The best pirate movies aren’t all films filled with swashbucklers boasting tiny mustaches, tastefully ripped shirts and rapiers as sharp as their wits. Some, naturally, fit into the classical idea of what a “pirate movie” is. Others fit into what that idea became once Disney got its theme-park mitts on the genre. But more tend to play around with our ideas of piracy, and how the rough-and-tumble characters that can inhabit this lifestyle reflect rebellious — even anarchist — trends in the culture at large. They are settings for coming-of-age movies where heroes yearn for new horizons and simple freedom from their stifling jobs. They are places for men to prove their mettle (Errol Flynn’s pirate-led career exploded onto the Hollywood scene during the heart of the Depression) and places for narratives to undermine this notion, lodging a childish immaturity at the heart of this escape-seeking turn to crime. Now, pirate movies walk a thin and unforgiving postmodern plank, reveling in the symbolism of the subgenre while subverting the ideas that come along with it. Comedies do it best. Dramas modernize, finding political relevance in the shifting power dynamics of the high seas. But whichever pirate movie you turn to, you’ll find more than buried treasure awaiting you. The rascally, unwieldy moral questions that are always crewmates with pirates make the pillaging all the sweeter.
Here are the best pirate movies ever made:
21. Treasure Planet
Year: 2002
Director: Ron Clements, John Musker
Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brian Murray, David Hyde Pierce, Martin Short, Roscoe Lee Browne, Emma Thompson, Michael Wincott, Laurie Metcalf, Patrick McGoohan
Runtime: 95 minutes
Muppet Treasure Island proved that Treasure Island had plenty of room to go goofy, but it’s actually in Treasure Planet’s favor that it plays the pirate story mostly straight. Disney’s visually innovative take on the Robert Louis Stevenson classic finds its biggest strength in its unique spin on the adventure, full of creative designs that make the most of an inspired sci-fi premise stuffed with humans, aliens and steampunk technology. Solid voice acting, from Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s floppy-haired space-surfer Jim to Emma Thompson’s catlike captain, keep the familiar beats moving. The beautiful hand-drawn animation—expressed best in character designs that varies from excellent (Brian Murray’s wonderful take on a cyborg John Silver) to vaguely blobby and some stunning set design—is overlaid on wonky and experimental 3D, which never fails to look out of place. At least the bold move allows for some interesting and arresting “camera” movements that make the action all the more exciting and for Silver’s cybernetic arm, which actually looks pretty cool. And though an extremely annoying, constantly shouting robot (Martin Short) runs roughshod over a movie that’s already satisfied its need for cutesy comedic anarchy with its little shapeshifter sidekick, Treasure Planet’s eagerness for adventure and compelling world make it a worthy adaptation—and one that, surprisingly, is somehow even more wholesome than its Muppety companion.—Jacob Oller
20. The Sea Hawk
Year: 1940
Director: Michael Curtiz
Stars: Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Claude Rains
Runtime: 127 minutes
Two years before directing Casablanca, Michael Curtiz made this lavish pirate adventure picture – one of three different Errol Flynn movies he put out in 1940, and followed by the similarly titled (but non-pirate-related) The Sea Wolf in 1941. Flynn plays Captain Thorpe, a nominal pirate who works with the tacit approval of Queen Elizabeth I to bedevil Spain’s attempts at world conquest; he’s essentially a modern off-books special-agent type transposed to 16th century Europe. More germane to its 1940 release, the movie was at least partially intended as British propaganda in the midst of World War II, with the English rising to defend the world from King Philip’s machinations. This all makes the movie a bit less pirate-y than you might hope; Thorpe’s interest in plundering seems secondary. But it’s a great-looking movie with some terrific large-scale action sequences, and plenty of ins and outs – including a sepia-toned sequence set in Panama, which today feels like the 1940s version of how so many contemporary directors whip out the yellow filters when setting scenes in Mexico. The only real drawback is its somewhat drawn-out runtime, which expands past the two-hour mark; maybe this influenced Disney’s oft-overlong pirate epics.–Jesse Hassenger
19. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Year: 2003
Director: Gore Verbinski
Stars: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightly
Runtime: 143 minutes
What was it about Johnny Depp stumbling around set slurring his words—in ways that he has claimed terrified Disney execs—that added up to Pirates of the Caribbean growing into a multi-billion-dollar franchise? It is the age of sail in the Caribbean, and the Royal Navy recovers a young shipwrecked survivor named Will Turner. He grows up to be Orlando Bloom, and gets an unsung and unappreciated job as apprentice to Port Royal’s blacksmith (he in fact actually makes all the swords while his boss sleeps off his liquor all day). The woman who saved him from the sea, Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) is the daughter of the governor (Jonathan Pryce), and when she pulled him from the ocean she snatched a gold medallion from him that she has kept secret—even from him—for years. She clearly has feelings for Will, but is expected to marry an important Navy guy in a powdered wig. Through a series of silly events, Elizabeth is saved from drowning by the off-kilter pirate Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp, whose performance is the only thing anybody took away from the movie). Before he can be executed, though, Port Royal is sacked by a crew of undead pirates led by Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush in B-movie mode which, for my money, is his best mode). They kidnap Elizabeth when they find her with the medallion. Will decides that the only way he can save her is with the help of the imprisoned Jack, so springs him and steals a ship to give chase. It’s a lot to keep track of for a swashbuckling movie where guys with swords fight pirates who talk like the original pirate (who is from another Disney movie! Its very first live-action production!). Most of the last reel is a series of clever reversals by Jack—who grabbed a coin and is now undead and therefore functionally invincible? Whose blood needs to be spilled to wrap the curse up? Through it all, the movie has some truly gnarly effects for 2003: One sequence has the undead pirates marching across the ocean floor to carry out their sneak attack. It was exciting, funny and… well, it was better than okay. This was enough to make it the 4th-highest-grossing film that year, and launch a franchise that—like Barbossa and his scurvy crew—just. Won’t. Die.–Kenneth Lowe
18. The Pirates of Blood River
Year: 1962
Director: John Gilling
Stars: Christopher Lee, Oliver Reed, Kerwin Matthews, Andrew Keir
Runtime: 97 minutes
John Gilling’s The Pirates of Blood River is a work without self-seriousness, able to successfully straddle the expectations of two sorts of genre films without meeting the defining characteristics of either. It’s neither a typical Hammer horror film, as noted in the Blu-ray’s liner notes by Julie Kirgo, nor a sophisticated Curtiz-esque swashbuckling grand adventure (the shoestring budget did not even allow for a ship). A product of British studio Hammer Film Productions, best known for the campy, richly-colored horror films it produced from the 1950s through the ’70s, The Pirates of Blood River retains several key players from studio cash cows The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula (or, Horror of Dracula)—namely Dracula himself, Christopher Lee. Here Lee is Captain LaRoche, a pirate of flamboyant taste and ever-shifting principles, who has his sights set on the gold of a remote Huguenot-settled island, the Isle of Devon. Devon’s once-favorite son, Jonathan (Kerwin Mathews), is sent by the corrupted religious order to a labor camp on a nearby island for the sin of adultery, where he escapes and falls in with LaRoche’s company. Unaware of the gold’s existence, he promises to lead LaRoche to Devon if he can help him restore just rule. Its Hammer chops are not to be entirely dismissed. The opening scene, in which Jonathan is spotted in his affair with a married woman, leads to a chase worthy of the studio’s horror-house label. Running from angry villagers, the two head through the woods to the bay’s shore; the woman plunges in to escape her captors and meets a demise via chirping, flesh-eating fish, while chalky red blood swirls around her. As for piracy, neither LaRoche nor Jonathan are of Fairbanks/Flynn stock—LaRoche thankfully more sinister, and Jonathan for the most part less acrobatic. The air of concealed aristocratic excellence from the likes of The Black Pirate (1926) and Captain Blood (1935) is absent here, though its heroes do not hesitate to over-explicate every symbol in sight. Such Flynn-like hubris, though reasonably tied to those swashbucklers’ sense of adventure, is not missed in this context. Instead, The Pirates of Blood River relies on an enjoyably silly sort of malevolence, a campy bluntness that plays itself out in patient scenes which frankly reveal more understanding of space and tension than those of many more-polished piratical classics—none better than one depicting pirate infighting over the rights to Jonathan’s unwilling sister. Feasting in the commandeered church, two pirates, one of whom is played by a young and brutish Oliver Reed, agree to a ritualistic battle to settle the score. Donning blindfolds, they are spun in circles and left to hack away at each other in blindness. As they slowly stalk around the room, feeling out for each other and savagely swinging at tables and beams, the interplay of space, sensory alteration and physical force produces an exhilarating effect.–Daniel Christian
17. One Piece Film: Gold
Year: 2016
Director: Hiroaki Miyamoto
Stars: Colleen Clinkenbeard, Christopher R. Sabat, Brina Palencia, Eric Vale, Ian Sinclair, Luci Christian, Patrick Seltz, Sonny Strait, Stephanie Young
Runtime: 120 minutes
Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece series stands as one of the great juggernauts of modern anime. Since first premiering in 1997, the madcap adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his band of pirates have gone on to become one of the best-selling series of all time with over 380 million volumes of the manga sold as of last year. Starting One Piece can be an intimidating challenge for newcomers, what with manga currently ongoing at 83 volumes and its television adaptation numbering at over 700 episodes to date, not to mention a dozen tie-in films thrown into the mix. Fortunately for moviegoers, One Piece Film: Gold is a pretty solid entry point for those looking to enjoy the series without having to devote hours to wading through reams of filler episodes and expository fluff. One Piece Film: Gold follows the Straw Hat crew as they encounter Gran Tesoro, a gigantic casino-themed ship made entirely of gold that serves as a luxury bastion for foolhardy criminals and billionaire aristocrats alike. Initially greeted as guests for their storied careers as successful pirates, Luffy and his compatriots are quickly ensnared in the machinations of Gild Tesoro, the ship’s flamboyant captain and chief entertainer. For being the thirteenth installment in a series of theatrical offshoots, One Piece Film: Gold surprisingly has a lot going for it, with tight action scenes and appropriately ostentatious scenery right out of the gate that only ratchets up in ridiculousness as it goes on. Yuuki Hayashi’s score, in particular, is a strength of the film, with big band jazz trombones, horn sections, and a subtle dash of surf rock guitar riffs thrown in for added effect. The CGI in One Piece Film: Gold is also commendable, given that its use is to exaggerate Gran Tesoro’s already robust ostentation. Running just over two hours, One Piece Film: Gold manages to make effective use of the space it’s given. From an adventure of discovery, to an elaborate heist plot worthy of Danny Ocean or Lupin the Third, to a climatic city-wide showdown of titanic proportions, One Piece Film: Gold is meaty enough to earn your attention from the start and keep it.–Toussaint Egan
16. The Pirates of Penzance
Year: 1983
Director: Wilford Leach
Stars: Kevin Kline, Angela Lansbury, Linda Ronstadt, George Rose, Rex Smith
Runtime: 112 minutes
Wilford Leach adapted his own Broadway take on Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera The Pirates of Penzance for the big screen, bringing back his cast (including an essential handsome clown performance from Kevin Kline as The Pirate King) and his keyed-in sense of humor. Linda Ronstadt, George Rose and Rex Smith bring the verve and big musical ability that made the stage show a hit, while Angela Lansbury (pinch-hitting here for Estelle Parsons) is a bug-eyed delight. The set is funky-flashy, with remnants of ’70s psych-pastels flooding in, while the music is completely classic: “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General” is still a rollicking, ridiculous rollercoaster of a showstopper. It’s not perfect, nor perfectly preserved. But, it’s a supporting player that keeps The Pirates of Penzance from ever fully feeling too musty, too sappy, too dated. Tony Azito, playing a spasmatic police sergeant, is a physical wonder. His dancing, excited movements make Tex Avery and Merry Melodies flesh. His body, honed and perfectly controlled, is able to replicate squash-and-stretch animation with virtuosic hilarity. Even within Graciela Daniele’s choreography, Azito is not to be contained. The Pirates of Penzance is a story about the joyful absurdity surrounding harmless, duty-bound pirates, and its world only makes sense with Azito leading his cowardly cops on the other side of the law.—Jacob Oller
15. The Pirates of Somalia
Year: 2017
Director: Bryan Buckley
Stars: Evan Peters, Al Pacino, Melanie Griffith, Barkhad Abdi
Runtime: 118 minutes
The based-on-a-true-story The Pirates of Somalia knows its main character is a dick who thinks he’s better than everyone and everything. That said, Evan Peters’ portrayal of real-life journalist Jay Bahadur is so charismatic he almost runs away with the movie despite its clear intentions towards taking his snotty personality down a notch. Bahadur is a loser. A market researcher obsessed with current events and his journalistic dreams, he’s submitted stories everywhere, only to be rejected. Then, by chance, he meets someone who’s made it. A mentor! Finally, every aspiring writer’s dream! Surprise, it’s the wild-haired Seymour Tolbin (Al Pacino, who sounds like he ate a bullfrog that had been raised on the chunkiest gravel the pet store could afford) whose advice is as acrid as it is hilarious. “You wanna make it as a big swingin’ dick journalist, you gotta go somewhere crazy,” he says. And Bahadur decides, hey, Somalia is pretty crazy. So crazy, in fact, that no Western journalists can convince their outlets to insure their travels there to cover its developing piracy situation. A Ukrainian vessel is taken, Tolbin’s advice is taken and then Bahadur is taken…to Somalia. It’s a ride so wild and rapid that it’s hard not to believe, a Hunter S. Thompson-wannabe bout of madness, but rather than a drug-addled freakout, it’s a whirlwind threatening to fling your heart out of your body when a series of exciting life events all tumble by one after another. Director Bryan Buckley, known for his Super Bowl commercials and Oscar-nominated short film Asad, has plenty of stylistic swagger and a seemingly genuine touch with each of his actors. The leads (which include Barkhad Abdi’s translator) are perfectly metered, side characters full of depth and one-off extras as deadpan as one could hope. The politics of piracy are complex and well-explored here, always with a gun in the foreground to unsettle whatever rationality is happening behind it. For a movie primarily centered around conversations, meetings and interviews, each scene has a thumping momentum coxswained by the powerful chemistry between its leads. Peters is great out of necessity—anyone else would be swallowed up by Abdi’s sleepy-eyed shine. As the language barrier increases, so does the tension. Everyone’s sweaty, messy, grimy and raw, a realism nicely countered by drug- and desperation-fueled daydreams that crop up every now and again with some sharp animation. The film asks us what we value in our culture: Would we even be watching this movie—hell, would you even be reading this far into its review—if the movie was about Somalia’s fledgling democracy? Do our news stations care about that kind of thing? Our government? The film’s cocky self-assuredness is punctured, deflating in an ultimately satisfying way, like watching a teacher shut down an uppity student.—Jacob Oller
14. The Black Pirate
Year: 1926
Director: Albert Parker
Stars: Douglas Fairbanks, Billie Dove, Tempe Pigott, Donald Crisp
Runtime: 94 minutes
Giving established buckler of swashes Douglas Fairbanks an actual pirate movie, The Black Pirate was a major showcase of his charisma, the artistic abilities of director Albert Parker and art director Carl Oscar Borg, and the imaginative, boat-bound action sequences one could dream up — not to mention actually pull off — for motion pictures. The silent thriller also boasted an early use of Technicolor, with a two-tone process (one that’s aged more garishly than crisp black-and-white, and less evocatively than films like Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), which used Technicolor’s next iteration) that limited some of its shooting flexibility. As the noble-disguised-as-a-pirate (Fairbanks) attempts to pull off his ruse, he battles ruffians in hand-to-hand combat, sabotages victim ships by sliding down their sails using a blade — a sequence that has become so emblematic of pirate media that it’s less common to find examples that don’t include such a scene — and walks the plank. But the best shot in the film is one where Fairbanks’ charming smooth-talker is lifted, hand over hand, from belowdecks by his crew. We watch in one continuous shot as he rises to the surface of the ship, the camaraderie and fantasy of piracy contained in a single slick ploy by cinematographer Henry Sharp. The Black Pirate is a simple tale, one that leans on Fairbanks’ square jaw and easy posture, but an effective one, and one that shaped how the high seas appeared in Hollywood for decades to come.—Jacob Oller
13. The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Year: 2012
Director: Peter Lord
Stars: Hugh Grant, David Tennant, Imelda Staunton, Martin Freeman, Jeremy Piven
Runtime: 88 minutes
Aardman Animations follow the Muppet Treasure Island school of thought with The Pirates! Band of Misfits (released with the funnier title The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! in its native U.K.). The Oscar-nominated silliness from filmmaker Peter Lord (Chicken Run) is a caper to its core, but one that relies on the inherent ridiculousness of its voice cast (including Hugh Grant, David Tennant, Brian Blessed and Imelda Staunton going absolutely bananas) to pepper its piracy with energy. With a similar harmless, eccentric streak to Our Flag Means Death, Gideon Defoe’s adaptation of his own novel follows a group of brigands as their captain competes to be Pirate of the Year…by trying to team up with Charles Darwin to first win the Scientist of the Year honors. Deeply British slapstick shenanigans and physical tomfoolery quickly follow, as we are so immersed in London that the monarchy is quite literally a major character of its own. As Aardman integrates their claymation with CG, The Pirates! becomes their most expansive feature yet, stuffed to the gills with gags yet never losing sight of its globetrotting scope and established aesthetic. That all this clever seafaring nonsense comes to a head with a classic science-fair project climax is just icing on the stop-motion cake.—Jacob Oller
12. The Crimson Pirate
Year: 1952
Director: Robert Siodmak
Stars: Burt Lancaster, Eve Bartok, Nick Cravat, Leslie Bradley
Runtime: 105 minutes
German director Robert Siodmak is probably best-known for the 1940s noir pictures and thrillers he made in America, including classics like The Killers, unsung gems like Phantom Lady, and relative obscurities like The Spiral Staircase. By the time of The Crimson Pirate in 1952, he was ready to move on to other genres, and he returned to Europe to pursue that goal not long after the film’s release – despite its success, and despite the fact that (especially compared to his concise, often hard-boiled thrillers) the film was already a major departure from his pigeon-holing. This pirate adventure also, in retrospect, feels fairly influential in its deployment of slapstick action that’s not a total goof – the stunts look real, and often very cool! – but also lends its stunts gag-like timing. Burt Lancaster, who made his film debut in Siodmak’s The Killers, plays Captain Vallo, a pirate hired to track down and capture a rebel leader; naturally, he falls in love with the man’s feisty daughter. The impressive production value with a jaunty tone brings to mind the sillier James Bond movies, Jackie Chan and, yes, the more inventive action sequences from Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean series. Turns out, Siodmak could make light entertainment with the best of them.–Jesse Hassenger