Captain Phillips

Film (2013)

With Tom Hanks (Captain Richard Phillips), Barkhad Abdi (Muse), Barkhad Abdirahman (Bilal), Faysal Ahmed (Najee), Mahat M. Ali (Elmi), Michael Chernus (Shane Murphy), Catherine Keener (Andrea Phillips)

We all know that Tom Hanks can portray the heroic man in the street better than almost anyone and do it with both a sense of gravitas and a twinkle in his eye. A genuine nobility radiates from Hanks and, while maintaining a common touch, he naturally lends great dignity to his roles.

Here he plays a guy who has to maintain his cool through the torment of protecting his ship and his crew when attacked by pirates, and then preserving himself when taken hostage by them. Hanks succeeds admirably in conveying this aura of composure amidst horror, but, when the time comes, gives, as well, a compelling and heartrending account of the vivid after-effects of the trauma.

Hanks is great, but he is almost always great at what he does well, which is exactly this sort of thing.

The unexpected standout in this film is Barkhad Abdi (Muse), who plays a terrifying pirate. His performance is completely convincing because he is so deftly able to present his character as though he were both a highly intelligent guerilla leader and a complete lunatic in a state of panic. Abdi and his fellow pirates, Barkhad Abdirahman (Bilal), Faysal Ahmed (Najee), and Mahat M. Ali (Elmi), convey a very real and scary simulation of what this terrified and terrifying mind-set is like.

In the midst of the pure suspense, there are some allusions to the larger social context in which this event occurs. A comment here or there suggests the hopelessness of the life of average Somalis and the economic and social pressures that lead young and desperate men to piracy. Allusions to the overarching expectations from powerful war lords abound, though we do not actually see any of them. Though the film itself focuses on the pirate attack and the abduction, this larger social landscape is intermittently, but powerfully, suggested.

A film short nominated for an Oscar in 2013, Asad, directed by Bryan Buckley, is also about Somalis and piracy. In its 18 minutes, however, it gives such a rich social and moral perspective on the issue from the Somali point of view that one sees vividly through multiple layers of social fabric and gets a riveting sense of the heartbreaking complexity of the culture. Do try to see it if you can. It is, at the very least, an extremely helpful supplement to Captain Phillips, which, though well done, is primarily a suspense film. And, apart from its background interest, Asad is a really great film in its own right.

– BADMan