A Reel 20: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL

“You best start believing in ghost stories, Miss Turner. You’re in one!”

This month marks the 20^th anniversary of PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL. 

 

A box office monster and Oscar nominee, BLACK PEARL was based on Walt Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean attractions at Disney theme parks. It follows pirate Captain Jack Sparrow and his uneasy alliance with blacksmith Will Turner as they seek to rescue Will’s love Elizabeth from the clutches of a supernatural crew of cursed pirates, led by Captain Barbossa. 

 

The voyage to bring BLACK PEARL to the screen began as far back as the early 1990’s, when screenwriters Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio were working on a way to bring supernatural elements into the pirate genre; a genre that had not seen major studio support since the infamous bomb CUTTHROAT ISLAND of 1995. After several stops and starts and script drafts which saw the supernatural elements removed and then put back in, BLACK PEARL finally set sail for real in 2002, with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski coming on board. 

 

For the casting of Captain Jack Sparrow, names such as Jim Carrey, Michael Keaton, and Christopher Walken were considered. Johnny Depp would eventually win the role. The rest of the cast was filled out by Orlando Bloom, Kiera Knightly, Geoffery Rush, Jonathan Pryce, and Jack Davenport. Zoe Saldana, years before her Marvel fame, appeared in one of her first film roles. Klaus Badelt would provide the score, and the famed Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), would handle the bulk of the demanding visual effects, which included complex CGI and model work. Filming began in 2002 in St. Vincent in the Caribbean. 

 

Upon release, BLACK PEARL would defy expectations and the reputation of CUTTHROAT ISLAND to be a box office hit, and would finish as the 4^th highest earner of the year. The film was praised for its trailblazing visual effects and Depp’s performance. Depp would win a SAG award, and earn Oscar and BAFTA nominations. The film would earn four other Oscar nominations: Best Makeup, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effects. BLACK PEARL would spawn four sequels, with the most recent being released in 2017. 

 

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When director Gore Verbinski took the helm of BLACK PEARL, he was attracted to the opportunity to resurrect a genre that had faded after the Golden Age of Hollywood; the swashbuckling romances that had a balance of action, adventure, and a grand sense of scale. Thanks to dazzling visual effects (that still hold up to this day, 20 years later), an inspired cast, and Verbinski’s eye for framing a perfect shot, BLACK PEARL accomplished all that and more. It strikes the right balance of action and humor, keeps the stakes high, and delivers everything that an audience looks for in a Summer blockbuster. 

In a larger viewport, BLACK PEARL shifted cinema and pop culture. It arrived in the early days of big-budget, effects-driven, long-term franchise filmmaking. In 2003 franchises such as HARRY POTTER, STAR WARS, and THE LORD OF THE RINGS were the only games in town. BLACK PEARL advanced things and paved the way for itself and future mega-franchises such as Marvel. In culture, kids wanted to be Captain Jack Sparrow for Halloween, and the character’s popularity was so big that Disney eventually inserted him into their theme park rides. But perhaps the greatest accomplishment of BLACK PEARL was rekindling the spirit of adventure for audiences. It made us want to cross swords with buccaneers, seek treasure, set sail, and uncork the rum. The anchor was lifted on our imaginations, and that’s what great movies do.

“Drink up me hearties, yo ho!”