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In the summer of 2003, director Gore Verbinski released his, uh, theme-park-ride tie-in, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. With the box-office shipwreck that was Cutthroat Island (1995) still fresh in the memory, expectations were modest. A live-action Disney film based on a park ride? That didn’t exactly work out for Tower of Terror (1997) or The Country Bears (2002).
Regardless, Pirates took cinemas by storm. Audiences were thrilled by a transgressive (and ultimately Oscar-nominated) performance from a star at the top of his game and by the assured swagger of Verbinski’s direction. Extravagant cinematography and a seamless blend of practical and digital effects lent pomp and circumstance to the action, while Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer’s hearty score gave this old-fashioned yet hypermodern blockbuster yet more irresistible oomph.
Meanwhile, sympathetic stars Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley made an endearingly earnest contrast to Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush’s wildly enjoyable scenery-chewing. Undead pirates, swashbuckling sword fights, bombastic boat battles, sizzling chemistry… The Curse of the Black Pearl truly had everything.
Two sequels (2006’s Dead Man's Chest, 2007’s At World's End) capitalised on its success, upping the scale (and budget) while keeping the sumptuous on-location photography and intricate world-building. Davy Jones became a villain for the ages, with Bill Nighy delivering a searing motion-capture performance that wouldn’t be matched until Josh Brolin rampaged through 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War.
Further follow-ups in 2011 and 2017 may have tarnished the brand, but the core trilogy still stands as a monument to unbridled directorial vision that now seems unrepeatable. Auteur-led successes such as Mad Max: Fury Road, Villeneuve’s Dune films and the Cruise-controlled Mission: Impossible franchise have kept the flame alight but, in a post-MCU/DCEU/Disney-era Star Wars world, the landscape of blockbuster cinema is strewn with the flotsam and jetsam of heinous visuals (pay your VFX artists!) and a profound lack of risk-taking.
It took 20 years for the blockbuster to genuinely surprise again… this time with a film based on a plastic doll, rather than an on-the-rails boat ride. But the original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, especially Black Pearl, remains the pinnacle of tent-pole cinema, yet to be bettered. Or is it just me?
