After watching the thriller “Captain Phillips” based on real events (front-end actors: T. Hanks, B. Abdi, B. Abdirahman), it seems that director Paul Greengrass re-invented the action-packed genre in the movie.
Creators
The fact that the plot of the film “Captain Phillips” (Captain Phillips, 2013) will be saturated with high-class action can be understood by seeing the name of the director. The fact is that Oscar-winning director Paul Greengrass is known to a wide audience for his previous successful projects, in which there was more than enough action: Ultimatum and Bourne Supremacy, Bloody Sunday, Lost Flight, Do Not Take Alive ". Therefore, it is not surprising that he, one of the most significant among the producers, Scott Rudin, entrusted the film adaptation of a story based on real events that narrated the treacherous attack of pirates from a Somali village on Alabama. By the way, the actors were also selected by him. Captain Phillips was filmed for only two months. Almost the entire filming process took place on the high seas. Paul Greengrass basically did not resort to computer graphics and special visual effects. The US Navy provided all possible support to the creators of the film, so the marines and destroyers were real. Actors were not involved in extras at all. "Captain Phillips" became the film debut for a large number of US Navy personnel.
Philosophical Action
Paul Greengrass offered the public a solid film, a kind of “social action with a philosophical bias” - this is how the actors involved in working on the project positioned the picture in their interviews. "Captain Phillips" captures the attention of equally any inexperienced viewer, and world film critics, members of the American Film Academy. Therefore, several nominations for the Oscar for this anti-piracy saga could not be avoided. Moreover, the film could be nominated for an Oscar not only in terms of sound, editing, acting, but also camera work. The operator of the picture was filming almost all the projects of Greengrass and Katherine Bigelow, a permanent ally of Ken Loach, the British Briton Barry Ackroyd. A professional in his field became an ideal guide for the viewer along the corridors of a huge ship, managed to confuse everyone looking, to catch up with fear, looking his exhibits into the soul. Not only the director, but also the actors listened to his advice. "Captain Phillips" would not have been so impressive without the direct involvement of Bigelow.
Plot
The plot of the movie thriller “Captain Phillips”, the actors and roles of which are matched perfectly to each other, introduces the viewer to the main character - seasoned American sailor Richard Phillips (actor Tom Hanks). He is the captain of a huge cargo ship, on board of which there are one hundred tons of commercial cargo and twenty humanitarian. The ship moves along the coast of the African continent. Passing along the coast of Somalia, the ship is attacked by heavily armed pirates moving in two boats. Americans and Somalis are not inclined to organize a bloody massacre, but in just a couple of hours they will fight each other not for life, but for death. First, the crew of the ship with pirates, after - the captain with four Somalis, at the end of the four pirates against the entire armada of the US Navy. Such a tragic story in the processing of a creative group of scriptwriters (B. Ray, Richard Phillips and Stefan Talty) was told in the thriller “Captain Phillips” by the actors.
Primary nerve
The main nerve in Greengrass’s project was the psychological duel of two captains: the American Phillips (Hanks) and the Somali Musa (Abdi). According to the director, both heroes are equally victims of the circumstances. The actors of the film “Captain Phillips”, who played the leading roles, have different experiences: Tom Hanks is a professional actor of world renown, and Barkhad Abdi is a debutant who emigrated to the United States Somali.
Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks no longer looks like a glossy and glamorous artsy movie star - plunged, aged. However, with an admiring degree of psychological immersion, he plays the role of captain of a cargo tanker, captured by exhausted, angry, especially dangerous pirates.
Having started his film career in the 80s with participation in family comedies, the actor received real recognition and two Oscars in the 90s for playing the main roles in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. Having gained two statuettes in a row, Tom turned into a real national hero. In the thriller Greengrass, according to a number of eminent film critics, the actor created the best dramatic image from the time of "Outcast". The actor’s surname was included in all the lists of the following Oscar applicants, without exception, but as a result, Tom Hanks did not enter the final shortlist.
Barkhad Abdi
Oscar applicants also included an American film actor of Somali origin Barkhad Abdi, who showed an enviable dramatic form, perfectly playing the quiet and violent despair of the pirate leader Abduvali Muse. As the performer of the best supporting actor, he was nominated not only for an Oscar, but also received nominations for BAFTA and Golden Globe awards.
Currently, Barkhad Abdi is busy filming his own movie Ciyaalka Xaafada, before that he shot several music videos, trying on the role of a video maker.
Despite the name of the picture and the national treasure in the person of the great actor in the title role, the director refrains from the temptation to talk only about Hanks. “Captain Phillips” is not a movie of one hero. The director simply successfully draws parallels between civilized and brutalized people due to the circumstances.