‘Captain Phillips’ Trailer Humanizes Somali Pirates
The latest trailer for the Tom Hanks-starring, Paul Greengrass-directed Somali pirate drama Captain Phillips shows us, yes, an Oscar-hungry Hanks hitting all the awards-bait notes (accent, humble heroism, etc.) But we were expecting that. The trailer also shows us something more interesting: how the film defines the relationship between Phillips and his Somali captors.
In the new trailer we see more footage of Phillips as a hostage, trying to get insight into the pirates’ lives, their motivations. “There’s gotta be something other than killing people,” Phillips says. “Maybe in America,” one of the pirates says, repeating, “maybe in America.”
This is one of those films wherein the audience knows the ending—spoiler alert: he survives—so the main question is how Greengrass will get us there. This trailer seems to indicate that Phillips’s relationship with his captors will make the film more than a simple war-at-sea picture. The movie has a big flashy world premiere at the opening night gala of the New York Film Festival.
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The Atlantic
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