Bill I’s Review – 4 out of 5
A gripping tale that builds to a high suspense after only about 10-15 minutes, and sustains it till the climactic end. A true story of Somali pirates capturing a cargo ship, it shows the intricate and thorough planning that is done by the well-trained pirates (NOT!) and how both prepared, and ill-equpped the merchant seaman are. They have no arms beyond water hoses, and the pirates have not much more than basic radar, radios, a long ladder, and of course, machine guns. Tom Hanks gives an incredible performance, as do a couple of the pirates. How could these dirt poor Somalies hold the US Navy at bay? You will see with this great movie.
Bill C’s Review – 4 out of 5
This has been out a while but I finally got to see it. This reminded me a bit of last year’s Argo – a tension filled films as the government tries to free captive American(s) in another part of the world (although that was a more clandestine, less violent operation). Just like Ago the tension is maintained despite knowing the outcome.
Tom Hanks is excellent (more on him in my next post) as are the Somali actors. The Somali performances are more amazing as I believe they had no acting experience.
The film sticks to the boarding and rescue and doesn’t delve into the more controversial aspects of the incident (the ship should have been 600 miles off shore instead of 250. It also provides a view from the pirates perspective and let’s them be viewed in a somewhat sympathetic light
This is definitely work seeing.
Interesting article comparing the film of the factshttps://twitter.com/Slate/status/389135520770846720