I saw At World's End again this morning, by myself, and just now is the first chance I've had to sit down at the computer. But alas, it is late and I am sick and so I shall again be brief, but come back again soon with a much more better post.
I LOVED it. I'm SO glad I saw it again by myself. I have quite a thing about other people's opinion of things which makes it nigh impossible for me to absorb something alongside someone else. I am too concerned with what *they* are thinking of it so just take it in for myself. Ergo, it is always better for me to see films on my own.
I LOVED the wedding scene and was awestruck and impressed by *part of* the Calypso transformation, both of which surprised me. I think Merlin's ideas about both those things in his comment helped. :-)
I'm still not entirely convinced by the locker scene, I guess I just have a hunch that it could have gone further in exploring just *why* Jack so hates the idea of spending eternity with only himself for company. Oh and I think I've reversed my opinion on the body-double issue. The body in question (the Jack that gets stabbed) didn't look terribly un-Johnny-like at all this time. I think I was wrong about that.
Keira impressed me more than annoyed me. I still noticed plenty of issues with the tension in her face, but there were quite a few moments when I really believed her and liked the choices she'd made. The scene with her father, for example. I cried.
Oh let me just point out that I cried about fifty times. Beginning from that young boy's first steps onto the [what's the word for the platform they use to hang people? - EDIT - GALLOWS!] at the beginning.
Some WONDERFUL acting from Johnny. One moment I noticed in particular was when he and Barbossa are on the beach next to the dead Kraken. Jack is contemplating whether to join the fight or avoid it, and he thinks on what the world's coming to. There is some delicious uncertainty and fear and sadness in Johnny's eyes in those moments, especially as he says "The world's the same; there's just less in it." (cue another teary moment for Sumara!)
And again when he has Jones' heart, about to stab it, when Will is stabbed, and Jack hesitates with the heart. Just a small moment but reveals so much about Captain Jack's character.
I totally love Jack and Elizabeth's relationship. We see them as really great friends who trust one another despite so many apparent reasons not to, who depend on one another and , literally, cling to one another when they need to.
Ok that'll have to do for today. I can't remember any of the other things I so urgently wanted to mention... I'll remember them at about 2.30am, no doubt.
*Ooh, remembered one thing - I'm loving the score. Gorgeous music! Somebosy buy me that soundtrack!!!
Merlin, thanks for your awesome comment. I promise I will address more of what you mentioned, in the next few days.
Connor - I'm hanging out to hear more of what you thought, too. :-)
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2 comments:
Sumara,
glad to be of help :)
I liked what you said about Jack's difficulty in living with only himself for eternity ... totally connects up with Teague's statement "It's never been just about living forever, Jackie, it's being able to live with yourself ... forever"(I laughed so much with happiness and goosebumps when I saw Richards in the movie ... I have heard and read some who used the original thing of Johnny basing Jack on Richards as a put down on whether or not the movie could be a serious thing and I loved that they didn't balk on it and took it to the next level and not only put KR in the movie but gave him a killer line .... and I actually think having the most mysterious pirate sit by and play some melancholy spanish guitar is a great broadening out of the pirate character in general)
On the soundtrack ... I have bought it but am not as into it as I thought I would be ... still find myself relying on the DMC soundtrack, the first 3 tracks, Jack, Jones and the Kraken. The Kraken could only have been written by a German like Zimmer ... it is, I think, positivley dripping with the fall of the wall in 89. But what I did like in this soundtrack is at least getting the melody of the "Hoist the Colours" song, although not all the lyrics, and all of the lyrics ARE used in the movie ... but I found them online:
The king and his men
stole the queen from her bed
and bound her in her Bones.
The seas be ours
and by the powers
where we will we'll roam.
Yo, ho, haul together,
hoist the colors high.
Heave ho, thieves and beggars,
never say we die.
Some men have died
and some are alive
and others sail on the sea
– with the keys to the cage...
and the Devil to pay
we lay to Fiddler's Green!
The bell has been raised
from it's watery grave...
Do you hear it's sepulchral tone?
We are a call to all,
pay head the squall
and turn your sail toward home!
Yo, ho, haul together,
hoist the colors high.
Heave ho, thieves and beggars,
never say we die
(here again, must be careful not to tip too much of my hat ... my title aspect of the essay I am trying to write to publish will focus on comparing this "hoist" song with another called "Hoist that Rag" by Tom Waits, in a way that relies on Jack's statement of "fight IN ORDER TO run away")
The only thing I thought that was there in the theater and am disappointed has not been brought out in the soundtrack (which has only the first verse)or any of the lyrics I have found online is that I think they pulled a wonderful switch, but I will have to see it in the theater again to make sure I am right. I think that when the pirates going to the gallows sing it (and I loved the whole "this right ... and that right ... suspended" alongside the "suspendedness" of the hangings) I think they actually sing "EVER shall we die" ... as in the lyrics changed to fit the being hanged and therefore a touch of "that's what you call ironic" in that by the lords confining Calypso they opened the way for Becket and Becket is doing exactly what the lords tried to avoid by imprisoning Calypso ... death of pirates ... then the sort of villianous side of pirates on the prisoning calypso thing is foreshadowed in the singapore pirate finishing elizabeths song by emphasizing "NEVER shall we die" ... "correcting" her ... I think that is how it is in the movie but I have to see it again to be sure, I could be totally mistaken - would not be a first
(I can say things like what I am about to say now because it is not on Muggle Matters, by which I in no way mean a slam on Muggle Matters and I am still writing there agreeably, although, like I say over there, that my writing there has been more limited in light of writing I want to do for publishing in academic journals, but Pauli's site tends to stay away from more personal matters and statements, which is fine ... but on the matter of "imprisonment," as the term I just used of Calypso - prison is a VERY interesting image. Just today I had my last session with my therapist who has moved on from the place I go in midtown [everybody in NYC goes to therapy ... I think there must be a state or city law about it lol ... I'll be starting with a new guy at the center next week] and we had been doing what they call in such situations "termination therapy" - dealing with the closure of the therapy relationship with the particular person, and I told him he really must go see the 3rd pirates movie for the scene of multiple Jacks in the Brig of the Dutchman because that is how I feel, in a lighthearted way, about my own state of mind and his [my therapist's] role in it, not schitzophrenic but just the thing of dialogue between the different aspects and interests within yourself, that a version of him will be joining the multiples of me in a scene like that, in witty reparte etc, and he said "ahhhh ... so has the therapy room been like a Brig for you?" and I said "well, yes, but that is not bad ... in such movies as PotC the Brig tends to be a place of revelations, of unveiling of truths" [that is where Will hears the story of BSB in movie 1 and where Elizabeth meets BSB in AWE ... brings new meaning to the term "captive audience" eh? lol] and he said "ahhhh, you're getting the hang of it")
You know what I am hoping they give full details on in the DVD release (well, in addition to the fact that they damn well better have that whole 23 minutes of dropped stuff, and they better throw in the deleted scenes from DMC too ... and ... lol) ...I hope they give a thorough run down on all those tatoos in the locker, it would be a great place to hide a bunch of stuff about the character, in what the different versions of Jack had as their tatoos ... that one that got stabbed (the body double you were talking about)damn near had an entire ancient codex on his upper body (my friend who I went to see it with the first time is in medeival and patristic studies so he totally studies codecology or paleology and all those things I don't even now the proper names of, the manufacture of papyrus scrolls and bindings and velum codexs etc ... we loved when the code came out as "Pirate Codex")
Finally, you mentioning crying at the scene when E sees her father reminded me of the movie echo that I was most impressed by but forgot to mention it ... I was most impressed by it because it is the most grittily post modern movie echoed and a nice stretch for this movie ... the "don't get off the boat" from Apocalypse Now
Anyway, I must be off to finally finish writing a big post over at MM :)
Hi again Merlin,
Sorry I haven't been back with a longer post yet. The girls and I were awfully sick last week.
I'm not sure about your idea of the people being hanged singing "EVER shall we die". I remember noting the irony of them singing NEVER shall we die when they were just about to. If I get to see it again I will keep an eye and an ear out for it.
That's a very interesting point you make about your therapy sessions and the "multiple personalities" that help work through stuff. Mmmm, that definitely gets me thinking. (and, thank you for trusting me enough to share a story from a therapy session. :-) )
I totally agree with you abotu looking forward to the extras on the DVD - if there are not hours and hours of special features I will be terribly disappointed.
Anyway I can't stay and post more now. If I can keep myself up late this evening I will try to organise my thoughts... also have work/life updates to post about so yes, I must try to post this evening.
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