Thursday, January 11, 2007
The Dread Pirate Who?
I've mentioned the movie The Princess Bride by William Goldman before. Here's another plug for this fine film: Goldman isn't Shakespeare, but only because it's not so easy to invent new words these days. As a story, it's amongst the best you'll see, and that's the truth. It's got everything, including Mandy Patinkin's favorite role (or so he has said) wherein he gets to say "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die" over and over. It's fun. And the movie also has a character often referred to, not exactly ever met, named the "Dread Pirate Roberts." Okay, Cary Elwey's character, Westly the Farm Boy, was the Dread Pirate Roberts for a time while the audience was out doing something else, but really you never see the man, and I won't tell you why so as not so spoil anything for you.
Now, yesterday I saw, on the History Channel, a program about the Real Pirates of the Caribbean. Some interesting tidbits: there has never been a single treasure map found, because the crew would never let the captain bury the loot. The ships were amazingly democratic: if the crew didn't like the Captain, they'd vote him out and replace him with someone else. (That doesn't make them good people, but it's an interesting tidbit, isn't it?) Also, pirates weren't at all romantic: they were the worst society had to offer. Some of them are of course quite famous. Henry Morgan, for whom the famous rum is named, was a privateer, but he set the tone. After Queen Anne's War, when England, Holland, Spain and France were all chummy again, the privateers were out of work, and that's when piracy as we've heard of it got started. Captain Kidd, infamous as he is, captured two (2) ships during his career. Blackbeard got a few more, about forty (40) in fact. But there was one pirate so fearsome that his very name struck terror into the hearts of people all over the world. He captured over seven-hundred (700) ships in his time. He was truly a dread pirate, and his name was, you ready for this?, Roberts. Bartholomew Roberts, better known as "Black Bart" Roberts. How about that, eh? The Dread Pirate Roberts is an historical figure, not a figment of Goldman's imagination. That just blew me away.
Of course, in the movie, the D.P.R. didn't come to a bad end. The real guy, attacked when his crew was too drunk to put up a fight, stood at the rail and dared the English to shoot him. They did: grapeshot, right in the chest. His crew got his body sunk in chains before it could be captured and displayed, then they surrendered. In the movie though, what happens is . . .
Oh, no, you just rent the thing for yourself if you want to know!
Steve
Now, yesterday I saw, on the History Channel, a program about the Real Pirates of the Caribbean. Some interesting tidbits: there has never been a single treasure map found, because the crew would never let the captain bury the loot. The ships were amazingly democratic: if the crew didn't like the Captain, they'd vote him out and replace him with someone else. (That doesn't make them good people, but it's an interesting tidbit, isn't it?) Also, pirates weren't at all romantic: they were the worst society had to offer. Some of them are of course quite famous. Henry Morgan, for whom the famous rum is named, was a privateer, but he set the tone. After Queen Anne's War, when England, Holland, Spain and France were all chummy again, the privateers were out of work, and that's when piracy as we've heard of it got started. Captain Kidd, infamous as he is, captured two (2) ships during his career. Blackbeard got a few more, about forty (40) in fact. But there was one pirate so fearsome that his very name struck terror into the hearts of people all over the world. He captured over seven-hundred (700) ships in his time. He was truly a dread pirate, and his name was, you ready for this?, Roberts. Bartholomew Roberts, better known as "Black Bart" Roberts. How about that, eh? The Dread Pirate Roberts is an historical figure, not a figment of Goldman's imagination. That just blew me away.
Of course, in the movie, the D.P.R. didn't come to a bad end. The real guy, attacked when his crew was too drunk to put up a fight, stood at the rail and dared the English to shoot him. They did: grapeshot, right in the chest. His crew got his body sunk in chains before it could be captured and displayed, then they surrendered. In the movie though, what happens is . . .
Oh, no, you just rent the thing for yourself if you want to know!
Steve
Labels: Writing
