Captain Phillips is an action movie with an important underlying social message. It is one of those movies that is filled with all manner of exciting scenes that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Yet when you go deeper into the story there is something more going on than just action.
The movie is based on the true story of the highjacking of an American cargo ship in 2009. Tom Hanks plays the title character, who is in charge of the ship as it sails around the Horn of Africa and past the Somali coast where there is much pirate activity.
Michael Parnell
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The story switches to that coastline where we see a group of men, young and old, trying to get a chance to be on the boat that will attempt the highjack. Here we meet Muse (Barkhad Abdi), who will emerge as the leader of the group that boards the ship.
Phillips is aware of the pirate activity and gets the crew prepared. When the pirates show up on radar, he follows the procedures to attempt to stop them from boarding. These work for a while, but eventually the pirates board the ship.
The procedures call for the crew to hide in the lower part of the ship. Since this limits their ability to be held as hostages, most of the action is between the pirates and Captain Phillips.
By the movie’s third act, the pirates have gotten into the lifeboat and taken Phillips as hostage. This is when the Navy gets involved trying to set Phillips free.
It is here on the lifeboat that we see a revealing scene. While talking to Muse, Phillips makes a statement about how these men are living their lives. Phillips says: “There's got to be something other than being a fisherman or kidnapping people.” To which Muse replies: “Maybe in America. Maybe in America.”
It is here that I saw something that made this movie something more than just another action movie.
Phillips thinks that there is more to life for these poor men. They have to have a chance at another kind of job. Could they not work at something else?
But Muse makes it clear that this it. They have no choice. There might be a choice in America, but not in Somalia.
This social justice message struck me as important — not only about Somalia, but also America.
Where are the opportunities for the poor? Where are their hopes and dreams being fulfilled?
When those hopes and dreams remain unfulfilled, what then? Where do they turn? If they have nowhere else to turn, they have to find a way to get what they need by any means necessary.
This message is a challenge to the church. We must be willing to step up and declare that we need to create more opportunity for those who long for it. Without it there is a vacuum.
In Somalia, that vacuum creates an environment in which violence is the only way of getting what one needs to live. Fishing will not pay for people to live, so piracy becomes the way.
How far are we from that? With the gap widening between rich and poor, how much longer will we have to wait for people to give in to despair?
Captain Phillips is a cautionary tale. How this is plays out is aided by one of Tom Hanks’s greatest performances. He truly becomes the character he plays. And Barkhad Abdi is a revelation in this movie. Both give two of the best performances seen this year.
Michael Parnell ([email protected]) is pastor of Beth Car Baptist Church in Halifax, Va.
Captain Phillips
Rated PG-13 for sustained intense sequences of menace, some violence with bloody images, and substance use.
Directed by Paul Greengrass
Written by Billy Ray, based on the book by Richard Phillips
WITH: Tom Hanks (Richard Phillips), Barkhad Abdi (Muse), Barkhad Abdihraman (Bilal), Faysal Ahmed (Najee), Mahat M. Ali (Elmi)