• It stars Tom Hanks and he’s always a class act(or).   Here, he portrays Captain Richard Phillips with a competence and sensitivity that made this viewer feel empathy for a mangy, undernourished gang of captors that simply had a boat, a few guns, and nothing else to do.
  • It was developed from an intense and wild true story.  In 2009, the Maersk Alabama, a large freighter, was hi-jacked off the coast of Africa by Somali pirates.  The Somalis took the Captain as ransom when they left the ship on an enclosed lifeboat.
  • The Navy shows up and then the SEALS and, well, if you’re  like I am who still gets tears in her eyes during the proper performance of the ‘Star Spangled Banner’, you know the feeling.

 Mal-nourished pirates take-over Freighter on High Seas

Comments:

One thing about a well-publicized true story, we know the major details–we know that the pirates get on the ship, that the captain is taken hostage and that we get him back. But as the tension builds, I caught myself searching for logical ways to keep it from happening.  After all, the fact that four raggamuffin Somalis in a run-down motor boat could illegally board a large freighter with a crew of 30, take it over, leave with the Captain and $30,000 never quite seemed real even when I read it, but it does reaffirm that “truth is stranger than fiction.”

Wake up, Maritimers!!!

 

Share