Pirates of the Caribbean 3

Last weekend we finally watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End, henceforth referred to simply as POC3. It is in the nature of all IT professionals to acronymate titles and such... and to make up words like 'acronymate'.

I had heard this movie was long and confusing and not worthy of it's predecessors, so we rented it mainly for the kids. Boy, was I led astray! There were points where it was weird- artsy weird. But I never felt lost or put off by any hyperabstractionism. Rather, I thought there was not only good action and interesting scenery, but a solid plot line with some nice twists.

For some reason, the opening song has been stuck in my head. Perhaps it is the dreary gray cave I work in. It has the same kind of morbid catchiness as the Orc song "Where there's a whip, there's a way" from the old LOTR cartoons. (If you don't know what LOTR is, please stop reading my blog and grab a Dr. Seuss book.) While sitting at the computer tonight and fixing the IIS setup for my chat room application, my wife is clicking away on my BlackBerry playing asteroids and she starts to whistle the very tune that has been haunting me. This began a discussion and a googling for the lyrics to that Poeish peom, which in turn turned into a finding and further discussion... wait... what did I just say? Oh, buggar!

My beloved brought up the point that she thought the song was perhaps a summoning, which idea was supported by the odd reaction of the Admiral when notified that the pirates were singing. He replied, "Finally." Then I came across this post which elaborates:

I love that song. And it turns out to be quite important. Barbosa mentions to Sao Feng that “the song has been sung” while holding a piece of eight up. If you watch the opening scene, the boy also has a piece of eight. The lyrics to the song (emphasis added) are “The king [pirate king] and his men [the lords] took the queen from her bed [Calypso from the sea] and bound her in her bones. [locked her in human form]” This is the song that calls the Pirate brethren together and is a reminder of what they had done. Beckett, when told that they were singing, looks relieved and says “finally” as if he was expecting this to happen and is the signal he had been waiting for. So much detail in that movie. I love it! Glad you liked it to.

I think that is a great analysis and representative of the depth that is really woven throughout the story. I appreciated the quasitragic ending as well, with William and Elizabeth being separated ten years at a time just to spend one day together. Not quite a greek tragedy but not quite a typical cotton-candy ending either. I thought the movie was a good story and well told.

Now, see if you can find the words that I blatantly made up. There should be three... the rest are either typos or one of us is ignorant (I vote for 'you').

And for your listening pleasure: http://www.neitzey.net/hoistthecolors.mp3

My beloved and I will listen to this over and over while she finishes reading The Count of Monte Cristo (not a sandwich) and I endeavor to defeat the Azteks with the Chinese in the next campaign of Age of Empires 3: Asian Dynasties.