Les flibustiers

Having just moved back to Baton Rouge, La. in 2003 after living in Jacksonville, Fla. for the previous 16 years, I started getting reacquainted with the history of the state I had first lived much of my life from age 7 to 19. One of those sources was from this Cecil B. DeMille account of Louisiana's pirate-hero Jean Lafitte. It was he and his men who helped General Andrew Jackson with his troops defeat the British at The Battle of New Orleans. This was in exchange for a full pardon for him and his men after originally getting a price on his head from the Governor of The Pelican State. Fredric March makes a dashing Lafitte with Akim Tamiroff splendid as his sidekick Dominique. Margot Grahame is Lafitte's fiancée while Franciska Gaal is the Dutch girl Gretchen who falls for Jean after walking the plank from another ship that was lead by a man who betrayed Lafitte. Walter Brennan is funny here as Peavey, a sidekick to General Jackson (Hugh Sothern). Watch what happens when he and Tamiroff have a scene together! Because of some of the accents and the speed of some of the dialogue, I couldn't understand everything that was said but most of the time it was the action that got to me, especially when the American military men initially were attacking Lafitte's men as they were about to welcome them. Grahame and Gaal had their own feminine charms that made either one good chemistry with March so whichever one ended up with him would have been fine. I think I've said enough so I'll just say for anyone who loves a good old-fashioned story with some history thrown in, I highly recommend Cecil B. DeMille's The Buccaneer.

This a classic swashbuckling film....seemingly a film very typical for Cecil B. De Mille. Fredric March is superb in his role as Jean Lafite....also interesting to see Anthony Quinn as early as 1938. Do enjoy this piece of cinematic artwork. One must also remember that historically Andrew " Old Hickory " Jackson was eventually a U. S. President. Personally...I feel that March, Errol Flynn and Burt Lancaster (The Crimson Pirate) are the actors that best typified " Pirates " in classic Hollywood. Although today credit must be given to Johnny Depp in both of the Pirates of the Caribbean pictures which I thoroughly enjoyed and which of course reminded me of the above-mentioned actors and their films

An excellent action movie with good pacing and development. There is never a dull moment. The movie shows more of Laffite's business dealings than with his pirate actions. In actual fact Laffite was quite a businessman that the governor did want captured and did put a price on his head of $500. Laffite did respond to that but not for the $10,000 the movie stated. One must never accept a movie's version of history but "The Buccaneer" does a quite credible job of drawing you into life in 1814 in New Orleans. Laffite was offered $30,000 and other inducements by the British and the Americans did not believe him (this was very accurate). His base in Barataria was destroyed though at a later time. When the battle was over he did go back to sea as a pirate. His days in New Orleans were indeed over. So, sit back and enjoy a movie that is good entertainment and is also pretty good history. This movie is proof that you can learn history from the movies.

This film was pretty much what I expected from Cecil B. DeMille. In almost all of his films, you have a huge cast (this time in the thousands), elaborate sets and props, a rather silly romance and a desire for action and expense over realism and historical accuracy. Many love his films, but I find most of them time-passers.

As for the romance, this film features two for Jean Lafitte (Frederic March), though the dominant one involves Franciska Gaal. She's rather a comic book-like figure--more a caricature than a believable person and this is pure DeMille, as is the romantic dialog. At least it was much better than the lines uttered in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS by the Princess, but this isn't saying much. DeMille just had no ability to convey real people and real romance--he was more the epic action and spectacle sort of director.

Action-wise, there are some very long and well made scenes, though oddly, the naval sequences were awfully tepid. The battle scenes on land were handled much better and the costumes looked very nice.

Historically speaking, this isn't a bad film but it does contain many inaccuracies. Apart from glamorizing Jean Lafitte (who was a smuggler and total jerk), it seemed to exaggerate his importance to the Battle of New Orleans. While he did "rat" on the English by telling the Americans of their invasion plans, most accounts place the number of troops he sent to fight to be just a few dozen at most (though they were gunners--a welcome addition). Also, the fact that this battle actually took place a month AFTER the peace treaty was signed wasn't mentioned--as communication was such in 1815 that the British and Americans could not let the troops know that the war had ended for several more weeks. This made the outcome of the battle unimportant (but certainly not to the soldiers involved) and would have taken away from the excitement of the film, so it was simply omitted.

While I am complaining, I should also point out that the film never seemed to end. While it logically should have ended when this battle concluded, it continued and greatly lessened the film's impact and made me fidgety.

Overall, there's a lot of action (I'd give this an 8), some dopey romance and dialog (I'd give them a 3), some good and bad historically speaking (I'd give it a 5) and the movie was overly long. Overall, I think a score of 5 is merited. A decent time-passer but that's about all.

Plenty of action! Not a movie anyone will ever sleep through! The highs and lows of pirate life well depicted, even a "walking the plank" episode.

When Lafitte the notorious pirate (Fredric March) comes a-courtin' to the home of his lady-love, Annette (Margot Grahame), a matron cries out in alarm to hide the silver as he might steal it. Here was an instant recall of similar words uttered in the film "Les Miserables," an earlier role March played so well, where as Jean Valjean he was looked on with suspicion by the housekeeper after seeking shelter in a priest's home. But as the pirate Lafitte he has plenty of stolen goods to pass on.

Gretchen (Franciska Gaal) as a young Dutchwoman has a little terrier in tow at the beginning, and both are spunky! She soon encounters and falls in love with Lafitte and lets him know about it but sadly, his heart is elsewhere.

I really enjoyed seeing Akim Tamiroff portray Dominique with such flair. As a supporting actor his fine style has always been colorful and convincing in serious or lighter roles. He's fun to watch in this one.

Andrew Jackson (Hugh Sothern) gives us a glimpse of what war and fighting was really like in those early frontier days when militiamen were more often local recruits ill-prepared and ill-equipped.

One can only wonder what would have been the course of American history if Lafitte had lived elsewhere.