Captain Blood

If Michael Bay was alive and working as a director back in the 1930s then Captain Blood may very well have been the sort of film he would've made. On the surface it's a good slice of buccaneering fun but that's all it is - surface. Captain Blood is the sort of film that people watched in the 1930s for mindless action. It doesn't take anything for granted in terms of audience knowledge regarding the historical background surrounding the story, so we get written text on screen explaining the historical context of certain plot points. In short, everything is spelled out clearly. Errol Flynn even speaks his thoughts directly to the camera at some points, EG. "I just made a mistake". It doesn't come across as completely idiotic but it's easy to see the film as a 1930s equivalent to the lowest common denominator action/adventure films we get now (Prince of Persia, Transformers, etc).

Errol Flynn makes his Hollywood debut as Peter Blood, a 17th century doctor sold into slavery in the Caribbean after being accused of treason. In the West Indies he quickly rises to a more privileged position amongst the slave heirarchy due to his talent as a doctor, and uses his position to engineer a mass slave escape. They steal a ship and become pirates, with the film following his unusual life - a career of piracy distinguished by an uncommon intelligence. He stands above his pirate peers due to his ideals, and when the opportunity arises for him to win back honourable citizenship from the British government he takes up arms against Spanish invaders.

The plot is more like a series of episodes in Blood's life than a single well-constructed narrative, but this deficiency isn't really that noticeable due to the energy and enthusiasm of the overall film... colourful characters and wonderfully blocked action sequences help drive home the kind of iconic kind of adventuring that's become synonymous with classic pirate movies and Errol Flynn's swashbuckling. Whilst Peter Blood is actually a fictional figure, a lot of the plot points in the film are based quite closely on real events. I had my doubts about the story's general veracity, but that tale uses certain facts as a licence to romantacise a life of supposedly honourable piracy. It's an issue that's plagued the pirate subgenre throughout cinematic history... how do you make a film about pirates that's able to earn the audience's sympathy whilst remaining realistic?


Flynn is dashing and debonair as Blood, with a heroically crooked smile and an aptitude for physicality. At the heart of his character is a clash of ideals - his duty to his fellow man as a physician vs. his duty to his King and country. We, the audience (and the American filmmakers), can see quite clearly that his calling as a doctor should have priority... the aristocracy in the West Indies represent the system that punishes Blood, and they're depicted in a comical and hypocritical manner. Yet Blood still yearns for acceptance because he's heroic in every sense - a hero to the establishment as much as a hero to the common man. Flynn does a great job of balancing the character's contradictions - he navigates his way quite ably around the film's wordy wit, shows a keen understanding of the irony inherent in Blood's relationship with Arabella (Olivia de Havilland), and handles swordfights with the easy smile that comes with the jolly life of a pirate.

Director Michael Curtiz gives it a slick, effortless look thanks to extended location shooting and a large budget. He also has a good eye for visual construction, such as the scene where the camera moves in past toiling slaves towards a man being whipped, or through his memorably staged duelling and battle scenes. Anyway, it's a really fun film.

DIRECTOR: Michael Curtiz
WRITER/SOURCE: Script by Casey Robinson, based on the book by Rafael Sabatini (which was loosely based on the exploits of the pirates Henry Morgan and Thomas Blood, and the Monmouth Rebellion).
KEY ACTORS: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Lionel Atwill, Ross Alexander, Guy Kibbee, Henry Stephenson

RELATED TEXTS:
- The novel Captain Blood written by Rafael Sabatini in 1922. This was followed by two sequel novels, Captain Blood Returns and The Fortunes of Captain Blood.
- Previously adapted as a silent film in 1924, Captain Blood. Also adapted as a French film in 1960, The Captain.
- The Errol Flynn film was sequelised in 1962 as Son of Captain Blood, written by the same screenwriter and featuring Flynn's son, Sean Flynn, in the title role. The sequel novels were also adapted seperately as Captain Pirate and The Fortunes of Captain Blood in the 1950s, starring Louis Haywood and Patricia Medina.
- Errol Flynn returned to the high seas in The Sea Hawk.
- Flynn and de Havilland made a total of eight films together, the other seven were The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Four's a Crowd, Dodge City, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, Santa fe Trail and They Died With Their Boots On.

AWARDS
Academy Awards - nominated for Best Film, Best Director, Best Sound, Best Writing and Best Music.