Captain Phillips Gems

Tom Hanks as Captain Philips (left) The real Capt (right)

The movie saga is a +12 on a scale of 1-10 for suspense. However, I am going to avoid that high drama plot for two gems that I found in the movie.

The first gem was just watching Philips' eye contact with the pirates, and their leader called "Muse"--as you can see above, he showed no outward fear in his connecting with his eye contact before engaging them with his ongoing bargain--"take the $30K and call it a day."  He also used his eye contact to convey what came across as genuine concern for the pirate who had his foot slashed with glass and the other who had a deep gouge from a knife wound.  Retaining humanity in that saga is truly a gem.

Which leads to the second gem--when Tom Hanks just does not understand what makes a pirate.  "What are you doing out here as a fisherman with a gun in your hand," says Philips to their leader, Muse.  "You're supposed to be a fisherman."  Muse responds:  "This is not America."  Needless to say, we have our own brand of pirates, some of them driven by financial necessity, war lords of our version, and gangs who prey on others.  All of this Hanks as Philips fails to connect the dots in these guys who take his vessel.

The Jesus I see in scripture helps the down and out--the lawless, mentally ill, all of the marginalized to regain some vestige of their humanity.  The best we can muster on the high seas is the careful execution of the US Navy and 3 sharpshooters to save the life of Captain Philips.  I suppose that in "the real" world that's what matters.  In God's Kingdom, there is room for all -- but the way is narrow, very narrow indeed. 

 Muse: It was supposed to be easy. I take ship... ransom... nobody get hurt.
Captain Richard Phillips: You had thirty thousand dollars. And a way to Somalia. It wasn't enough?
Muse: I got bosses. They got rules.
Captain Richard Phillips: We all got bosses.