Pirates of the Caribbean: A Twenty Year Retrospective

Sail with the wildest crew that ever sacked the Spanish Main!

Hello, all!

This week, I've started rewatching the classic Disney Pirates of the Caribbean series with my folks, and I realized something: Pirates of the Caribbean is twenty years old.

Well, not really. The original Disneyland ride that the films were based on originally opened in March of 1967 (so as it happens, it does have an anniversary coming up). The first film in the series, Curse of the Black Pearl, came out in June of 2003, the same year as The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Therefore, technically the Pirates film series is actually nineteen years old, and it will be twenty years old next July; however, I decided to start this retrospective series now because I don't actually know how long it will take me to wright the whole thing — for all I know, it could take me until July of 2023.

I'll be exploring each film individually, and also taking a different approach to the original three films directed by Gore Verbinski than I do to the fourth and fifth films. For the Gore trilogy, I'll be analyzing the structure and spirit of the stories; for On Stranger Tides and Dead Men Tell No Tales, I'll be examining more meta filmmaking aspects, including concepts behind why those films were less well-received, why Jack Sparrow doesn't work as a main character, as well as my hot takes around why Dead Men Tell No Tales is more entertaining than On Stranger Tides, even though the latter is technically a better film.

Next week, I'll be kicking off the series with my essay on Curse of the Black Pearl, which will examine what it means to be a pirate as defined by the film, and what the legacy of golden age of piracy is in the modern day.

Later on, I'll be examining Dead Men's Chest and the meaning of accountability.

To round out the essays on Gore Verbinski's trilogy, I'll be examining At World's End, and the importance of rebel anthems in society.

After that, I'll examine more technical filmmaking aspects of character and writing with my analysis of On Stranger Tides, which will deal with the concept of a "flat character." I will follow this up by taking a good look at Dead Men Tell No Tales, Pirates of the Caribbean's incomplete finale.

Finale, I'll examine what comes next in Pirates' future.

I hope you'll all join me in this swashbuckling adventure — Pirates of the Caribbean is not only a fun blockbuster jaunt, but has a lot of surprising prose and deeper meanings. But be warned: there be squalls ahead... and Davy Jones waiting for them at every turn...