejournal.com]

I think one of the central images/themes of the movie is The Map: the great map of the world which you see an older man painting on the wall behind Beckett, accompanied by civilised, refined harpsichord music in the score. People like Beckett are taking over the world, and the mad, colorful, swashbuckling piracy of people like Jack Sparrow will be replaced by the cool, rational, ruthless corporate piracy of the East India Trading Company. Is there room on the map for people like Jack, Davy Jones, Tia Dalma the witch-woman? Or is there only room for Beckett and his heirs the corporate raiders? I think the decay of honor ties in with this, because personal honor, too, is being forced off that map by people like Beckett, as Governor Swan finds to his chagrin.

[cookingwithgas.livejournal.com]

I saw what Elizabeth was going a bit differently. While her conflicted feeling may have been part of her motivation, I saw it more as a case of her doing something unpleasant and ruthless to save herself and everyone else from the Leviathan. It may be the type of story I prefer that lead me to seeing it as a good person doing a hard and horrible act for a greater good, but that was what I saw. Of course, that leads to discussion of ends justifying means, and the slippy slope that creates, which segues into your thoughts about prices. After all, part of the risk of having your ends justify you means is the person price you can pay in you sense of your self as you pursue questionable means to a supposedly good end.

Elizabeth IS a Hero Still.

[vsmallgoddess.livejournal.com]

I thought she was much better developed, grown-up and hroic in this pic. Even though I was also bothered by her actions, it was very different to me: She was giving Jack a chance to be "A good man" of his word and she never truly expected him to die because of it. I do believe that it was partially a selfish want to both have him and escape him, but more than that I believe her saying "I'm not sorry" proves her to be the strongest woman I've seen in film in my lifetime. (with the possible exception of Evey or a few other Nat Portman roles?)
More on all my theories in my blog.

Re: Elizabeth IS a Hero Still.

[qos.livejournal.com]

I guess I don't see her chaining Jack as "giving him a chance" to prove himself a good man, and I can't imagine how she would have expected him to die. I also don't believe she meant it when she said that she wasn't sorry. I think she was trying to mean it, but she was too full of guilt.

My own list of strongest women in film is topped by Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth. Also on the list are Michelle Yeoh in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Katherine Hepburn as Eleanor in The Lion in Winter, Catherine McCormack as Veronica Franco in Dangerous Beauty, Julia Ormond as Catherine the Great in Young Catherine, and Evey Hammond.

To me, Elizabeth is a young woman still figuring out what she wants. She's brave, yes. But not yet heroic, in my book.