Genre: Action / Adventure / Fantasy Director(s): Gore Verbinski Release Date: 01 January 2003 Movie rating: 8.0

A surprising blockbuster which dominated the cinema season of 2003, Gore Verbinski’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” was based on a ride at Disney theme parks. The film is starring Johnny Depp who was universally praised for his portrayal of pirate captain Jack Sparrow and even received an Academy Award nomination – highly unusual for a role in a fantasy adventure film. A ship sailing for Jamaica and carrying governor Weatherby Swann, his 12 year old daughter Elizabeth and lieutenant James Norrington encounters a burning ship wreckage with young Will Turner unconscious and the infamous pirate ship Black Pearl sailing away. Elizabeth conceals a gold coin found on Will, afraid it will mark his as a pirate. Eight years later, now commodore Norrington proposes to Elizabeth (Keira Knightley), who faints from a corset too tight before she can respond and falls into the bay. Elizabeth is rescued by Captain Jack Sparrow, but her gold coin and its mystical powers draw Black Pearl to Port Royal. Jack is recognized as a pirate and arrested, and Black Pearl arrives to ort Royal and its crew kidnaps Elizabeth. It turns out that Jack Sparrow was the captain of Black Pearl betrayed by his right hand man Hector Barbossa after stealing a chest of cursed gold coins. The curse has made Barbossa and his crew immortal skeletal beings. In order to lift the curse, they need to return all the stolen gold, sprinkled with the blood of the entire pirate crew. Jack wants to win back his ship, Will Turner wants to rescue the love of his life, and Barbossa and his men want the curse lifted. But who will prevail?

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