In the summer of 2003 ‘ Pirates of the Caribbean the Legend of the Black Pearl’ was released and it kept the world captive. With the all-star cast of Johnny Depp (Captain jack sparrow), Orlando Bloom (William Turner), Kiera Knightly (Elizabeth Turner) and Geoffrey Rush (Captain Barbosa) there was no doubt that the world would love this film. It was based on the Walt Disney ride Pirates of the Caribbean. The film also made a colossus profit of $653 million.
Because of the success of the film a sequel has been made called ‘ Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Mans Chest’ and there is also a 3rd to film to come. Another lucrative programme which came out in August of 2005 was ‘ Lost’, the hit TV show. The producers of this show are Buena Vista, they spent approximately $10 million just on the first series, and Buena Vista had on all-star cast staring people such as Mathew Foxx (Jack Sheppard) and Dominic Monaghan (Charlie Pace), the show kept the world captive (drew in over 25million viewers) and the next series is eagerly awaited.
When jack sparrow is first introduced in the second scene he appears to be a majestic character, but when the camera angle changes form a low angled medium close up which made Jack look empowering to a high angle long shot which changed the empowering idea to a sympathetic view of him because his ship is sinking into the depth of the sea, although the audience are sympathetic for Jack the audience also think this as being humorous, because he is hopelessly trying to remove water from his sinking vessel.
The way he talks to the Dock Master after he arrives in port on the mast of the ship that we saw before is sly because he pay him to forget his name and when he is leaving the pier he steal the Dock Masters pouch of coins that is on a pedestal with some note books, the audience likes jack at this point because he is a sly character with a lot of charisma and still feel sympathetic for Captain Jack Sparrow. Jack Sheppard’s entrance is completely different to Captain Jack Sparrows because the first thing we see is and extreme close-up of Jack Sheppard’s eye.
This is significant because the eye is said to be the window to the soul so straight from the beginning we should be able to tell what Jack hopes, fears, dreams and what type of character he will be from those few seconds that we see of the eye, jack has also been put into an enclosed environment which shows that he is trapped and the cuts that he has are significant because they show that Jack is also vulnerable as well so this lets us relate to him and his situation that he is in. after this we see Jack running through the jungle. The music plays an important part in setting the scene for later events.
The music is being played on a single instrument, a violin. This is also significant because it reflects the fact that Jack Sheppard is also alone running through the jungle environment. In the rescue scene of ‘ Pirates of the Caribbean’ Elizabeth falls over a wall because she has fainted, when Jack and some guards see this Jack automatically assumes that the guards will save her but they don’t go straight into save her and when Jack Hears their excuses he then realises that it is up to him to go and save Ms Elizabeth so jack finally jumps in to save her.
I think that Jack didn’t want to save her because he doesn’t want any unwanted attention drawn to himself; this is because he does not want to be found out about being a pirate, and the reason for this is that if he does get found out he will be executed. When he is forced to save Elizabeth he does act fast and heroically. The rescue scene in ‘ Lost’ is much different because Jack Sheppard is much quicker to react to the situation he is put into.
Jack Sheppard is on a beach where the plane had crashed and finds he is trying to save as many people he possible can for example he steps in front of a plane engine that is still rotating to help some one stuck under some of the wreckage. To get the effect of panic Hand held cameras where used so that you get all the drama from a new point of view, this angle works because it does create the sense of panic and chaos that you wouldn’t get from other angles.
The significance of both of the rescues are that Captain Jack Sparrow is drawn to the medallion that Elizabeth has and in ‘ Lost’ Jack Sheppard saving all of the people is significant because he was not able to save his farther. Even though both of the characters are different they do have some similar qualities like, both of the characters can adapt to different situations they are put in and they both can change the situations they are in. After Captain Jack Sparrow has rescued Elizabeth he get unfairly judged by Commodore Norrington and is arrested.
Even though we have not seen much of Jack the audience are expecting him to make a miraculous escape. This shows how charismatic and likeable the character is. When Jack is being escorted out of the docking area Elizabeth pleads that Jack is not to harm Jack because he was her saviour, as her pleads go unheard Jack is plotting his own escape. Jacks plan was to take Ms Swan hostage and threatens to harm her and when he does this he get Elizabeth to replace his belt and hat, when she is doing this he uses the term ‘ I scratched your back now you scratch mine’, from this we can interpret that this was part of his plan to escape.
After the rescue scene in ‘ Lost’ Jack Sheppard disappears from the beach we see jack in the jungle where he is trying to clean his wounds. This shows that Jack is a vulnerable character and this lets us relate to him. After this we see one of the other characters (Kate) finds jack, and help him stitch his wound up, this shows that Jack like every other person also needs help.
In conclusion, both Jacks have heroic qualities, But Jack Sheppard is the true hero, for example when we first see Jack Sheppard on the beach he helps everyone else before he helps himself, from this we can clearly see that Jack Sheppard is a hero. Although Captain Jack Sparrow has heroic qualities, we can associate same anti-heroic traits to the character of Jack Sparrow. For example he steals some coins from the Dock Master, Even though Jack Sparrow has both hero and anti-hero traits I think I would put him in the middle of both categories.
Read next:
Batman Begins
