A movie worth the money. When I thought I might be interested in seeing this movie I deliberately did NOT refresh my memory about the story. Having now read some reports the basic story seems to be fairly real.
The movie in a nutshell is about an American cargo ship boarded by Somali pirates. When they perceive that the ship is dead in the water the pirates take the captain hostage and leave the ship in a lifeboat. The remainder of the story covers their escape from the ship and the military rescue mission.
The movie gives a little insight into why the Somalis might "choose" to be pirates...if you consider their lifestyle to be a choice rather than what they might have seen as a necessity. It helps the viewer to understand a little why 4 young Somalis might take on a huge cargo ship and then the United States government and even think they had a chance to win.
Tom Hanks, not unexpectedly, does a great job with the role. Barkhad Abdi also nails his role as leader of the pirates. And the director, Paul Greenglass, has a way with a story...a little unexpected at times which isn't all bad.
Once the military got involved I was slightly distracted by the thoughts of the millions of dollars that had to be expended on this rescue mission...and that there really are people already trained for missions such as this.
Semi-spoiler alert: You leave the theatre knowing that there is a young Somali man serving a sentence of 33 years for piracy in an Indiana Penitentiary and Captain Phillips was back on the high seas in just over a year after his harrowing hostage situation.
(By reading the movie credits I noticed that the Department of Defense has an Entertainment Division.)
In other NYC news - Comic Con is in town at the Javits Center and the post-movie "show" was a treat. Many convention attendees were walking to the Javits in various degrees of costume...from very elaborate (and expensive) full costumes to just the addition of a cape or weapon to their regular street clothes. Better than Halloween!
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