Homework: AA Clip Genre Analysis

This is a clip from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl’, which is one of my favourite films. It is a long clip, but it is basically Will and Jack having a fight with swords, as Jack is a pirate and Will has been taught that Pirates are bad. Once they get over this misunderstanding, they become friends as Will needs Jack.



Narrative:
The Storyline fits in well with Toldorov’s structure. The plot summarized would be that the equilibrium is when Elizabeth is living in Port Royal and set to be engaged to James the Commodore whilst Will is making swords and Jack is a failing Pirate. The disruption occurs when Elizabeth is captured by Barbossa, who believes that her blood will free him and his crew of a curse which damns them to eternal life. However, it is Will’s blood that will make them mortal and Will and Jack steal a ship and find a crew to rescue her, which they do. The curse is also eventually lifted and Barbossa defeated. The restoration happens after Jack escapes execution and goes off to lead his crew, Elizabeth escapes marrying James and is set to marry Will, who is pardoned of his crimes.
Naturally, it being an AA film, there are many sword fights, cannon fights and destructive explosions.
There is also the typical scenario of the girl needing to be rescued and, to an extent, good vs. evil, as Barbossa and his crew’s skeleton forms could have demonic conatations.

Characters:

Examples of Propp’s archetypal characters, with conventional AA traits, are common in the film.

Princess- Elizabeth. She is beautiful and well mannered, due to her privileged upbringing. However she is brave, strong and not a bad fighter. She needs to be rescued and id the love interest of Will.
Hero- Will. He is good looking, brave, determined, intelligent and strong/good at sword fighting. His has to save the girl.
Helper- Jack. He is good looking (but in a less conventional way), funny, talented at pirate skills and eccentric. Although he helps Will, he has his own ambition of getting a boat and crew, which he achieves.
False Hero– James the Commodore. With his high status and power, the audience may expect him to be the hero, but he is mean to pirates and Elizabeth isn’t interested in him, so he is not the hero.
Villain- Barbossa. He is arrogant and will hurt others for personal gain but he also has a back story to do with Jack and the curse. His role is to be beaten by Will and Jack (but is actually killed by Jack, as they have a history).
Princesses Father- Elizabeth’s dad. He is a governor who loves his daughter, but favors James over Will in terms of being a future husband. He is not very brave.

Iconography:
The film contains a lot of swords, pistols, heaps of gold treasure, chains, bottles of rum and other things you’d find on a boat (like ropes and stuff). There is also the necklace and Jack’s iconic broken compass.
The pirate and British army costumes are also iconography, especially Jacks hat and Elizabeth’s corset.
The colours and lighting are pretty extreme in this film, it is usually very bright, white, natural light in the day, with dazzling white beaches and the sun’s reflection almost blindingly bright off silver swords or turquoise waves (it is the Caribbean). However, at night the colours are often dark grays and blacks, with low key lighting usually flickering from fires, which often connotes violence.

Setting:
The setting of this film is very exotic and exciting (it’s the Caribbean). It ranges from large ports, with rowdy bars, lonely jails or the posh house of the governor, to the high seas, on either a pirates ship, full of excitement and pirate behavior, or a ship from the British navy fleet, which is a lot more boring and orderly. There are beautiful desert islands, which have perfect white sand, sun and palm trees yet are desolate and isolated and the treasure cave, with sharp, grey rocks, piles of gold and pools of water which are black at night, it by moonlight and fire.