Further thoughts on POTC, following a second viewing

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One more entry on Pirates, and then I'll talk about something else, I swear. I just wanted to share some reflections after watching all of the DVD commentaries (I'd only watched Keira and Jack before) and seeing the new movie a second time. The second viewing is very helpful, by the way. While the plot made sense the first time, seeing it again helps to clarify details and character motivations at any given time.

Anyway, watching the writer commentary I learned that the first movie is very unique in that it apparently has a protagonist (Elizabeth), a hero (Will), and a star (Jack) all at the same time, as different people. After watching the second movie it occurred to me (I'm kind of amazed that it never occurred to me before) that Elizabeth is actually the main character, and that carries over really well into the second movie. I felt really smart when the writer commentary confirmed this.

Elizabeth is the character whose journey we are following. She is the character who develops the most, and DMC is the logical continuation of her character's evolution. Every single thing that she does is in character, even the betrayal of Jack at the end. Some of that carries over from deleted scenes from the first movie, but it's all there in the scenes that remain, as well. The fundamental basis of Elizabeth Swann is established in the very first scene of CotBP. She is not a nice girl. She steals the pirate medallion from Will and then lies about it. She is a pirate. What these movies are about now, for her, is her coming to terms with that and discovering her place in the world.

Elizabeth and Jack really are very alike. What she wants more than anything... is freedom. In one of her interviews on the first DVD, Keira says something about Elizabeth that I find to be very true: she's a modern girl stuck in the eighteenth century. You hear people sometimes (myself included) say that they were born in the wrong era, they belong in the past. But just think how much worse it is to be born centuries behind when you should be. You wouldn't even know where you belong. It would be terribly lonely, disconnected. Here is Elizabeth Swann, confined by the corsetry and etiquette of the mid-eighteenth century (it's driving me crazy that I can't get a more exact date than that), "condemned to be a woman, barely fit to educate," and what she wants is freedom, but she doesn't know how to get it.

Naturally, she is fascinated by pirates. By the end of the first movie, she is completely disillusioned wiht them. Then her faith is restored by Will and, to an extent, Jack. So the second movie is about her finding the pirate within herself. She can't trust anybody but the pirates now, and she can't trust them any further than she can throw them. The corset is gone. Inhibitions start to fall away. She tastes freedom. And in the end she reveals herself for the pirate that she is. The only problem is, she hates what she has done.

What's great about DMC is that at the end of CotBP, you think you know who you can trust. And so, clearly, to Will and Elizabeth. And then they are proved completely wrong again, and they don't know who they can trust anymore. All of the characters evolve, but I find Elizabeth's evolution the most interesting.

Another thing that the writer commentary taught me is to have faith that Will and Elizabeth are going to end up together. Because, look: the second act of a trilogy is the part where everybody is at their lowest, and that's certainly the case for Will and Elizabeth's romance. And the end of the trilogy needs to be happy, and Will will not be happy if Elizabeth is with Jack. The writers are pretty clear that, from the beginning, Will and Elizabeth are set forth as The Couple. So, I'd say I'm 80% confident in their romance. Wow, I sound so confident there, I'm tempted to up it to 85%. 

Basically, I don't know what I'm trying to say with this entry. I just thought I'd ramble on for a bit. But I will say that every now and then I'm working on a thing called (in true eighteenth century style) "The Remarkable True Confessions of a Governor's Daughter: Her Strange and Fantastic Account of the Cursed Pirates of the Caribbean," which I may post parts of here in the future.

Also, do you like my icon? :)