Good v Evil: Captain Phillips

No doubt Captain Phillips was a true hero, risking his life and making some wise and daring decisions to save the men on his crew when they were overtaken by a gang of 5 Somali pirates, and the Greengrass-Tom Hanks movie does a great job conveying the tensions aboard the ship, seen almost completley from Phillips's POV. The movie, for better or for worse, is almost entirely about him - very little about the crew, even less about the rescuers or the stateside support, almost nothing about his family. In other words, it's a straight-out adventure movie, so if you like that kind of thing - lots of beatings, guns being held to captives' temples or foreheads, and finally an incredibly long assault by Navy Seals on the small lifeboat where the Somalis are holding Phillips captive, then go for it. To me, the film is admirably made - and I for one like that Greengrass did show us a little bit about the Somali pirates the deprivation from which they came - but too long, too assaultive, and in some ways too obvious. We see Phillips suffer, but we don't understand exactly how he was rescued or for that matter why there was no protection aboard his ship sailing along the Somali coast. Can't help but compare this movie with the much-less known and, to me, much smarter and in a way tenser Danish film, A Hijacking - which actually focuses on the shipowner back in Europe and the decisions he has to make in negotiating with the captives - really examines the moral dilemmas in a far more intelligent way than CP, which is about good v evil in a pretty formulaic manner. A good film for what it is, with one fine acting performance and a lot of technical bravura, but it's just a step removed Armageddon or Iron Man. If you like that sort of thing, go for it.