The Threshold of Coolidity

Caught the flick Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man’s Chest, a coupla weeks ago. One of the biggest new introductions into the plot, was Davy Jones, who sails the seas in his ominous ship “The Flying Dutchman”*, inhabited by half-human, sea creature sailors/slaves. The name, Davy Jones, more popularly a part of the phrase Davy Jones Locker, has been used since the days of sailing and pirates, to represent the sea, maybe, a devil (deva, taffy, duffy) in the sea, a sailor overboard, pretty much the name for the unexplainable at sea. In the movie, he is an ex-overboard sailor, who once loved an untamable woman, and on failing, cut his heart out and put it in a chest, so that he could never feel again!

So back to the flow, Davy Jones (lets not judge him for who he is), sails the seas *², has a mean crew, and has found a way of giving his oceanic “blessings” to the others at sea, as debts, and has devised a method that works for him in giving, having repayed, and punishing for lack of repayal, of these debts. (Again let’s not judge him for his devised way of life coz it works for him). Coming to the most important point, he has several means of trying to get through, and deal with the others, but when all else fails he resorts to his last and meanest weapon, Unleashing the Kraken! *³ The Kraken is a huge, legendary, sea monster that is assigned the cause of Davy Jones’ wrath as its target, usually the ship of the chosen one, and sinks it till it destroys the ship and the person! Now, remember, Davy does not unleash the Kraken every now and then, but reserves it till all else fails and his method of peace comes crashing down, and he is forced to use this weapon! As we see in the movie, when Davy decides to Unleash the Kraken becoz of his accumulated rage, a number of his sailors use great effort to open the hatch to release this monster, proving a huge decision on Davy’s part. When the chosen one is taught a lesson (destroyed) Davy gets intense satisfaction, yes he does, yes he does, though he knows that they got a little more than they deserved. However, this method has drawbacks for Davy. Being a powerful man at sea, there are several little fish who try to get back, show disapproval to Davy all the time. Davy notes these, but has hardly reached the point of unleashing the Kraken on them. However, between unleashing the Kraken and the Kraken reaching the target, if any of the other minor offenders instigate Davy, hell breaks loose! Given that he is already pissed off, and the Kraken is unleashed, Davy might just use the Kraken to completely destroy some one who dint deserve the wrath of the Kraken at all! And when the Kraken is done, and all is calm, Davy feels horrible for what happened, yes he does, yes he does! Sometimes the Kraken’s destroying the non-deserving candidate even lessens the wrath on the initial candidate which is just not fair, and Davy knows it and feels even more terrible, yes he does, yes he does! But it’s a part of life, it’s a part of a working scheme Davy Jones has devised. So please don’t judge him too harsh for what he has done coz if he knew how to apologize he would, yes he would, yes he would.

Back to the movie, I simply loved two things about it.

One, the amazingly funny script which actually takes your mind off the details, that seem illogical. Example, when the cannibals, coupla feet behind Jack don’t follow him on to the Pearl or throw spears at it, makes you wonder “What?” But, the next minute you see them chase the dog, and forget the lack of logic, while bursting into hysteric laughter.

Secondly, the metaphor of the compass pointing at what you want most, to me, was excellent. Showing, how after leaving Bloomy on the evil ship, and needing to get to the dead man’s chest in particular and any land in general, Jack doesn’t know what he wants most, so he hands the compass to Kiera, whom he convinces to “want the chest” to save Bloomy! Finally when he tries to run away from the Pearl, sees Kiera disappointed, and checks his compass, he sees that “he wants to get back to the Pearl” the most, as the compass points to it.

A complaint I have about the movie, is it being a 3 hour awesome preview for a sequel a year away. The level of lack of closure was definitely not fair to viewers who dint expect it. Finally, I hope the makers are careful with their explanation of Barbosa coming back from the dead, coz if everyone can “not die” it takes away from the excitement of near-death events, and I also hope there is no corny love triangle, and that Jack, Kiera, and Bloomy remain Pirates!

* "The flying Dutchman" sounds like an awesome ship to be on coz I am sure it is full of "Sea Weed" that explains the Duch and the flying part in the name.

* ² The words "Davy Jones, he sails the seas" was put into one of our Songs "Ten Second Rule" by Alap way before this movie made the name popular

* ³ I wudave spelt the word Kraken as Cragon if it werent for the omniscient Wikipedia.