The Pirate Movie

Anyone rating this less than 7 clearly doesn't understand the film at all. When Gilbert & Sullivan first wrote The Pirates of Penzance in the late 1800's, they were writing it in satire of the operatic idiom. If the film's title wasn't enough of a clue in itself, The Pirate Movie is a satire of the sort of musical adventure cinema we were seeing in the 70's and early 80's (see Grease, Xanadu, The Wiz, Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar, Man of La Mancha, Rock & Roll High School... the list goes on!). Also, it was just meant to be a lot of fun. If you are going in, expecting something with the musical mastery of West Side Story, The Phantom of the Opera or Les Miserables, you are looking in the wrong place. If a film that could be the lovechild of The Goonies and ABBA sounds intriguing, then you are going to have a blast! So put away your critic's notepad, pop some corn and enjoy!

Cuties Chris Atkins and Kristy McNichol, he of the blonde curls and she of the blonde curls, star in this wacky version of the old chestnut, Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert & Sullivan.

Atkins plays Frederic the boy pirate who falls for McNichol's Mabel. He was 21 at the time, two years after starring in Blue Lagoon, yet he retained the perennial look of a fifteen year old teenager. McNichol was a famous star at the time, but this is her first role as a femme fatale, not as a tomboy.

This movie could be a musical version of Blue Lagoon. See Atkins and McNichol cavorting in the skimpiest of costumes designed to show their pretty legs and other bits. Surprise, both of these two cuties can sing, and even dance a bit!

The story is too well know to bear repeating. But there are a couple of wacky twists, in the best tradition of the British music halls. Except this movie is an Australian production!

Of course we get the model of the modern major-general (Bill Kerr) with his famous solo song. But we also get a light sabre from Star Wars. We get Inspector Closeau from Pink Panther with a hilarious word play on "pirate" and "parrot". We get a bit of Indiana Jones. And the stars make those asides which are British music hall tradition, stopping in mid-scene to address the audience.

There's lots of double entendre jokes, again another British music hall tradition, where simple words are used with a possible vulgar or sexual meaning. See Frederic at the mercy of the pirate's sword say "nuts". To which the pirate points his sword at Frederic's boy treasures and says "But you'd still have one left".

A jolly good movie. One for a cold winter's evening to warm the heart. Even the old Victorians would approve of this one.

I have always found this to be a terribly under-rated film. Okay, so it isn't exactly true to Gilbert & Sullivan. So what? I love Gilbert and Sullivan, but this is obviously supposed to be a take-off and spoof, much like Scary Movie is a take-off and spoof. Nonetheless, I find this to be a wonderfully entertaining movie. It is extremely funny, it is filmed beautifully on location in Australia, and it has great music. Christopher Atkins and Kristy McNichol are wonderful in this film. I sure wish the studio would get around to re-releasing this film on DVD, and re-releasing the soundtrack on CD. It has been overlooked for far too long. I know many other people, who like me, simply love this film.

That this film gets bombed the way it does angers me. The slamming it's gotten is just unwarranted! I like it a lot- it's a musical farce, so why SHOULDN'T it contain parody lyrics of the great Gilbert and Sullivan? The same people who hate it for that reason are very likely the sort of people who bust a gut laughing at the parody lyrics of musicals as penned in MAD Magazine™ by Frank Jacobs. What's the difference so long as it entertains?

I hate the fact that this did so poorly at the box office and impacted lovely Kristy McNichol's and gorgeous Chris Atkins's careers as negatively as it did. I think it was an excellent film for what it set out to do! It simply was too good a film to be trashed and ignored as it was!

My parents taped this movie off the TV when I was about 7 years old. We still had the Beta machine back then. I loved this movie and I watched it over and over and over again. I would watch it, rewind it and play it again until my family got so sick of it, they would come in and turn it off on me. I had it practically memorized, but after we got the VHS, I couldn't watch it anymore and I was so disappointed. I meant to transfer it onto a VHS, but I never have. I always thought it was a made-for-TV movie until I found it on this site. After I found it here, I immediately went and ordered the DVD because I was so excited. I'm not sure why it appealed to me so much as a kid, but I loved the corny jokes and the music was very catchy and upbeat. My brothers and I still break into a chorus of Tarantara every once in a while. Plus the movie has a little bit of everything - comedy, romance, adventure, drama. The reason I gave it an 8 rather than a 10 is because some parts of the movie are a little too cheesy, particularly the underwater scene.