Deep Dive Disney: Wes Looks at Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Welcome back my dear friends. Today we return to one of my favorite film franchises we’ve covered for Deep Dive Disney, Pirates of the Caribbean. Where we last left our heroes, everyone’s favorite charming rogue, Captain Jack Sparrow, had broken the curse that had plagued the crew of the Black Pearl with the help of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan, killed his longtime nemesis, Captain Barbosa, escaped execution by hanging, again with the help of Will, and ultimately reclaimed what he saw as his rightful place as Captain of The Black Pearl while Will and Elizabeth declared their love for one another. Sounds like all’s well that ends well, right? Well, if could have been, if the first film didn’t do so well both critically and financially that a sequel was all but inevitable. I joke, but to be honest, while I would say that the first film, The Curse of the Black Pearl is the best and most self-contained film in the franchise, today’s outing, Dead Man’s Chest, is probably my favorite in the series. It’s not perfect mind you. Our three leads are in separate locations for much of the film making the things tough to follow, there are some scenes that drag on a bit longer than they need to and while the overly convoluted storylines that would plague the rest of the franchise wouldn’t truly start to rear their ugly head until the third movie the beginnings of that particular issue can be seen set up in this film. However, with the introduction of two awesome new antagonists, a more epic story with higher stakes, a shocking cliffhanger ending that no one saw coming at the time and of course, much more of Jack Sparrow being Jack Sparrow, I think the good far outweighs the bad in this film. So, how did Disney follow up the runaway hit that was the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Well, just as Will and Elizabeth are getting ready to tie the knot, Cutler Beckett, the megalomaniacal head of the East India Trading company arrives in town with warrants for their arrest. Seems helping out Jack Sparrow has landing the happy couple a one-way trip to the gallows, unless Will is able to find Jack, persuade him to give up his compass (revealed to have the power to point to whatever the holder wants most) and deliver it to Beckett. Meanwhile, Jack has far deadlier problems. Turns out, long ago, Jack made a deal with Davy Jones, the sinister Grim Reaper figure of the seven seas, and Jones is coming to collect Jack’s very soul to serve aboard his Ghost Ship, The Flying Dutchman. Jack isn’t interested on serving aboard any ship if he’s not the Captain, let alone one where that turns you into a mutant fish person the longer you serve aboard it. That means Jones is going to have to collect the hard way, by releasing the Kraken, a horrible monster that devours ship and spirits the crew away to Davy Jones locker. Since having the Kraken on your tail is effectively a death sentence, Jack searches for the one thing that can give him leverage over Jones, his heart. See, according to legend, Jones once fell in love, but the pain was too much to bear so he carved out his heart and locked it away in a chest. If anyone can get ahold of that chest, they can compel Jones to do pretty much anything. Now, it’s a race for the chest as our heroes try to evade Jones and his horrible monster. It’s time once again to hoist the colors and get ready to buckle some swash as Deep Dive Disney dives into, Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man’s Chest.

Main Character:

Once again, the lead character role is split between Jack, Will and Elizabeth. Like last time, let’s start with Elizabeth. Something I like about Elizabeth in this movie is how she’s picked up the ability to be just as manipulative as Jack. She’s able to back the usually calm and collected Beckett into a corner, she’s able to trick the crew of a ship that she stows away on into believing the ship is haunted so they’ll divert to Tortuga and in the end, she manipulates Jack into staying on the Pearl so that everyone can escape. Actually, one of the things I didn’t like about the movie and its immediate sequel is how it tries to push a love triangle between Will, Jack and Elizabeth. I can see someone like Elizabeth, who remember, has been fascinated by pirates from an early age, would be intrigued by Jack, but this sort of romance between the two just feels forced and ultimately never really goes anywhere since there was never any real doubt that she and Will would end up together.

Speaking of Master Turner, Will is more or less the same this time around, though maybe a little more morally ambiguous and willing to do wrong in service of what he sees as a greater right. Will’s big arc this time around involves reconciling with his Father, Bootstrap Bill, who escaped his watery eternity by joining the crew of the Dutchman. I appreciate that Will is able to reconcile his abandonment issues and showing him bond with his father, even if the reunion is uneasy, especially when Jones forces Bootstrap give Will ten lashes when he finds out about their familial connection. I also like that they try to have a lot more tension between Will and Jack this time around.

And that, of course, nicely leads us into the man himself, Captain Jack Sparrow! As we discussed last time, Jack has a gift for adaptation and thinking on the fly. Every moment, Jack is evaluating the various situations he finds himself in and trying to find an advantage. However, it is in this movie where we learn that Jack’s brilliant gift for on-the-fly strategy becomes unreliable when the element of desperation enters the equation. See, Jack may very well be the luckiest pirate ever to sail the seven seas, but even he recognizes when he’s out of his depth. The fact that he has a giant indestructible man-eating squid monster coming after him, well, that’s a problem even Jack can’t fix with just quick thinking. As a result, we get to see Jack a lot more vulnerable than usual. Don’t get me wrong, last time around Jack certainly had a hard-on to get the Pearl back from Barbossa, but it’s not like there was a time limit. Here, Davy Jones has basically given Jack three days to find a way out of this or he’s kraken chow. Because he has so little time to work with, we see Jack resort to some more morally questionable tactics than he otherwise would, such as callously sending Will over to the flying Dutchman. Now, mind you, I don’t believe for a second that Jack planned on leaving Will there permanently, but he did still condemn his friend to a possible lifetime of servitude aboard a ghost ship crewed by brutal fish creatures that was originally meant for himself. Jones even calls him out on it and Jack is forced to feign indifference in order to carry out his long-shot plan to save his own skin. What Jack ends up learning in this movie is better left to the story section, so why don’t we move right along to our villain.

Villain:

Before we get to Jones, I do want to give a brief mention of Cutler Beckett who is introduced in this film and has several scenes where he’s shown to be a truly sinister presence but seeing as how he takes a much more active role in the third film, I’d prefer to discuss the character and his overall impact on the series when we get there.

That out of the way, let’s talk about Davy Jones. First and foremost, I just need to say, that CGI is amazing. This movie is fifteen years old at the time I’m writing this and there are movies that were made this very year with effects that don’t look half as good as Jones. That’s extremely talented actor Bill Nighy (not to be confused with Bill Nye the science guy) under all those tentacles, but not only is he completely unrecognizable, the effect is so impressive that you often find yourself forgetting it’s not really there. They clearly pulled out all the stops to make Jones look as impressive as possible and boy howdy did they succeed. Jones himself is a very nasty looking customer. Looking like some sort of pirate Cthulu, Jones is something of a seafaring Grim Reaper/Lucifer type figure, specializing in making deals with those near death in exchange for service aboard his ship. You may ask why anyone would want to doom themselves to years of servitude aboard a ship that mutates you the longer you serve aboard it? Well it’s true, life aboard the flying Dutchman is no pleasure cruise and serving under Jones can be a brutal and hellish existence, but at least you know what you’re getting yourself into. Compare that to the unknown that is the afterlife. No one knows what awaits them on the other side, or what punishment awaits them for the sins they’ve committed in this world. Faced with that uncertainty, servitude aboard a cursed ship doesn’t seem so bad by comparison. That fear of the unknown is a powerful thing. Jones knows this, and what’s more, he knows exactly how to exploit it. Jones tells his would-be recruits that life is cruel, why should the afterlife be any different, and preys upon their fear to get them to pledge their souls to the Dutchman. A cruel, vindictive literally heartless creature, Jones is not one suffer anyone trying to welsh on their debts to him which means when Jack Sparrow tries to run for it, it’s not long before Jones catches up with him. Jones knows exactly the sort of man Sparrow is and has a counter for every attempt by Jack to talk his way out of the deal. However, despite Jones’ cruelty, we are still shown signs that Jones still has the capacity for compassion and still thinks often of the love he lost. It’s mostly subtle and unspoken, but there is this one bit where Jack tries to manipulate Jones into letting Will go by mentioning that he’s engaged to be married. For a moment, you believe he may actually be getting through to old squid face. It doesn’t end up working, but it still shows that Jones is more than just a monster. However, if you’re looking for a monster, Jones has a real nasty one in his employ. If anyone is dumb enough to defy Jones, well, that’s when he sends The Kraken, a deadly tentacle monster that swallows ships whole. The Kraken is essentially unbeatable, hence why Jack is so terrified of it. Once Jones decides to unleash the Kraken, it will not stop until it’s devoured its prey and dragged it down to the locker. For whatever reason, only Jones seems to have any sort of control over it, meaning that even if someone is lucky enough to kill Jones, that won’t necessarily get the Kraken off your scent. The big climax of the film sees the crew of the Black Pearl trying to battle the Kraken and it’s incredible just how one sided the fight is. The pirates throw everything they have at the monster and all the best they can do is mildly wound it, buying them at most, ten minutes before it comes back even angrier. All this shows that Jones is one seriously bad customer you don’t want to cross.

Side Characters:

Joshamee Gibbs is back. I don’t actually have a lot to say about Gibbs since his role as Jack’s first mate and most loyal ally is more or less the same as it was in the first movie. I just really wanted to remind you all that Kevin McNally is awesome in these movies and deserves more love for it. Did you know that he’s one of only three characters to appear in all five movies and one of only two to be an actual main character and not just a cameo? That’s pretty cool!

James Norrington is also back, and I actually have a lot more to say about him. The more I watch these movies, the more I realize that the original trilogy is just as much Norrington’s story as it is that of Jack, Will or Elizabeth. Turns out, Norrington letting Jack go at the end of the last film was a serious mistake for him. After he’d given Captain Sparrow a sufficient head start as he’d promised, he gathered a crew of his best officers and went after The Black Pearl. Unfortunately, this led to him losing his entire crew when he attempted to sail through a hurricane. The incident ended up costing Norrington his position as commadore, and after that, things started to spiral for Norrington until he ended up, well, in the same place we found Gibbs in the first movie, a filthy barn in Tortuga, drunk and covered in pig shit. Norrington even says to Gibbs that their stories are the same, his is just once chapter behind. Even though he’s pretty much his rock bottom at this point, Norrington is still every bit the man he was when we saw him in the first film, a good, decent and determined man who has difficultly distinguishing the difference between what is lawful and what is right. He’s willing to throw in with Jack Sparrow, but only because he knows it will give him an opportunity to get his life back. The third movie will bring things full circle for Norrington, but this time around, I like the direction his character takes. I also like that Elizabeth shows genuine concern for him, showing that even though she didn’t want to marry him, she still cares for him in her way.

I suppose we should mention Pintel and Ragetti, the two comic relief pirates from the last movie who I didn’t have much to say about. I don’t have much to say about them this time around either, but I do like that now that they’re no longer immortal, they’ve begun to contemplate the fate their souls. Still, they provide effective comic relief, just as they did last time around.

Now on to the new characters, starting with Tia Dalma, the voodoo lady with a history with Jack who seems to know a lot about Davy Jones. I really like this character, she’s fun, mysterious and clearly way more powerful than she lets on. And… that kind of about all I can say, other than this is another character who we’ll have a lot more to say about in part 3. However, for those of you watching along with these articles, pay close attention to the various trinkets in Tia Dalma’s shack.

And finally there’s old Bootstrap Bill Turner. If Jack Sparrow is the luckiest pirate in the Caribbean, Bootstrap is very much the opposite. This guy gets cursed by the Aztec gold from the first movie, ends getting a cannon strapped to his leg and thrown overboard, spends months underwater unable to move and unable to die and his only salvation is to serve aboard a nightmarish ghost ship. I do like how he is repentant about the many mistakes in life, but also doesn’t make excuses. He left his family because he wanted to be a pirate. Simple as that. He regrets his actions but doesn’t expect his son’s forgiveness. Still, Stellan Skarsgård is a fine actor and turns in a solid performance like he always does. I also have to give some praise to the makeup department here. If you look closely, the barnacles and coral growing on Bootstrap’s body seems to get more and more prominent as the film goes on. Nice touch, though personally, I could have done without the starfish.

Songs:

Well, Hans Zimmer is back and so is the incredible Pirates of the Caribbean theme song. They also add a few new tracks to the mix, and most of them are for Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman. The music written for Davy Jones is appropriately creepy and badass. It sounds like something you might hear in a haunted house but still fits on a pirate ship. Fitting, since what is The Dutchman if not a haunted house on the sea, populated by monsters and damned souls. There’s even this one especially cool scene where we see Jones playing an enormous pipe organ... with his own face no less. I got tip my hat to Jones, he may be a horrifying octopus man, but he can tickle the ivories like nobody’s business.

Memorable Scenes:

There’s a few to talk about this time around so let’s get to it. First and foremost, there’s a grand tradition in these films of Jack making a cool entrance and the second installment is no exception. This time, we see Jack shoot his way out of a coffin that’s been thrown into the sea as the main Pirates of the Caribbean theme starts playing. Great stuff.

There’s an especially cool scene aboard the Dutchman were Will, Jones and Bootstrap all play this dice game with Will’s soul on the line. You can cut the tension with a knife in this scene. Will is almost channeling Jack in the way he’s sizing up Jones who himself looks a bit over-confident but is still deadly serious once Will brings up the key to the Dead Man’s Chest. Then, once Bootstrap enters the game, it throws a wrench in Will’s plan. But in the end, the dice game didn’t even matter. All Will wanted was to get Jones to show him that he indeed kept the key on his person. A bold strategy that ended up paying off for him. Very cool.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Pirates of the Caribbean movie without some sweet swordplay. Once all our heroes converge on Isla Cruses, the resting place of the Dead Man’s Chest, Jack, Will and Norrington all want the Heart of Davy Jones for their own reasons. Will wants to put a knife through it on the spot and kill Jones in order to free his father’s soul from hellish servitude, Jack wants to use the heart to persuade Jones to call off the Kraken and Norrington wants to give the heart to Beckett in order to get his old life back. What follows is a pretty fun three-way sword fight between the three, all of them vying for the key. There’s even this especially cool bit where a mill wheel gets dislodged and Jack has to run in it like a Hamster wheel while Will and Norrington fight on top of it. Nice!

And of course, we need to talk about the final scene. While not necessarily my favorite scene in the franchise, it’s definitely the one that elicited the biggest reaction from me. Once Jack sacrifices himself to allow the others to escape, our heroes regroup at Tia Dalma’s shack and drink to the good captain’s memory. Will says that if anything could be done to bring Jack back, he’d do it. Tia Dalma indicates that this may actually be possible but would exceedingly difficult. Once everyone agrees to do whatever it takes to bring back Jack, Tia Dalma says that in order to brave the weird and haunted shores at world’s end our heroes will need a captain who knows those waters. And then, down the stairs come none other than Captain Hector Barbossa, alive and well, delivering the now unforgettable line “So tell me, what’s become of my ship?” And as a brilliant cherry on top, he takes a bit of the apple, showing that he’s no longer under the influence of the curse and may once again enjoy the simple pleasures of life denied to him for so long. And… credits. Going into this movie, I had no inkling that the film would end on a cliffhanger, so not only did it catch me off guard, it ended on with a surprise twist that all but guaranteed that I’d be seeing the next film and in fact, spend the next year obsessing over what would happen next. I only have one real nitpick in regards to this scene and it’s more to do with the third movie than this one. That nitpick is the fact that we never got to see the conversation that happened immediately after this scene. I bet the ensuing conversation was pretty awkward. Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t make reference to everyone’s favorite scene.

*Deep Breath*

I GOT A JAR OF DIRT!

I GOT A JAR OF DIRT!

I GOT A JAR OF DIRT!

I GOT A JAR OF DIRT!

There, I hope that was to your satisfaction.

Story:

Many of the themes from the last movie, including the pursuit of freedom, the idea of a legend being larger than the individual and the idea that one can be both a pirate and a good man are all carried over in one form or another here in this film. I think this time around though, the primary theme as well as the main arc for Jack Sparrow is the idea that sometimes, the only to solve a problem is to face it head on, even if that means making the ultimate sacrifice. Jack Sparrow is man who prides himself on his ability to think his way out of whatever nasty situation that comes his way. However, over time, Jack learns that there’s no way out of this and the longer he runs from his problems, the more others will suffer in his place. Jack may be a pirate but even he doesn’t want to see his friends die in his place. The scene where Jack does back to help battle the Kraken feels very triumphant. My only complaint is to have Elizabeth be the one who tricks Jack into staying aboard the Pearl. I already explained that I don’t especially care for the whole weird Jack/Elizabeth pairing and, come on, we all know Jack never would have left that Pearl, not after all he’s been through to get it. They even show that after Jack gives the order to abandon ship, he is absolutely destroyed by the inevitability of the Pearl being lost to The Kraken. Jack associates this ship with freedom, his one true desire in life. No way would he ever abandon it. Jack valiantly fighting the Kraken even though he knows it’s hopeless shows that Jack has finally accepted his fate, but he won’t go down without a fight.

The Dark Disney Factor:

Like the last Pirates Movie, the Dark Disney Factor does not apply in the same capacity as it would with a film like Snow White or Aladdin, but there’s still plenty of creepy stuff to go around. We’ve already discussed Davy Jones and the horrific crew of the Flying Dutchman, each and every one of them creepy in their own way. Oh, let’s not forget the Kraken, who, in addition to all the stuff we’ve already mentioned, also has the ability to suck your face off with its enormous tentacles. Oh, how about the part where Jack is trapped on an island of savage natives who plan to eat him in a barbaric ritual which involves him having to wear a necklace made of human toes. That was pretty fucked up! Speaking of that scene, I love the bit where Jack finds a spice cache on the island, but then gets caught by the natives and puts it under his arms for “seasoning.” Last time I mentioned I dressed up as Captain Jack for Halloween the year this movie came out. At lunch that day, I actually did this with the pepper at the condiments table. And last not least, there’s the heart of Davy Jones itself. What can I say about it? It’s a still beating human heart. It’s weird, it’s gross and it’s awesome!

Final Thoughts: I love this movie. It takes everything I loved about the first movie and keeps the ship sailing so to speak. The stakes are higher, the villain is brilliant, the characters are pushed farther and their dynamics further explored, and to top it all off, it ends on a damn near perfect cliffhanger. It's not perfect, but it's still damn good, and in my opinion, it's everything a sequel should be. We'll be discussing part three sooner than you think, but next time, we're one last planned look at a direct to video Disney sequel when we dive into Cinderella III: A Twist in Time. Hopefully better than the first one.