Who knew pirates could be so fun to watch?

While trying to decide which Disney movie I would like to explore more in depth for this class, I rewatched Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the first movie of what would become an extremely popular series.  Like all movies of the action/adventure genre, I was discomforted by how impersonal violence and killing is in the movie.  When it occurred to a main character, it was a little more realistic, but for the most part, lots of horrendous acts were made and almost seem normal in the film.  This is obviously a trend across all Hollywood, but it is interesting that Disney, which is known for creating family-friendly films, decided to follow the lead as well.

Like I said in one of my previous blogs, Disney Pictures makes movies that sell, and sadly since violence sells so well in our modern culture, Disney was just making another smart business decision in creating this film.  I also realize that chances are, during that time period, pirates were not the most peaceful group of people to inhabit the earth.  And I will not lie; I really enjoy watching the Pirates of the Caribbean films, but not as much for the fight scenes as for the witty lines by Johnny Depp. That is why I enjoyed the Ocean’s Trilogy so much (although I realize they were not created by Disney), as the protagonists used brainpower over gun power to carry out their crimes. 

Following on what I was saying earlier, it is also interesting to note that there are very few instances where slaves are shown, although during that time period, sadly, slaves would have been a prominent part of the British Empire.  This shows another instance of how Disney made an economic decision over keeping to the historical facts, since it would make it much harder to enjoy the fun-natured Captain Jack Sparrow if audiences knew he was smuggling slaves across the Atlantic.  While it is fine to enjoy a movie like this, I think people should also make sure they are educated on topics like these, and don’t base their entire understanding of history on movies like these, since they tend to be fairly inaccurate.