As an avid movie enthusiast, I seized the opportunity last weekend to watch “Captain Phillips,” the two-hour account of the 2009 hijacking of the USS Maersk Alabama by Somali Pirates.
I dare not make the audacious claim my money was wasted. On the contrary, “Captain Phillips” is a spectacular movie. Bolstered by memorable performances from Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdi, “Captain Phillips” doesn’t fail to entertain the viewer.
However, after one particular scene where a number of the pirates are murdered, a member of the audience barked a witless “Yes!” at the screen.
The viewer’s cheer struck me as a reflection of the movie’s biggest failure: “Captain Phillips” neglects the context in which the Somali pirates take up arms.
Thus, the audience is left with an incomplete story, where a malicious band of maritime criminals attack an innocent Bostonian Captain and his crew.
Opponents will be brisk in pointing out the movie is supposed to be strictly based upon the narrative of Richard Phillips, a narrative that according to CNN has been contested by members of the ship’s crew.
What these individuals don’t want viewers to know is the truth about Somali pirates, a truth that briefly surfaces in an exchange between the captain and the leader of the pirates.
In an attempt to understand his captors, Phillips asks them if there’s something that defines them other than being fishermen or kidnapping people.
The leader replies coldly, “maybe in America.”
The leader, Muse, is expressing a sense of despair over the destruction of his livelihood.
This is an issue that often goes unnoticed, as the West has been destroying the livelihood of Somali fishermen for years.
In a Huffington Post article, Somali-Canadian activist named K’naan illustrated how European companies are said to have paid warlords in Somalia for their approval of dumping toxic waste in the water, a $3-per-ton expense that would be unthinkably low in Europe.
The article also highlights the diverse and grotesque compilation of waste being dumped — including lead, uranium and mercury.
According to Slate, European companies aren’t the only perpetrators of this environmental crime as reports have surfaced of the Italian mafia also using the waters as their dumping grounds.
When these ships, legal or illegal, fill Somali waters with their waste it destroys the livelihood of those fishermen who rely on the Indian Ocean to survive.
So why have these companies and organizations chosen Somalia?
Somalia is ideal simply because there was no authority before the pirates emerged.
According to BBC, there has not been a stable centralized government in Somalia since 1991.
The land has been disputed between warlords and Islamic militants, creating an environment ripe for illegal business.
However, “Captain Phillips” fails to capture this larger picture.
Instead it depicts drug-chewing pirates — the plant is called Khat, and coincidentally kills off the users’ appetite — whose only goal is to get as much money as they can from an unarmed ship.
Hopefully, if Hanks or Abdi should receive an Oscar, they should be graceful enough to recognize the full context of the story in which they’ve played a role.
Richard Vieira is a UF political science senior. His column runs on Fridays. A version of this column ran on page 6 on 10/18/2013 under the headline "‘Captain Phillips’ paints incomplete story"
