I don’t plan to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, but that’s just personal preference–I just didn’t like its silly predecessor. But my guess is Randians will hate this movie. Read the “>description of the Johnny Depp character, Captain Jack Sparrow–you can just hear Randroids groaning. Sparrow is “a character so jaunty, seemingly drug-addled and crazily erratic — all based upon a caricature of Rolling Stones rocker Keith Richards — that it completely defied most modern archetypes for the action/adventure protagonist.”
“Where Superman is all masculinity, Jack Sparrow is a complete goofball modeled on Keith Richards,” said William Luhr, a professor of English and film at Saint Peter’s College in New Jersey.
“He comes off as quite a bizarre character, sometimes a goofy, fun pirate; other times quite dark with a dastardly smile and a cutlass, but he’s essentially just a goofy clown — sometimes really falling short as a pirate.”
The quirky Sparrow is part of a complete revolution in how Hollywood portrays male lead characters, said Christopher Sharrett, a professor of communications and film studies at Seton Hall University in New Jersey.
“We’ve seen a big change from the concept of the masculine hero in the days of John Wayne, Errol Flynn and Clark Gable, and now we’re seeing an era of much more untraditional characters,” he said.
“Whereas in the past Hollywood films wanted you to believe you were seeing a reflection of the real world, their characters models of masculinity and femininity, now that’s not the case — instead most characters seem to be throwbacks to a new wave of heroes that don’t take themselves seriously,” he said. “Depp as this comic hero is really a continuation of the deconstruction by Hollywood of masculinity.”
What’s the criticism gonna be–whim-worshipping, or hatred-of-man-qua-man? Ha ha ha. Hey guys–sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. And sometimes a silly movie is just a silly movie.
4:14 pm on July 7, 2006
