Pirate movie

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Movie poster for " The Black Pirate " ( The Black Pirate , 1926)

A pirate film is a film that is set between the 17th and 19th centuries and in which pirates , buccaneers , privateers or corsairs play an important role, sometimes as main or title characters. The pirate film genre can be viewed as a sub-genre of adventure film alongside westerns , sandal films , knight films , coat and sword films and also the samurai film . Overlapping genres - even with period films  - are not unusual, but rather normal, which is not least due to the ambiguous definition of the word " pirate ".

The pirate film is one of the oldest film genres. The first successful pirate film was the silent film The Pirate with Douglas Fairbanks Sr. from 1926, which was even shot in two-color Technicolor .

History of the pirate film

In 1943 the great phase of the pirate film was heralded with the birth of the genre with the Oscar-winning film " The Pirate " (USA, 1943). The development then headed for the climax in 1953. Before that, the topic of pirates and everything else could be heard in over 14 silent films. In 1953 alone, over 10 pirate films were produced for the cinema. It is said that the pirate film genre peaked with Errol Flynn , which it could not achieve in all those years up to 2003. All of the major productions of the 1980s and 1990s were considered flops. It wasn't until Gore Verbinski's “ Pirates of the Caribbean ” in 2003 that a real hit came about . The film production was looked at in advance with more than skepticism, but it achieved a success that resulted in four sequels.

Historical references

The fate of historical pirates is often portrayed in the films, who from the 17th to the 19th century made the Caribbean or the Indian Ocean unsafe or who crossed the African coast. The historically halfway correct pirate films are also very romanticized. In 1966 , director Sergio Bergonzelli made a two-part film about the historical corsair Robert Surcouf with Gérard Barray in the lead role, who competed against the English at the time of Napoleon. Yul Brynner played the Frenchman Jean Laffite in the 1958 film " King of the Buccaneer " ( The Buccaneer ) , who stood by the Americans in the 1812 battle for New Orleans.

Director Michael Curtiz goes even further back in time with the film " The Lord of the Seven Seas " ( The Sea Hawk , 1940), in which Errol Flynn competes against the Spaniards at the time of Queen Elizabeth I , although the film does not include any represents a historically guaranteed figure, but takes up the actual raids of the English on Spanish ships at the time.

The English naval hero Francis Drake was also regarded as a pirate by the French and Spaniards in his time and so he is also the hero in several film adaptations, such as in " Pirate of the Seven Seas " ( Il Dominatore dei sette mari , 1962), played by Rod Taylor , and particularly in a 1961 multi-part television series portrayed by Terence Morgan .

However, most pirate films tell fictitious stories that either relate to novel (best known example: " Treasure Island " by Robert Louis Stevenson ), or were written as the original for a film. Here, too, differences are noticeable in the synopsis. On the one hand, there are films that take up historical facts, such as in " Unter Piratenflagge " ( Captain Blood , also by Michael Curtiz and again with Errol Flynn), in which an English doctor is sent into exile for allegedly supporting rebels and himself then turns to the pirates to get revenge, on the other hand, films are written for pure entertainment value, without detailed historical background, such as from more recent times in " Pirates of the Caribbean " ( The Curse of the Black Pearl , 2003).

Characterizations

The pirates are often portrayed in the films as villains who stand in the hero's way, be it through robberies or kidnappings. Sometimes pirates are also portrayed as popular figures; mostly in comedies , such as in the Disney film " Käpt'n Blackbeards Spuk-Kaschemme " ( Blackbeard's Ghost , 1968) with Sir Peter Ustinov , where the pirate then takes on the type of the sympathetic antihero (in contrast to the historically real pirate Blackbeard ).

In addition to comedy, the pirate film can also be represented in other film genres, for example in children's films ( Pippi in Taka-Tuka-Land ) ( Pippi Långstrump på de sju haven , 1970).

Genre crossings

Pirate films can for the most part be classified in the adventure film genre . Often it is also about literary adaptations . Stories and books about pirates had been a widely used medium for storytelling, be it fiction or non-fiction , for many decades and even centuries before the first pirate film . Authors such as Rafael Sabatini , Emilio Salgari , Pierre Nord, Sy Bartlett, Paul Wheeler, Daphne du Maurier , Peter Benchley , Frank Yerby, Iris Vinton, Frank G. Slaughter, Robert Gaillard, Jules Verne , and probably best known, Robert Louis Stevenson , Their stories provided templates for scripts in the pirate film genre.

But also comedy or romance films are often combined with the pirate film genre. The following are examples of comedies: the silent film "Clothes Make the Pirate" from 1925, " Das Korsarenschiff " (USA 1944), " Pirates of the Caribbean " (USA, 2003), " Dotterbart " (USA, 1983) , “The King's Pirate” (USA, 1966), “Pirates of Madagascar” (France) and Roman Polański's “ Pirates ” from 1985/86. The following films can be booked under the mixture of pirate and love films: “The Pirate and the Lady” (USA, 1944), “King of the Pirates” (USA, 1953), “The Anglerfish of Cartagena” (USA, 1945) and " Pirates of Tortuga " (USA, 1961).

The pirate film is rarely seen in combination as a musical , but this can also happen, for example with the films “Abbott and Costello among pirates” (USA, 1952), “ The Pirate ” (USA, 1948, with Gene Kelly ) or "Pirate Movie" (Australia, 1981).

The operetta "The Pirates of Penzance" by William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan was used as a template for several scripts.

Since the early 1960s, one has now and then found children's and youth films that, without being able to be assigned to the pirate film genre, contain pirates as a theme or even heroes, especially since the 1990s, and then sometimes as cartoons , like the revival of the GDR comic cult characters " Abrafaxe " in the full-length cartoon " The Abrafaxe - Under Black Flag " (FRG, 2001) or the French cartoon " The Pirate Island of Black Mor " (France, 2003). The children's film " Matusalem - Der Fluch des Piraten " (Canada 1993) was particularly successful and won the LUCAS at the 20th International Children's Film Festival in 1994 in Frankfurt am Main , along with other prizes . Examples of youth films in the pirate genre are “ The Pirates of the Pacific ” (Romania / France, 1973), “ Pirates of Darkness ” (USA, 1962) and “ Island of the Last Pirates ” (Australia, 1990).

Pirate films from Germany

Much of the pirate and adventure films come from the US, followed by Italy, France, Spain and the UK.

But there are also some pirate films from Germany. One of the first is the silent film Störtebeker from 1919, followed by the silent film Pietro der Korsar und Moderne Piraten 1928. Germany was often involved in the films in cooperation with other countries, such as the films: Venus der Piraten (Italy / FRG , 1960), Under the flag of the privateers (Spain / Italy / FRG, 1960) or pack of the damned (Italy / Spain / France / FRG, 1964). A contemporary collaboration can be found in the docudrama Blackbeard - The True Curse of the Caribbean (GB / FRG, 2005/2006).

In 2006 one could experience the first television production of a pirate film from Germany. The two-part television film Störtebeker , which was presented at Easter 2006 and filmed the life of the German pirate Klaus Störtebeker , shows u. a. computer-animated ships, windy backdrops on the coast of the Curonian Spit and an adventure romance.

Directors and actors

Many well-known directors tried their hand at pirate films or at least the elements. Including Alfred Hitchcock , Michael Curtiz and Roman Polański .

Some of the directors were real specialists in pirate films. The Italian Domenico Paolella made five pirate films, as did Luigi Capuano and Primo Zeglio .

As an actor, many well-known stars have been seen on the screen as pirates or antagonists, for example Johnny Depp , Burt Lancaster , Anthony Quinn , Yul Brynner , Errol Flynn , Maureen O'Hara , Geena Davis or Terence Hill .

Lex Barker made six pirate films after his Tarzan films and before his Winnetou films , such as B. " Coast of the Pirates " in 1960 or " Robin Hood and the Pirates ", also in 1960.

Locations

In addition to special studios for water recordings, there are special areas and locations that have been and are chosen as locations and locations for pirate and adventure films.

For the film Cutthroat Island were Mediterranean Film Studios in Malta selected. In this studio you will find the largest water tanks in the world that can hold entire ships. Malta was also chosen because it offers unspoilt nature and architecture that has been preserved for hundreds of years. The last 40 minutes of the film, the scenes that take place on Cutthroat Island , were shot in Phuket , Thailand . The landscape was decisive for this selection. The director literally fell in love with the exotic jungle, the white sandy beaches and the azure blue waters of the Andaman Sea .

But also on Lake Garda , near Peschiera del Garda , there was a special area between 1958 and 1966 in which around 12 pirate films were shot. The Nautical Film Center was founded by Walter Bertolazzi and was close to medieval bridges and castles. For example, the films The Son of the Red Corsair (1959), Coast of the Pirates (1960), The Adventures of the Skull Pirates ( 1961), The Black Brigant (1961), Alone Against the Buccaneers (1965) and 1966 were made with ZDF here - Adventure four-parter Die Schatzinsel the last work, as the ships belonging to the studio, including a replica of a Spanish galley, were destroyed in a storm.

For the television production Störtebeker (BR Germany, 2006), stormy weather, in this case on the Lithuanian Baltic coast of the Curonian Spit , was decisive for the chosen atmosphere. There were no problems with the ships, they were created in the computer. But the film was also shot in the towns of Kaunas , Rusnė at the Memel estuary , Sventoj, Klaipėda and the Trakai Castle .

Other locations for pirate films:

Age ratings

Pirate films are very often subject to the age rating from 12, less often from 18, just as rarely from 6. However, critics accuse the voluntary self-regulation of the film industry, which is responsible for the age rating, of judging more in the interests of the film industry, since an increased age rating can reduce income.

The few pirate films with an age rating of 18 and over include the films: Alcaptar (FRG, 1978), Fight on Death Island (Italy / Spain / Switzerland / USA, 1987/88), Pirates of the 20th Century (USSR, 1979) and Slave of the pirate island (France / Italy 1959).

literature

  • Bodo Traber, Hans J. Wulff (Ed.): Adventure film. Reclam, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-15-018404-5 .
  • Theo Bender, Hans J. Wulff (Hrsg.): Lexikon des Films. Bender Verlag, Mainz 2002, ISSN  1610-420X .
  • Thomas Koebner (Ed.): Reclams Sachlexikon des Films. Philipp Reclam jr., Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-15-010495-5 .
  • Wolfgang Tichy (Ed.): Rororo Filmlexikon. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek 1978, ISBN 3-499-16228-8 .
  • Aleta-A. von Holzen: “A Pirates' Life for Me!” From “The Black Pirate” to “Pirates of the Caribbean” - adventure concepts in pirate films. SSI, Zurich 2007, ISBN 978-3-9521172-4-8 .
  • Lexicon of International Films . 2001, CD-Rom. Online version
  • Adolf Heinzlmeier, Bernd Schulz; Collaboration with Dieter Erb: Lexicon Films on TV: 8500 feature films TV - video - cable. 2nd ext. Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990.
  • Eugen Pfister: "What did you say your occupation was? - I'm a grog swilling, foul-smelling pirate!" The pirate image in 'old' and 'new' media In: Andreas Obenaus, Eugen Pfister and Birgit Tremml (eds.): Terror of the traders and rulers: Pirate communities in history . Mandelbaum, Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-85476-403-8

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