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Fresh and Exciting

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

. . . otherwise known as Oompah Loompah Frogmen & the Princess Who Must Not Be Named, as well as the Nobility of ARNOLDO and 2 pirate Leaders each Dumber THAN the Next + What It looks like when SPARTACUS Scuttles his ship & why NOT include the Ride of Paul Revere and a Dying Dad and a Treasure Grotto and a Human Elevator or HOW ABOUT shredded sails or pointy alarm clocks or lumbering sun dials AND DON'T FORGET TO SEE a man carve a sticky NOTE to himself without the aid of PAPER or STICKUM not to mention THE GIRL who will not give it up to just ANYONE with an ancient Crony Godmother CAN you solve the riddle of just HOW many arms does the steward have if woodchucks could chuck would Douglas Fairbanks have been so quick to build Pickfair if he had an OPTION on Fordbanks first you MAY wonder why Pirates would blow UP merchant ships within swimming distance of their TREASURE ISLAND the prize for MIMICRY regarding the endless subtitle for THE BLACK PIRATE as seen here

What with this being a silent film there isn't an 'Ah-harr!' in sight (or within earshot), but this pirate film has pretty much everything else in terms of the usual paraphernalia. We have sword fights, plundering and looting, walking of the plank, buried treasure, a damsel in distress, a lusty hero, a black-hearted pirate captain and a fair amount of energetic fighting in the foc'sles.Douglas Fairbanks is the lusty hero in question here and, while he doesn't skip around gaily as he does in Robin Hood he's still a little, shall we say unconventional, for an action hero. We first meet him after his ship has been plundered by a scurvy bunch of dogs (and no mistake). He and his father are the sole survivors from the ship, but dad croaks the moment they wash ashore on a desert island. Doug's so angry about this that he shakes his fist at the sea then sets about carving a notice to the world that he will avenge his father. Quite who he expects to see his words on a desert island is a little vague, but it was obviously something he needed to get off his chest.The captain of the pirates leads a small party onto the desert island to bury their booty. Doug offers to take on the strongest of them, which just happens to be the captain, so that they will let them be in their gang, and a swordfight follows. It's a shame that the captain had to be killed off so early because I quite liked him. He was certainly more interesting than Doug, with far better dress sense. When we first met him he had a cutlass between his teeth, the way a pirate should, and when he spied a prisoner surreptitiously swallowing a ring he had one of his mates cut the poor soul open to retrieve it. Here was a man who got things done, no doubt about it – although he did have a worrying fondness for offing members of his own crew.Having killed their captain Doug next gets the crew of the pirate ship on his side by taking a vessel single-handed in what is an improbable but quite enjoyable section of the film. Aboard this captured ship is a comely wench whose fate looks sealed when the crew start drawing lots for who gets first dibs. Earlier, we saw them doing the same thing over who got ownership of a cute capuchin monkey, so we're left in no doubt here as to the social status of the fairer sex in Silent Pirate World. Doug takes a shine to this damsel in distress (which, considering his outfit, is something of a relief) and hatches a cunning plan to save her from a fate worse than death.Although The Black Pirate is quite slow-moving by today's standards it's still reasonably entertaining for those with patience. The performances are somewhat broad, but the skulduggery that is constantly afoot is diverting enough to stop that from being a major problem. The set design is quite impressive, with a lot of care clearly taken over getting the ship's interior just right. In fact, the set looks even more impressive than those from some much later films. Fairbanks was certainly an athletic leading man but, other than that, what it was about him that made him such a massive star is something of a mystery to me.

Many folks believe in the archetype, the notion that deep in the structure of the universe — deeper than we can reach — are certain pure models. There are few of them; they are crisp if not fully definable. And we spend our lives moving fey copies of them around in the patterns they allow.I don't buy that. At least so far as humans, we make our models and since about the time of this movie, movies are where most of them are made. But they stick, some of them, as if God made it so. Because this is something of an exemplar, it is required viewing I suppose.The demure princess (redheaded). The privileged young duke who assumes the role of pirate to seek revenge. Amazing exploits through cunning and some of the most impressive physical stunts on film.Color when it mattered. Romantic love, not invented here, but here first successfully placed in the heroic context of piracy. Rarely can you place your finger on a node of archetypal history and say here, here is where that was born.In keeping with a tradition of recommended pairings, I suggest you see this coupled with Geena Davis in "Cutthroat Island."Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

It would be hard to find a role more suitable for Douglas Fairbanks than "The Black Pirate", and when you add the lavish sets and costumes, plus an early form of color photography, it makes for an enjoyable and entertaining spectacle. The story has plenty of action and excitement, but it also includes some good character development that adds to the interest of the story itself.The story follows Fairbanks's character through a series of events that give him a good variety of material and scenery to work with. From the opening shipwreck scene, to his meeting with the pirates, to the tense series of confrontations that follow, his scenes range from heroic to sympathetic, from impressing the crew to facing desperate predicaments, and much in between. While there are the occasional nods to stock cinema conventions, in general it is a satisfying story. Although the Black Pirate is the center of attention, the supporting cast members also all do a good job when they get the chance.It is also quite interesting to see one of the earliest attempts to film a feature-length picture in color. It's hard to tell how good it might have looked in its original form, since in some stretches the color is now noticeably drab - but at other times the color is surprisingly good-looking. The color provides just one more reason that this is one of the more popular movies of the silent era.