How three filmmakers fulfilled the role of propagandist by presenting modern piracy to their audience.
Modern piracy has been a global issue since the turn of the 21st century as a direct result of the rise in sophisticated, organised groups of pirates attacking ships off the coast of Africa, Asia and, to a lesser extent, South America; holding crews for ransom or taking valuable cargo that is subsequently sold to buyers in pre-arranged agreements (BBC and Coughlan, 2006). This type of piracy is vastly different from the swashbuckling heroic pirate traditionally played by Errol Flynn on film and, more recently, revived by Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. However, in examining such traditional representations of piracy on the high seas, Understanding Film Theory 2011 states: “These popular narratives have an underlying moral message. All swashbuckling stories expose the dangers of an all-powerful elite class, which given free rein tyrannises and exploits the less fortunate for materialistic gain” (Etherington-Wright and Doughty, 2011). While modern piracy is less glamorous than that shown by Errol Flynn, does it give filmmakers a platform in their role of propagandist to challenge the political establishment in the same way?
Propaganda is, by definition, “information, especially of a biased or misleading nature used to promote a political cause or point of view” (Oxford Dictionaries | English, 2017). This essay will analyse the points of view that are conveyed in three films: Tobias Lindholm’s Kapringen (A Hijacking) (2012); Cutter Hodierne’s Fishing Without Nets (2012); and Paul Greengrass’s Captain Phillips (2013). It will examine how the directors may be considered propagandists with a view to assessing the theory that their cinematic products seek to influence public opinion on a topic – in this case, modern piracy – projecting the narrative from specific perspectives in order to encourage the audience to think about piracy in very specific ways.
The cinematography of all three movies actively reinforces the directors’ perspectives. In Lindholm’s Kapringen, it is important to note that, in order to establish a realistic environment for the narrative, it was actually shot on a genuine cargo ship, the MV Rozen, that was hijacked off the coast of Somalia. Also, the telephone conversations between Omar and Peter Ludvigsen were filmed with the actors in Kenya and Denmark respectively, again to help with realism and tension (Times and Olsen, 2013).
The opening scene maximises the impact of the authenticity by framing the character Hartmann against the open sea while he is on the phone to his family. There are several medium close-up shots of him in a similar vein that serve to present him as the main protagonist, whilst drawing attention to the juxtaposition of his life at sea and that with his family. This portrayal as family man positions Hartmann as a signifier of the film’s central idea about the human cost capitalism and corporate power. This introduction also frames the narrative by providing an environment in which neither the pirates nor the captives are in their own spatial field, instead framing them as displaced (Villarejo, 2013). This actively reinforces the power that those in the office – and by extension the corporate world – have over the fate of all those on board, and highlights the function of the movie as propaganda.
On the other hand, the cinematography in Hodierne’s Fishing Without Nets deliberately forces a shift in the discussion of modern piracy, presenting it through the eyes of the pirates, who also happen to be poor Somali fishermen with limited prospects and no other way of making a living. Although some scenes are cinematic, in that they are shot with smooth camera work and dramatic lighting (Bordwell & Thompson, 2016), it appears that the pirates are being interviewed for a documentary as a result of the medium close-up and the way in which they speak to camera. This is juxtaposed in the next scene with an unsteady camera that follows them to the ship, which is more reminiscent of observational documentaries. It is also supported by narration from the pirates, who discuss strategy and why they do what they do: “We don’t have to shoot! Only shoot if they don’t cooperate!” (Hodierne, 2012, 00:01:41-00:01:47), blurring the lines between fiction and documentary and creating realism in the form of a pseudo-documentary, which encourages the audience to empathise with those who feel that they have no choice but to become a “hapless criminal” (Macaulay, 2012). Fishing Without Nets re-establishes the importance of modern piracy on the political agenda but challenges the status quo, with its pseudo-documentary style demonstrating how far the deliberate use of the issue as propaganda may be manipulated by the individual filmmaker.
Editing is also important in the films’ roles as propaganda, in conjunction with cinematography. In Kapringen, the camerawork lends a sense of reality to the narrative, following the characters in the office and on the MV Rosen in a disjointed and often shaky way. However, it is the way in which the takeover of the ship is filmed that highlights the experience of the hostages. Although the takeover is revealed via a phone call to the CEO of the shipping company, Peter Ludvigsen, and is never actually shown in the film, the treatment of those on the ship is depicted as chaotic, with the camera rapidly cutting from Hartmann’s face to their Somali captors, to a medium close-up of the captain being rushed away from the rest. The abrupt cut to the relative silence of the shipping company’s office demonstrates their distance from the events, as does the editing of the scenes in which the CEO negotiates via speakerphone – as mentioned above, these were filmed in real time. This starkly highlights the difference in the players’ perspectives in the drama but also draws attention to Lindholm’s subtle reference to money being worth more than human life. Similar techniques are used in Captain Philips. Paul Greengrass is well known for using a handheld camera and a frenetic style that disorientates the audience, shown in The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) (Buhler and Newton, 2015). In Captain Phillips, the editing serves to deliberately frame the pirates as the archetypal “bad guys”, promoting the “West versus the Other” formula that has often been associated with race, and perceived as a threat to a specific way of life (Newman, 1996), steering the audience away from any empathy towards the pirates. While the film is tonally very different to the others in this essay, particularly with its pro-US action movie third act (Bradshaw, 2013) and lack of left wing agenda discussed below, it demonstrates that similar techniques may result in radically different outcomes for an audience. How Captain Phillips himself is portrayed many reports suggest that he was far from the hero Tom Hanks portrayed (Child, 2013) – together with casting twenty-eight-year-old Barkhad Abdi as the supposed sixteen-year-old pirate leader Muse, infers that Greengrass is fulfilling his role as propagandist by glamourising the US Navy’s actions (Tunzelmann, 2017).
Sound and lighting are also important elements in presenting the films as propaganda and highlighting the directors’ objectives. For example, in Lindholm’s Kapringen, the juxtaposition of the old, poorly lit, rusty cargo ship and the modern, clean, and very bright offices in which the shipping company operates: the lighting highlights the difference in status between the two groups and frames the experiences of negotiation appropriately, casting the rich in control whilst workers are left to suffer as a result of corporate unwillingness to prioritise the crew over deals. Sound, on the other hand, is used very effectively by Hodierne in Fishing Without Nets to draw attention to the gulf between the Somali fishermen and those profiting from the cargo ships. The opening shot of Fishing Without Nets, for example, is a long range shot that pans around the cargo ship, framing its stature against the backdrop of the horizon and providing an ominous hint of what is to come as a result of the strong, loud, and extremely tense notes of the soundtrack. Similar music is played over the transportation of the character Abdi through the streets, which highlights the abject poverty in which they live. The cinematic language of both films here can broadly be considered to bear a left-wing agenda, specifically in that they lend proper representation to the disempowered by providing an interpretation of actuality (Wells, 2012).
In conclusion, the analysis within this essay points to three specific films and by extension, the directors responsible for them, constituting propaganda that is designed to alert their audiences to the problems and issues surrounding modern piracy and the general Western attitude to humanity. Each of the three movies clearly adopts a different position in relation to the factors that underpin piracy and the perspective that is presented, clearly supplemented by carefully choreographed cinematography and judicious editing. For example, the juxtaposition of the MV Rosen and the offices in Kapringen is effective in highlighting the prioritisation of money over human life, whereas the framing of the narrative in Fishing Without Nets highlights the plight of the Somalis and the reasons why they pursue piracy as a valid course of action. The cinematic language and techniques used emphasise the need to approach piracy in disparate ways; each film pursues a specific agenda that calls on the political establishment to take what they deem appropriate courses of action. In all three films, Lindholm, Hodierne, and Greengrass have carefully constructed their cinematic products to influence public opinion on the topic of modern piracy and by extension, Western attitudes to humanity and money, encouraging viewers to think about piracy in very specific ways that point back to those in power.
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