Ahoy, Mateys!

This weekend I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, twice. All through the week, I had been watching, nigh continuously, the first two movies, getting ready for the third one, and making sure that all the in-jokes, subplots, mysteries and motivations were fresh in my mind. Nevertheless, it took me two viewings to feel like I had a proper grasp on it, and I feel sure that I will go to see it again, soon.

Now, since I saw it twice, I think it is safe to say that I liked it. I thought the ending was nifty. Besides serving as a rather fitting conclusion to the series, it also leaves almost limitless potential if they decide to make any more. (Spoilers Ahoy!) All of the characters are completely separate, which means that they could be brought back in any combination.

First off, they completely wrapped up the story of a Elizabeth and Will, meaning those actors don't have to return for any possible sequels, since it could be assumed neither character runs into any of the other characters ever again. Though on the other hand, since Elizabeth is still Pirate King, and Will is Davy Jones/Charon, so it's conceivable that Jack could run into either of them at some point, go on an adventure with one, or just bump into one on the way to some other adventure. (Jack gets hauled before the Pirate Court! Jack dies and makes a deal with Will Turner to return to the land of the living!) Still, I doubt this could happen, as Knightley and Bloom are probably the two actors who desire most to move on from the movies.

Meanwhile, the crew of the Black Pearl has deserted Jack, and there seems to possibly be a mutiny dwelling, which means that they could conceivably bring back the Black Pearl, and depending on whether they can get Geoffrey Rush back or not, they can say that there has been a mutiny against him between the movies, and the crew could seek out Jack to resume his command. Or, hunt him down under Barbossa's command to regain the map.

Gibbs is hanging out at Tortuga, which means he can return, whether or not the Pearl and the rest of it's crew does.

And of course, Jack is off in a dingy, searching for the fountain of youth. Now, the series at this point basically is Captain Jack Sparrow, and—what fortuitous circumstance be this!—Depp seems to be the actor most interested in possibly returning to this world (minus the character actors, I bet, who would appreciate the work), so I think it is safe to say that any possible sequel will be based around this character's exploits. But because all the other characters are off away from him, it's quite possible for him to run into any of the characters, for any conceivable plotline. And of course, because he is last seen searching for the fountain of youth, he could easily be thrown forward in time—let's say he found it, aye?

One other thing I thought of was, I really have to give the screenwriters credit for the Davy Jones mythology. Jones serves as a pretty apt example of the nature of most devil characters in mythology. He begins as kind of lord of the underworld, ferrying souls lost at sea to the other world. Then, he gives up his role, and takes to terrorizing mankind and forcing them to make deals in exchange for their souls, either making them demons, like himself, or consigning him to the locker, or hell. Historically, most depictions of demons are based on old pagan masters of the underworld, or lords of natural elements—Hades, Pan, Cernunnos—shift and become images of evil as new cultures take over. As the Elemental forces, represented by Kalypso, are debased by Man, they view the things represented by the old Pagan gods and evil. Thus, as Kalypso is bound by Man, that is brought low and debased, her consort, the ferryman, becomes a monster, a skeleton, or an agent of evil. The mythology that the screenwriters have cobbled together is an excellent work of, as Joseph Campbell would say, creative mythology, and pretty accurately mythologizes just what the end period that Pirates movies is set in—a Once Upon the Age of Enlightenment—represents, when, as Cutler Beckett said, the "immaterial is now immaterial."

It was, of course, right after this period, that the Romantic Period set in, which brought about the Gothic Novel, and the Horror Novel. And the screenwriters, on the DVD commentary for the first Pirates movie, said that these stories where intended as a Romance. The Pirate Genre can be understood as a nostalgic genre searching for that time right before modernization, when people could have the freedom to just set out on adventure, of live in their own, idealized worlds, exactly the way Captain Jack Sparrow does. And the movies know this. They are a post-modern work, commenting upon why people like pirate movies, or pirate stories. Because, there is a part of all of us, or at least most of us, that longs for that kind of freedom, the freedom that is represented by the sea, by adventure, and they, in the world of multinational corporations, and governments with social security numbers, and the Internal Revenue Service and industrialization, longs to just Set Out, and Get Away From It All. As Captain Jack says in the first Pirates, while stranded on a beach—a situation that bears a striking resemblance to two wildly popular televisions shows, and accurately encapsulates the drawbacks and pulls of those very desired freedoms—"What a ship really is, what the Black Pearl really is, is freedom."

This is probably why the movies are so wildly popular, and why not matter how often reviewers talk about the confusing plots or muddled characterizations or the loud sense-numbing action sequences, people will still want to see these movies. I still want to see these movies. Because we all want to be Pirates, whether they sailed the Seven Seas or not.