Loving Pirates of the Caribbean is basically my dominant personality trait.
One of the first things that people learn about me is my love for the series. I started watching Pirates of the Caribbean as a kid, and I haven’t stopped watching, ever since. In middle school, I would re-watch all the movies, practically every weekend, except for the fifth movie, as it didn’t come out until I was in high school. At this point, I could probably quote most of the movies’ scripts verbatim.
I love Pirates of the Caribbean so much that I got a quote from the original movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl, tattooed on my upper arm for my eighteenth birthday. I’m kind of obsessed.
The movies draw audiences in with a late 1700s to early 1800s aesthetic and an adventurous plot with fantastical undertones. The first installment of the series, The Curse of the Black Pearl, establishes a universe set around a time period known as the Golden Age of Piracy. It also introduces the series’ quirky main character, Captain Jack Sparrow. Sparrow is a charmingly arrogant pirate who has recently been disenfranchised, after his crew staged a mutiny and abandoned him on a desert island.
After Sparrow reclaims his ship and conquers the antagonist, the series continues with five additional movies. Captain Jack Sparrow and his crew sail the seven seas and battle various outlandish villains (including Blackbeard himself, at one point).
As a kid, my interest in the series was, in part, due to my childhood dream of becoming a pirate and my middle school crush on Captain Jack Sparrow.
I eventually got over my crush on the protagonist. I also realized that being a pirate isn’t all swashbuckling excitement and that it actually involves a lot of things I wouldn’t enjoy: not showering, seasickness, scurvy and the moral dilemmas that arise when you basically just steal for a living. Yet, I still never get tired of watching the movies, over and over again, and I have no idea why.
Objectively, I should not enjoy these movies as much as I do. The first three — The Curse of the Black Pearl, Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End — are understandably enjoyable movies. Gore Verbinski directed the original trilogy, and, in my opinion, he did a great job. The trilogy’s plot is well-done, and the storyline flows nicely from one movie to the next. However, the last two are not so great.
On Stranger Tides and Dead Men Tell No Tales, which is the most recent installment, were not well-received by audiences. Both were criticized for being low quality, last-ditch attempts at milking even more money out of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
Logically, I know the last two movies are not that good. They’re definitely not comparable in quality to the first three; nevertheless, unlike a lot of people, I don’t mind the last two movies. However, this is most likely due to sentimental value.
Because I grew up watching them, they remind me of my younger years.
I think the same theory could be applied to the Star Wars franchise. I don’t know a lot about the movies because I’m not a huge fan of Star Wars, but I know that the quality of the newest films has been debated by critics. However, many of those who grew up watching Star Wars went to see the new movies anyway because it brought back memories for them.
I have fond memories of watching Pirates of the Caribbean with my family and friends, and rewatching the series transports me back to those times. Therefore, I usually find myself rewatching Pirates of the Caribbean whenever I’m going through something because it cheers me up.
That’s what’s special about movies; they transport us to different worlds or points in our lives. Celebrity crushes and childhood dreams aside, the real reason I love Pirates of the Caribbean so much is because of the memories that I associate with it. Maybe I’m not really obsessed with Pirates of the Caribbean. Maybe I just enjoy indulging in nostalgia and reminiscing.
Alternatively, maybe I just think pirates are really cool. Regardless, I’ve fully embraced my weird movie obsession, and you should too.