You’ll always remember this as the day …

[Disclaimer: here be spoilers]

Chases; escapes [murder by pirates] … true love … no not the Princess Bride, but the Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. There is a lot of the Princess Bride about this film; it’s a fairly simple story, told vividly, with ‘characters’. You’ve got Jack Sparrow [wait: sorry Captain Jack Sparrow]. His mannerisms, his accent and his lines stay with you long after you finish watching the film. Ms Swann; Will Turner; and the Commodore (that has to be the worst pirate I have ever seen), and the sailors on the Black Pearl, and the crew Sparrow finds. Even as I write this review little bits of dialogue and sequences of action float through my head. That is to me the mark of a good film, a good film is memorable … the characters, the dialogue, stay in your mind.

The plot in brief: the film begins with a dream sequence, Ms Swann, dreams of how she came to be in possession of the medallion she is wearing. [on a voyage across the ocean, they rescue a boy after the Pearl had attacked his ship]. Fast forward back to the present, and Capt. Sparrow enters, tries to steal, sorry commandeer, a ship, to pillage and plunder on the high seas…We then are introduced to Will [as a grown man – a blacksmith by trade, so he can run through any pirates who cross his path], the Sailors of the Black Pearl [attracted by the medallion] …

Capt Sparrow and Will Turner unite to chase after Ms Swann, who offers herself that the pirates would leave.

The curse; was on the gold (of which the medallion is but one piece), and it means that the pirates will not die

But the greed of Cortez was insatiable. So the heathen gods placed upon the gold a terrible curse. Any mortal that removes but a piece from that stone chest shall be punished for eternity.

For too long I've been parched of thirst and unable to quench it. Too long I've been starving to death and haven't died. I feel nothing. Not the wind on my face nor the spray of the sea. Nor the warmth of a woman's flesh.

Geoffrey Rush is brilliant as Barbossa; and Johnny Depp was likewise excellent as Jack Sparrow...

Though it is not designed as a morality play or tale; [Perhaps that’s a trait I have, no longer reading words; but seeking to read meaning]; I kind of read it as a post-modern play, in that action is seen in the light of motivation, and therefore any action can be right. Piracy, may at times, be the right course of action.

There was also a novel twist in that though Will was in competition with the Commodore for Elizabeth; the commodore says... [In reference to the blade Will had made] – I’d expect the man who made it to be devoted in the other areas of his life too; which was a beaut ending. Even a happily ever after ending: Jack gets his ship; Will gets the girl; and the Commodore gets a Pirate to chase … well I suppose Captain Barbossa would be disinclined to acquiesce to my comment …

And remember if you should be so lucky to meet a pirate – the rules… are more like guidelines anyway … and also, another one of my morality quips; not all treasure is silver and gold. There is a thought here … what's our treasure ...

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UPDATE: On Gerrold’s blog there are now three pieces dealing with the nature of Evil - very interesting reading.