{"id":15538,"date":"2013-10-08T22:15:06","date_gmt":"2013-10-08T21:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=15538"},"modified":"2013-10-08T22:15:06","modified_gmt":"2013-10-08T21:15:06","slug":"lff-2013-captain-phillips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2013\/10\/08\/lff-2013-captain-phillips\/","title":{"rendered":"LFF 2013: Captain Phillips"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tom<\/a><\/p>\n

Director Paul Greengrass returns to the tensions of the post 9\/11 era, with a gripping account of the 2009 hijacking of a US cargo ship.<\/p>\n

Based on the real life account<\/a> of Richard Phillips<\/a>, it depicts how he and his crew came across a gang of pirates whilst travelling the dangerous shipping lanes of East Africa.<\/p>\n

Early on we see the contrasting figures of Phillips (Tom Hanks), as he leaves his wife (Catherine Keener) at the airport, and the skinny Somalian pirate Muse (Barkhad Abdi) who is forced out to sea by his bosses.<\/p>\n

In this we see a snapshot of globalisation: the well off captain of a US cargo ship and the poor fisherman with an AK-47, both conducting their own forms of business but ultimately caught up in events outside of their control.<\/p>\n

Billy Ray’s script touches upon these issues but wisely skips ponderous, explanatory dialogue, instead opting for a lean depiction of a particular event.<\/p>\n

Within this, the film touches upon the seemingly incongruous aspects of modern piracy, ships using water hoses rather than armed security as owners won’t insure them and the desperation of Somalis who face a choice between piracy and selling Khat.<\/p>\n

Greengrass and his cinematographer Barry Ackroyd<\/a> do a highly efficient job of getting us quickly into the action and ramping up the drama without resorting to sentiment or bombast.<\/p>\n