lease turn in any outstanding or late work as well as your final film analysis by the end of the week!
Assignment Summary
Since the 1920s Hollywood movies and television series have portrayed the lives of pirates in and around the Caribbean region. Students are required to select an individual film and write a substantive and thoughtful critique utilizing materials learned in class and in course readings. The ultimate purpose of this assignment is to see what you “carry forward” from this class and how you can put it to work in thinking critically about representations of piracy that you’ll encounter in the future.
Critiques should be 3-5 pages in length and follow standard paper formatting (double spaced, 12 point, MLA citation). While citing materials from the class is not a requirement, I would encourage you to do so where appropriate.
There are several titles to choose from (listed below). Please note that papers should NOT be a synopsis of the plot or a description of your favorite/least favorite character or even a description of some aspects of the film. This is the biggest “mistake” I tend to see on these papers: a paper that is ultimately descriptive rather than analytical. Rather, you are expected to comment on the choices made by the makers of the film/game concerning how pirates are portrayed and to think about that critically.
Here is a sample academic journal article that investigates the representation of piracy in the Disneyland ride, Pirates of the Caribbean movies as well as older Hollywood films. It goes over a lot of the material we covered in class and might give you some ideas.
Michael Digh “Pirates without piracy: criminality, rebellion and anarcho-libertarianism inthe pirate film”
Questions to consider
Here are some questions to consider, based on the work we’ve done in class. I”m not suggesting you answer all of these (!!), just that one or more of these might help you frame your reading of the movie and prompt you into a more analytical or critical rather than descriptive mindset:
How are pirates portrayed in this film/series and how does it compare to portrayals we’ve seen in other movies or other books? If you think comparatively like this, don’t just list the differences or similarities; think about why the differences matter (or don’t).
Remember that Kinkor wrote that utterly divorced from historical reality, the romantic appeal of fiction such as Treasure Island is undeniable and pervasive and has contributed to shrouding pirates in the mists of myth and myopia. The portrayal of pirates as aberrant and predatory individuals prompted by greed, adventurism and/or simple perversity also safely insulates audiences from the broader socio-economic implications or piracy. The focus is on the voyages, the crimes and the personalities rather than the motivations for the crimes, the context for the voyages and the principles. Do you think Kinkor’s statement applies to the film/series you’ve selected? If so, how? What is left out of the story? Think, for example, of Mutiny on the Bounty and how it might be the photographic inverse of a pirate film – depicting all that is typically left out.
What is the historical moment being portrayed in the movie (Renaissance piracy, the Golden Age of piracy, later piracy?) How does it matter – or does it not matter? (For example, does representing a certain historical moment of piracy make a commentary about class or about political beliefs?) How would you compare it to the historiography we’ve been reading of piracy? What aspects of piracy are picked up on? What aspects of piracy are downplayed or invisible?
Thinking about the reading we did with Bart Robert’s articles: how would you describe the culture, values or principles associated with piracy in the film? What do the pirates want and how do they relate to others? And then think about why this might matter.
Does the film tell you anything about what life on the ship might have been like for sea-faring men/women more generally – do you get a sense of the collectivity that seems to have been important in historical piracy – or does it focus, instead, on the exemplary figure of a captain or leader?
Dawdy and Bonni write that “piracy, because of its moral ambiguity, lends itself to quite different material fantasies, and quite different political interpretations.” What fantasy do you see being played out in the film through the figure of piracy? Or, what is the “cultural work” being done by piracy in the film? Are the pirates figures of utopian counter-spaces, public enemies, or figures of ambivalent relations to a country’s particular history? Is there a pirate utopia or heterotopia represented?
Dawdy and Bonni define piracy as a “morally ambiguous property seizure committed by an organized group.” Does the film/series say anything about property and about “legitimate or legal” ways to acquire and distribute property? Can you read anxieties about wealth, money and accumulation in the film?
Can you comment on constructions of race and gender in the film/series and what we know about race, gender and piracy? Why does this matter?
Does the movie tie piracy into other stories about imperialism, trade & money, questions of state power, slavery, work and labor etc.? Or is piracy represented as an ahistorical and time-less phenomena?
Think about the novel Treasure Island (and before that Captain Charles Johnsons’ accounts of pirate lives) as the matrix or blue-print for many contemporary tellings of piracy. That is, it establishes the form or the kinds of stories we can tell. How does the film/series you are analyzing relate to Treasure Island – what does it copy or carry forward from that novel? On the other hand, does it try to rewrite or unwrite the stereotypes of piracy that we get from that novel?
In the case of specific adaptations of Treasure Island, how would you compare the movie to the book? How does it rewrite the story – or how does it read the story? What aspects does it highlight or downplay?
While Crossbones is a novel it is also a theoretical reflection on the archive of stories we tell about piracy and how that might relate to the contemporary moment: could you say the same about the film/series you’re analyzing?
What am I looking for?
I am interested principally in your ability to be smart, insightful and thoughtful; i.e. content! This also means that I’m not terribly impressed by having you simply regurgitate things I have said in class. I want to see evidence of the development of your own critical thinking.
I am interested in your ability to synthesize across disparate materials. Try to avoid either speaking on the one hand in broad, vague generalities, without any specific references to the material at hand, and on the other hand writing a paper that is a collection of small details but that doesnt contain a larger movement of syntheses and conclusions. Be sure to include specific quotes from the readings and specific descriptions/quotes from the documentary.
I am interested in your ability to write concisely. Many students have gotten in the habit of writing sentences that are all fluff and no content or of saying in five long vague sentences what could be said in one sentence.
While you should always be pushing to expand the boundaries of your vocabulary students often insert too many complicated words in an effort to be sophisticated and end up either simply using words incorrectly or making their writing too garbled to read. I will be looking for precision in your word choices.
Your assignments should have a logical progression, rather than jump randomly from idea to idea.
Use correct formal written English. Avoid slang and colloquial expressions. I also expect your final assignment to be free of spelling and grammar errors. This also means you should avoid run–on sentences and sentence fragments (i.e. every sentence needs a subject and a verb!!) If English is not your native language and you struggle with some grammatical aspects you should get in the habit of asking someone else with greater mastery of the language to check it over. (I do this myself when I need to undertake writing projects in languages I am fluent in but do not fully master, so there’s no shame in it! Its just a good practice!) You may go to the UCI writing center for help: http://www.writingcenter.uci.edu/Links to an external site.
Grading Rubric
An “A” paper will make a specific argument about the film/game you’re analyzing and not simply be a description of the film. It will also make smart, interesting and thoughtful connections between different class materials and the film/game you’ve chosen to analyze, showing me that you’re thinking about the different concepts that have been introduced in class in ways that go beyond our class discussions. It will be smooth and well-written, free of grammatical mistakes.
A “B” paper will be a competent reflection on class materials, which shows that you’ve understood a good portion of the reading and are thinking about the material. It will contain a good account of the film/game you’re analyzing but may be more descriptive than argumentative. There may be minor errors in grammar, or minor problems in the organization of your thoughts or writing.
A “C” paper or below will demonstrate basic competence with materials. It will show that you’ve read the materials but may have more significant problems in grammar, writing, or organization of thoughts. It may be underdeveloped and may also not give a sufficient enough of an account of the film/game you’ve selected to analyze.
Any paper below a C will fall short in significant ways from the expectations outlined above: it will be much too short, or not really engage with the materials or question at hand.
Movies/materials that are acceptable for this final project (I may consider other ones but you should email me to request them specifically):
1 – Peter Pan
2 The Black Pirate (1926)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0016654/
(Links to an external site.)
3 Captain Kidd (1945)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1cYCp8jCtg&feature=player_embedded
(Links to an external site.)
4 Treasure Island (1950) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Island_(1950_film)
(Links to an external site.)
5 – Treasure Island (1990)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1QThmO1J2E
(Links to an external site.)
6 – Treasure Island (2012)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1820723/
(Links to an external site.)
7 – Treasure Planet (2002)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133240/
(Links to an external site.)
8 – Any of the Pirates of the Caribbean (with Johnny Depp) movies (1-5)
9 – Black Sails, episodes from season 1
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2375692/
(Links to an external site.)
(You should be aware that this show contains sexually explicit scenes and more violence than the other options on this list)
10 – Assasin’s Creed IV (game) – Black Flag. Please note that I think this option is more challenging than the other ones since it is an interactive game experience.
Last Completed Projects
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