The true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.
Credits: TheMovieDb.
Film Cast:
- Captain Richard Phillips: Tom Hanks
- Muse: Barkhad Abdi
- Andrea Phillips: Catherine Keener
- John Cronan: Chris Mulkey
- SEAL Commander: Max Martini
- Shane Murphy: Michael Chernus
- Captain Frank Castellano: Yul Vazquez
- Ken Quinn: Corey Johnson
- Mike Perry: David Warshofsky
- Dan Phillips: John Magaro
- Najee: Faysal Ahmed
- Bilal: Barkhad Abdirahman
- Elmi: Mahat M. Ali
- Maersk Alabama Crew: Angus MacInnes
- Maersk Alabama Crew: San Shella
- Maersk Alabama Crew: Amr El-Bayoumi
- Pirate Leader: Azeez Mohammed
- Pirate Leader: Abdurazak Ahmed Adan
Film Crew:
- Executive Producer: Kevin Spacey
- Casting: Francine Maisler
- Producer: Scott Rudin
- Casting: Daniel Hubbard
- Producer: Michael De Luca
- Camera Operator: Jacques Haitkin
- Casting Associate: Kathy Driscoll
- Set Designer: Peter Russell
- Music Supervisor: Michael Higham
- Costume Supervisor: Mark Peterson
- Stunt Coordinator: Rob Inch
- Foley Artist: Peter Burgis
- Director of Photography: Barry Ackroyd
- Sound Effects Designer: James Harrison
- Key Hair Stylist: Brenda McNally
- Screenplay: Billy Ray
- Property Master: Robin L. Miller
- Director: Paul Greengrass
- Editor: Christopher Rouse
- Key Makeup Artist: Trish Seeney
- Costume Design: Mark Bridges
- Producer: Dana Brunetti
- Art Direction: Raymond Pumilia
- Production Sound Mixer: Tim Fraser
- Visual Effects Coordinator: Lisa Kelly
- Production Sound Mixer: Chris Munro
- Executive Producer: Gregory Goodman
- Art Direction: Paul Richards
- Original Music Composer: Henry Jackman
- Production Design: Paul Kirby
- Set Decoration: Dominic Capon
- Executive Producer: Eli Bush
- Second Unit Director of Photography: Niels Reedtz Johansen
- Costume Supervisor: Lynda Foote
- Property Master: David Cheesman
- Property Master: Steve George
- Construction Coordinator: Kevin Anthony
- Construction Coordinator: Joseph Kearney
- Casting: Debbie DeLisi
- Supervising Dialogue Editor: Bjorn Ole Schroeder
- Sound Effects Designer: Michael Fentum
- Foley Artist: Jason Swanscott
- Costume Coordinator: Ernest Camilleri
- Foley Mixer: Glen Gathard
- Music Editor: Richard Whitfield
- Location Manager: Colleen Gibbons
- Camera Operator: Cosmo Campbell
- Script Supervisor: Julia Chiavetta
- Script Supervisor: Annie Penn
- Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Chris Burdon
- Still Photographer: Jasin Boland
- Foley Editor: Mark Taylor
- Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Mike Prestwood Smith
- Music Editor: Daniel Pinder
- Location Manager: Ravi Dube
- Location Manager: Driss Benchhiba
- Art Direction: Charlo Dalli
- Leadman: Stephen G. Shifflette
- Supervising Sound Editor: Oliver Tarney
- Sound Effects Editor: Dillon Bennett
- Dialogue Editor: Rob Killick
- Supervising ADR Editor: Simon Chase
- Visual Effects Producer: Daniel Barrow
- Visual Effects Editor: Ed Cross
- Visual Effects Producer: Andy Taylor
- Visual Effects Producer: Kristopher Wright
- Visual Effects Supervisor: Adam Rowland
- Visual Effects Supervisor: Charlie Noble
- CG Supervisor: Stefan Gerstheimer
- CG Supervisor: Stuart Farley
- CG Supervisor: Martin Chamney
- Camera Operator: Sara Deane
- Camera Operator: Charles Libin
- Underwater Director of Photography: Mark Silk
- Aerial Director of Photography: Ron Goodman
- Still Photographer: Hopper Stone
- Chief Lighting Technician: Harry Wiggins
- Chief Lighting Technician: Frans Wetterings III
- Chief Lighting Technician: Jay Kemp
- Rigging Gaffer: Austin Cross
- Rigging Gaffer: Roger Marbury
- First Assistant Editor: Tom Harrison-Read
- First Assistant Editor: Kevin Hickman
- Visual Effects Editor: Tina Richardson
- Digital Intermediate Producer: Rob Farris
- Transportation Coordinator: Samuel Sharpe
- Location Manager: Mark Sansone
- Location Manager: Charles Harrington
- Translator: Owliya A. Dima
- First Assistant “B” Camera: Christopher Raymond
- Makeup Designer: Frances Hannon
- Assistant Sound Editor: Rachael Tate
- First Assistant Director: Chris Carreras
- Armorer: David Fencl
- CG Artist: Oliver Cubbage
- Special Effects Supervisor: Dominic Tuohy
- Supervising Music Editor: Jack Dolman
- Casting Associate: David Pinkus
- Casting Associate: Lynn Younglove
- Boom Operator: Richard Bullock Jr.
- Sound Mixer: Pud Cusack
- First Assistant “B” Camera: Kristopher Hardy
- Production Controller: Edward Allen
- Boom Operator: Steve Finn
- Costume Assistant: Gina Bonello
- Second Unit First Assistant Director: Eric Fox Hays
- First Assistant “A” Camera: Oliver Driscoll
- Negative Cutter: Mo Henry
- Key Grip: Charlie Marroquin
- Marine Coordinator: Daniel F. Malone
- Key Grip: Kevin Fraser
- Dolly Grip: David Rist
- Boom Operator: Joel Reidy
- Sequence Supervisor: Huw J. Evans
- Casting Assistant: Elizabeth Chodar
- ADR Recordist: Mike Tehrani
- Underwater Gaffer: Bernie Prentice
- Production Coordinator: Jonathan Scott
- First Assistant “C” Camera: Ethan Borsuk
- Assistant Chief Lighting Technician: Chris Mortley
- Production Coordinator: Sallie Beechinor
- Production Assistant: Sarah Michelle Attard
- Additional Editor: Mark Fitzgerald
- Makeup & Hair: Dorey Cilia
- Boom Operator: William Towers
- Compositing Supervisor: Tilman Paulin
- Assistant Editor: Esther Bailey
- Dolly Grip: James Heerdegen
- Best Boy Grip: Anthony Benjamin
- Production Secretary: Laurence Chisholm
- Production Secretary: Kevin Baulcomb
- Best Boy Electric: Tom Keenan
- Marine Coordinator: Bruce A. Ross
- Best Boy Grip: Nick Haines-Stiles
- CG Artist: Richard Durant
- Second Unit First Assistant Director: Ahmed Hatimi
- Key Grip: Frank Montesanto
- Graphic Designer: Trey Shaffer
- Second Assistant Director: Jason Altieri
- Production Coordinator: Widad Taha
- Second Unit First Assistant Director: Steve Battaglia
- Second Assistant Director: Mark S. Constance
- Second Unit Director: Chris Forster
- Key Rigging Grip: Charles A. Harris
- Production Accountant: S.R. Conger
- Second Assistant Director: Colin Azzopardi
- Dolly Grip: Andrew Sweeney
- Publicist: Jackie Bazan
- Second Assistant “A” Camera: Tonja Greenfield
- Visual Effects Coordinator: Mariana Mandelli
- ADR Engineer: Keir Stewart
- Best Boy Grip: Geoffrey Rockwell
- Rigging Grip: Gary Lambert
- Second Assistant “B” Camera: Jordan Boston Jones
- Second Assistant “C” Camera: Sam Pearcy
- Assistant Property Master: J. Edward Fitzgerald
- CG Artist: Christian Bull
- Matchmove Supervisor: David Crabtree
- Visual Effects Coordinator: Sara Emack
- Visual Effects Coordinator: Judith Gericke
- Marine Coordinator: Kenneth Manzoni
- Production Assistant: Clare Aldington
- Production Assistant: Jimmy Buxton
- Production Assistant: Denise Rowena Formosa
- Production Assistant: Joseph Quinn
- Production Assistant: Amy Roberts
- Production Assistant: Karen Xuereb
- Production Assistant: Harry Fallon
- Production Assistant: Scott Hatfield
- Translator: Mohamedamin Isaq Abdulrahman
- Casting Assistant: Michelle White
Movie Reviews:
- kineticandroid: Allow me to start with what you likely have already read — this film is well-crafted and tense procedural about a true story. The fact that I still found it tense and exciting, even when I already knew the ending (including the oft-mentioned Captain Phillips ending scene) is a high compliment.
So why tell this story? I took it as a meditation on powerlessness, a film that didn’t deal with heroes or villains, only victims. There’s a shipping crew that is easily sought out by pirates, and there are the pirates that ultimately fail. In either case, it’s not as if either side feels in control of their destiny. They’re just playing to some largely unseen authority. After the crew deflects the first attempted piracy in the film, one character says that as a union member, he didn’t sign up for this kind of danger. The reaction? He chose to work on a ship that went around the horn of Africa. “What did you expect?” he’s asked. Later, when one of the pirates steps on broken glass and injures he foot, he’s asked the very same question by his leaders. Even the two competing captains — the pirate and the title character — ultimately are swayed (or saved) by the power of the state. What did they expect? To be the one in control?
- Andres Gomez: Well done movie, good script and exceptional performances. Specially by Hanks and Abdi but also the rest of the pirates crew.
Hanks could have won the Oscar for this one.
- DoryDarko: Let me begin by saying that Captain Phillips, as an action film, turned out to be much more than I had initially anticipated. I was expecting half drama / half moderate action film with likely a good dash of political hopscotch. It’s probably a good thing then, that I knew next to nothing about the actual story, because I love a good surprise. Captain Phillips is two hours of absolutely intense and absolutely uncompromising physical and psychological anxiety. At the end of it, I literally had to sit for a minute and just breathe, because this story gripped me by the throat like few films in recent memory have.
For those still unfamiliar with the story – this is a retelling of a historical event; the first US cargo ship in 200 years to be hijacked by pirates. During which, its captain Richard Phillips is taken hostage by the pirates, on his own lifeboat no less.
I got the sense that, somewhere in between the lines it was the director’s intention to perhaps create an opening for a different story to be told: that of the Somali pirates, and why they do what they do. We are told that they are fishermen, and sheer poverty has driven them to these desperate acts. However, I don’t know for sure if I’m supposed to feel any sympathy for these men, if I was supposed to ‘understand’ their motives – if this was Paul Greengrass’ intention, it didn’t work. Because no matter which way you swing it, these pirates are the bad guys and that’s as clear as day. No degree of poverty or despair should be held as an excuse for such gruesome acts. Then again, if this was at all the point, I’m glad it wasn’t hammered down in any way. It was merely a thought, and one conveyed subtly enough for anyone to make up their own mind about this issue.
What is clear here, is that these men (only four of them, surprisingly) committed a terrible crime. Not even so much the piracy itself, but the kidnapping and abuse of one individual. This individual is played by Tom Hanks, and he delivers one of his most eloquent and restrained performances to date. Here is a man, a captain of a large cargo ship, who is usually very much in control of his life and a clearheaded leader of his crew – but who, in the heat of reality, is just as human as any of us and simply does the best he can, even when (in spite of overwhelming protocol) one simply doesn’t know what to do. Because protocol doesn’t apply to the emotions that take control of both the captain and his captors, when they face a situation none of them anticipated. This is immediately one if my favourite performances by Tom Hanks, whose strength here lies mostly in the quiet moments in between all the chaos surrounding him. You can tell that he never stops thinking, never stops analyzing his situation, no matter what the pirates do to intimidate him. He conveys it all in the eyes – all the fear and anxiety, while constantly staying calm and collected, trying to talk to his captors, never losing his head. Even when fighting for his life, there is an assertive calmness that comes across so strongly that you can do nothing but admire this man. Hanks’ performance is so convincing, it almost doesn’t look like acting anymore… and that’s a huge compliment.
The same goes for the other actors, especially the men playing the Somali pirates. Before being cast for this film, none of them had any acting experience, which makes their performances all the more impressive. Then, it also makes one wonder how much of a compliment it actually is when a director literally picks you off the street because apparently he thinks that you’re perfectly fit for the part of a menacing pirate, but that’s food for another discussion, another time… In any case, he was right about them. These men ARE absolutely convincing and authentic. Especially the leader of the gang, played by Barkhad Abdi, is right on the money. He needs nothing more than the look in his eyes to convince you that you’re right to feel absolutely terrified of him.
From a technical standpoint, Captain Phillips is very well made. My only grievance is Greengrass’ typical trademark: the shaky handy-cam. Here and there it’s almost enough to make you seasick, and I really wish he would ease up on this gimmick, because although it adds to the feeling of suspense and chaos, that doesn’t weigh up to the headache it causes. Steady-cam was invented for a reason, mister director. Use it. Still, the other qualities of the film are easily strong enough to make up for this one point of critique. The pacing is excellent, it grips you like a pitbull and never lets go until the credits roll in. Colouring and lighting effects are perfectly used for an incredibly realistic feel and claustrophobic atmosphere. Everything feels very real and absolutely no sentimental plot devices are exploited here. Top-notch screen writing.
I can do nothing other than strongly recommend this film. It is very intense and at times very violent, and definitely one of the best films in its genre. And if this doesn’t convince you, see it for one of Tom Hanks’ best performances of his career.
_(December 2014)_