Wednesday, November 6, 2013

"Based on a True Story," Part 1

Captain Phillips

Captain Phillips is about a 2009 incident in which an American cargo ship, the Maersk Alabama, was boarded in the Indian Ocean by four armed Somali pirates who held Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) and his crew hostage, demanding millions of dollars in ransom. When a U. S. Navy destroyer, the USS Bainbridge, and a frigate, the USS Halyburton, came to the Maersk's rescue, the pirates took Phillips aboard a lifeboat to transport him to Somalia. Phillips was eventually rescued by Navy SEALS, who killed three of the four pirates. Their leader, Muse (Barkhad Abdi) had been tricked into boarding the Bainbridge to “negotiate” with the Navy. He is now serving a 34-year sentence for kidnapping.


Captain Phillips is a traditional American military propaganda film. Ever since World War II, Hollywood and the Pentagon have had a mutually advantageous arrangment. In order to make the film appear realistic, the filmmakers need access to military equipment, locations and personnel. In exchange, the film studios are required to give the military final script approval.

Since the film was adapted from A Captain's Duty, Captain Phillips' book about the incident, he behaves admirably throughout. If reality, he is being sued for $50 million by members of his crew for “willful, wanton and conscious disregard for their safety.” The Maersk was boarded 240 nautical miles (nm) from the Somali coast, after being warned by the U. S. Maritime Administration to stay at least 600 nm from Somalia due to the danger of piracy. It would be interesting to know whether real or imagined pressure from the ship's owners to take the shortest route played a role in his decision.


It's likely that Tom Hanks has already cleared his February calendar in preparation for his next Oscar nomination. The director, Paul Greenglass, is known for his technically competent, exciting semi-documentary action movies. His previous films include Bloody Sunday (about a 1972 British army massacre of Irish protesters), United 93, and The Green Zone (about the Iraq War). He excels at describing what happened, but carefully avoids questions about why. 

The film makes no serious attempt to explain the motives of the Somali pirates. All we get are some opening scenes set in a poor village and a line of dialogue from Muse about there not being as much economic opportunity in Somalia as in America. It would be interesting to know more about the relationship between the four pirates and the Somali bosses from whom they take instructions. At one point, Muse boasts that he extorted $6 million during a previous act of piracy. Phillips asks the obvious question, “Then why are you here?” This potentially interesting point is not pursued.

In the absence of an explanation of the behavior of the Somalis, it is likely that the audience will assimilate this film to the racist narrative of Hollywood's traditional melodrama in defense of colonialism—the one about, for example, the wagon train under attack by hordes of mindless Indians. In this story, the “human beings,” i. e., white people, are presented as victims of an attack by “aliens,” i. e., people of color, who are presented as the embodiment of pure evil. This narrative was used successfully in a previous film about Somalia, Black Hawk Down.

In the last third of the film, we are treated to one of the oldest cliches of the colonialism melodrama: The arrival of the cavalry just in time to rescue the trapped settlers. Cue the patriotic music. Presumably, the audience is expected to cheer as two heavily armed battleships take to the high seas to attack a lifeboat containing four emaciated Somalis. “We're number one!”

The only dischordant note occurs when the captain of the Bainbridge is told that he is not, under any circumstances, to allow the lifeboat to reach the Somali coast. In other words, Captain Phillips' life is to be sacrificed rather than to allow this to develop into a more serious international incident. Fortunately, that was not necessary.

The clearest example of the role of military script approval in preparing this film is the portrayal of the Navy SEALS who came to Captain Phillips' rescue. The film shows the SEALS, who have a reputation for excellent marksmanship, killing three men with (by my count) four shots. Imagine my surprise when I read that, in reality, 19 rounds were fired. Shocking!

But that's not all. There was $30,000 aboard the lifeboat, money that Phillips took from the ship's safe and gave the kidnappers in the hope they would take it and leave. This money disappeared and was never recovered. The kidnappers were all dead. Captain Phillips was exhausted, injured and helpless. The most likely explanation is that it was stolen either by SEALS or other naval personnel who boarded the lifeboat. The Navy investigated the incident, giving polygraph tests to several individuals. They concluded that there was insufficient evidence to bring charges against anyone and, according to the Navy, “The case was ultimately closed without evidence of wrongdoing.”

The incidents that are left out of “true stories” are sometimes more interesting than those that are included.

You may also be interested in reading:

"Based on a True Story," Part 2

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