CAST: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, Mahat M. Ali, Michael Chernus, Corey Johnson, Max Martini…
DIRECTOR: Paul Greengrass
The wary and by-the-book person Captain Phillips reaches Salalah, Oman, to take charge of the container ship Maersk Alabama carrying emergency aid for East Africa among other cargo to Kenya in Africa.
On board the ship, he carefully checks security and safety procedures after being routinely warned about the unsafe waters he would be sailing in. In fact, he insists that his men have a mock drill just to be prepared.
Simultaneously, on the shore of Ely in Somalia, in a scene so reminiscent of Vittorio de Sica’s “Bicycle Thieves” a group of young impoverished khat chewing fishermen are being recruited by rifle toting goons as pirates. After the selections, two motor boats with a crew of four each set sail in search of their prey. Soon they are tailing the Maersk Alabama.
What follows is a battle of wits between Phillips and the pirates. There’s an unusual reverence and understanding between Muse (Barkhad Abdi), the leader of the pirates and Phillips throughout this ordeal that fuels the tension.
Director Paul Greengrass astutely balances the narration by staying neutral till the very end. He has ensured that the account is not over dramatised. He has taken pains to see that neither the captain nor the US Navy are glorified and nor are the pirates condemned or portrayed as some heinous beings.
Humour comes in the form of the staccato one-liners like, “Shut up Irish, too