The mad, forgetful Bootstrap Bill was another strange, surrealist character figure, particularly in the scene where Elizabeth finds him on the Dutchman. He's pathetic and imprisoned in his own uncertainty, caught between mindless loyalty to Davey and futile, misguided hope in his son. Being part of the ship has made him tragic and amnesiac, able to repeat a conversaion as if he's having it for the first time, and it establishes his character as a unique, unpredictable force, both emotionally and narratively. In this sense, he shares a kinship with Mulholland Dr.'s Diane Selwyn, who first appears as a distraught, disturbed, and emotionally crippled actress at a low point in her career.
There's also the sick anatomy stuff that keeps kicking us gently in the face. The scene where Jack's doppelganger licks his own brain is priceless. The death by tentacle lobotomy is pretty brilliant, too. These are the signature scenes of a filmmaker who really wants our attention.
I'm not going to sit here and say I liked Pirates III because it was, like a Lynch film, a profound, avant-garde piece of art cinema, or a masterpiece of surrealist post-modern narrative. But it did share something with Lynch: it was an explosive, ecstatic act of filmmaking, almost childlike in its lack of inhibition.
This is the maelstrom, take it as it is: a mad cinema freakout that none of us could have expected from Gore Verbinski, hard to follow, but insanely engaging on a dramatic and aesthetic level. Don't hold back, Gore. I'm right behind you.
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Article comments
1 - Claire
I'm glad I read your review. I was a bit disappointed by the film because of its incoherence. However, I did enjoy all the parts you describe here, so perhaps I wasn't disappointed, simply confused.
2 - Phil Ryan
People seem to forget that movies are about entertainment... at least the film critics too often do. I went to this film with my teenage kids, and we all had a ball: it was great fun! It was crazy silly stupid unreal but fun!
Thanks for the nice intellectual comments on the film though... they will go down well in arguments against the too-stuffy-by-half brigade who would criticize anything just because it is designed as blockbuster.
3 - couch tato
hmm u bring an interestin view about mullholand dr which i spent a sleepless night tryin to figure it out
i loved this flickbut my main disappointment was introducing too many characters and storylines all in one go which they could have done before
it left me confused and unhappy to say the least...the supersaturated this thing
4 - Mukta
This was a great review.
Before watching it, my husband and I thought that with all the average reviews,this movie must have failed in a way that most sequels do- failing to bring something new to powerful first n second parts.We just went to watch out of loyalty to ol'Jack -to see what he is upto now, but we were surprised. For a change, it wasnt just Dep's creation that held centre stage. The scenes you mentioned were a delightful surprise-providing the perfect combination with Jack's madness,and their pointlessness was refreshing,it was intellectually stimulating and I couldnt even tell why and how before i read your review!
5 - Jesse
Hey, thanks for the comments, everybody. It's great to see that mass culture hasn't numbed our brains past the point of discussion and mutual appreciation.