Captain Phillips

Tom Hanks stars in this Academy Award-nominated drama directed by Paul Greengrass based on the real life hijacking of a US cargo ship by Somali pirates. The Maersk Alabama became the first US cargo ship to be hijacked in 200 years when heavily armed Somalis boarded the vessel on the 8th of April 2009. As commander of the ship, Captain Richard Phillips (Hanks) inevitably found himself at the heart of events.

Held hostage by the pirates under the command of Muse (Barkhad Abdi), Phillips attempts to protect both his crew and ship to the best of his ability. However, as the drama plays out and Phillips spends more time in the company of his Somali captors, he gradually comes to realise that they have a story, too. Far from the greedy, heartless thugs of pirate lore, the Somalis may well represent the forces of globalisation as surely as the Maersk Alabama – the underside.

With the stakes high, the crisis intensifies and someone will have to pay the price… The film was nominated for Oscars for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Abdi) and won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor (Abdi).

Critic Reviews:

• " My heart was in my mouth throughout. It is nail-bitingly exciting, even if you know the outcome, and I think I can safely say it's a better film than the one I thought I was going to see. " – Deborah Ross

• " The film's real muscle – intelligently never over-flexed – is as an allegory in the balance of global power and the value of life. " – Larushka Ivan-Zadeh

• " [W]e're carried along not just by the momentum of events, but by the precision with which they're depicted. " – Jonathan Romney

Note: This is an imported product that has been officially rated by the Film and Video Labelling Body of New Zealand. As this is sourced from overseas, the discs may not play on standard DVD players.