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The PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN script, written by the brilliant Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, is quite innovative. In a word, for the majority of the story it’s all protagonists and antagonists, with no bad guys. Perfect for the amoral vibe of a pirate film.
Can you consider Barbossa’s pirate crew bad guys because they once stranded Jack on an island? Not really – they’re pirates, that’s their thing. And in the middle of the movie they make a friendly decision to just make a small cut on Elizabeth when they think they need her blood – surprising her because she expected them to kill her. These pirates just aren’t that bad.
Only at the very end of the movie when Barbossa’s crew decides to kill Will rather than waste time with a small cut, do they earn bad guy status.
Can you call Will a bad guy because he leaves Jack in the hands of Barbossa in the middle of the movie? We’re intended to root for Will as one of the good guys. It seems to me that it’s pretty much all protagonists and antagonists, with no bad guys until the very end. When was the last time you saw that in an adventure film?
If you’re into this stuff, Ted and Terry have an excellent film theory web site called Wordplay. Check it out.
