Captain Phillips

[GScholz]

Just came back from the theater. Was pretty good.

[DREDIOCK]

Enjoyed the movie, but noticed the ship Capt Phillips was commanding had a US flag. Not many ships carry the US flag anymore to escape taxes. Production error? Don't know.  I did not read the book. Made me wonder.  Should the US Navy answer their distress calls? The US Navy cost allot to operate. They should continue to answer distress calls, but sending the bill to country they are registered to seems like a solution.

Tom Hanks works hard. He did a pretty good job of imitating a Vermont accent considering he was born and raised in California. First Pirate movie I have ever seen where I didn't hear an  ARRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr  

I give the film a.  

I beleive its pretty much an international agreement that governments respond to distress calls no matter the nation

[DREDIOCK]

Yeah... well...  

You see the real story is not anything at all like the Hollywood version of events.  Haven't seen the movie, but from what I know of the actual events, Phillips is less a hero, and more the arrogant, self-rightious idiot that put them in a dangerous place to begin with.

Check this out...

http://nypost.com/2013/10/13/crew-members-deny-captain-phillips-heroism/

Looks like the rest of the crew are pretty peeved that Phillips is getting the "hero" treatment from Hollywood, when they begged him not to sail that route to begin with, not to mention the numerous warnings he received and ignored.  When the pirates did come, he did nothing any more or less heroic then the rest of the crew.

I've heard the same thing

[GScholz]

The friction between the captain and the crew is a big part of the film prior to the boarding, and it is made pretty clear what they think of him. As for the hero part I think it's more a Tom Hanks thing (every movie needs a hero, right?). I'd be wary of taking the claims of a crew that hated their boss at face value (they even had a "union fight" in the galley where the captain basically threatened to fire the crew members who were in rather vocal opposition to his actions. As for the captain giving himself up, I don't get what they're referring to; in the film he was already a hostage at the time of the botched exchange and had no control over the situation.

[Rich46yo]

Actually the film version showed the crew in a negative light. A bunch of lazy, whiny union guys who couldnt even latch anti-pirate gates. Obviously most theater heros would have gladly battled the pirates, slaying them in the interim. Actual union people would be saying "why should I be fighting pirates"? without either training, weapons, or desire to do so.

My initial thought when i saw it was, "this is BS and the Captain was probably a doosh in real life". No doubt a company man who put his own career ahead of the lives of his crew.

It turns out I was right. The movie bunch had to even buy off the union crew just so's the suckers wouldnt find out that in real life Tom Hanks blew.

[GScholz]

Well... Most commercial shipping captains are "company men". That's why shipping companies hire them. In my experience most union workers are lazy and whiny.