My wife and I just watched the Tom Hanks movie Captain Phillips the other day (true story about Somali pirates taking over a cargo ship), and it was great (I was inspired to do the sketches above). So intense that I felt my fists had been clenched the entire time, and my wife was literally hyperventilating at the end. It was a story about heroes, but not told in a heroic way at all, but more like a tragedy.
One of the really cool things was all the Macbeth parallels:
- The pirates are basically threatened into going out and kidnapping a ship (Lady Macbeth goaded her husband into killing the king, something he didn't want to do at first);
- After that, Muse's (the main Somali captain) ambition takes over, and he is more determined than anyone else to reach and board the ship (Macbeth's ambition consumes him)
- Once he takes over, he informs Captain Phillips, "I am the captain now." (Macbeth becomes king)
- Captain Phillips tries to get Muse to accept $30K in cash and call it a day, but Muse insists he wants millions (that ambition thing again; Macbeth doesn't stop at being king but continues to go after all his perceived enemies)
- As things fall apart, and Muse's small crew starts to go crazy (Lady Macbeth), Phillips urges him to give up, but he replies, "I've come too far to turn back." (which is right from Macbeth, when he says, "I am in blood Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er")
Read the classics, people! It'll deepen your appreciation for just about everything...
