early POTC fandom

[veronica_rich]

So metalkatt, dahlianna, and I are watching CotBP (the first POTC movie) again. (Well, D is mostly watching "Supernatural" on her computer, but she's in the room.) And it started me remembering things in the very early fandom 8 years ago - things we now take for granted or are old hat, that were just getting started then.

For instance - does anyone else remember the little wordplays that resulted in phrases like "Dr. I Am Disinclined to Acquiesce to Your Request" (i.e., another name for the movie "Dr. No")? Or even where that list got off to? There were a bunch on it. What else do you extreme old-timers remember from the VERY early days of this fandom?

(Also, Jack looks much less stylized here; his outfit and look is more practical and "worn-in" and looks comfortable. In OST he's got more eyeliner and eyeshadow drawn on, his costume is more elaborate - it doesn't look like a costume here - and he looks more comfortable overall in this one. The costumes in this one seem more like clothes on everybody, too. Did Penny Rose just kind of give up?)

Comments

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

First of all, I basically think there isn't any logic to these movies, and we are continuously beating our heads against the walls trying to come up with one. The first movie was a fluke. I think Disney thought it would generate decent sales because Johnny's star was rising, Orlando's star was still burning bright from LOTR, and Keira was coming off of Bend It Like Beckham and could prove that she could hold her own on a screen. Plus, she was/is truly flat out gorgeous and probably Orlando Bloom is one of the few actors who can actually not look dowdy standing next to her. So I don't think Disney execs were paying too much attention to this little sleeper, which is why Penny could actually do period costumes (roughly, because who in the hell knows when this really took place) and play to her little heart's content. And Johnny could do the kohl thing and the gold teeth thing and grab the character of Jack Sparrow and make it his own.

And then it made a ton of money. The suits arrived in full force and even the small remnants of authenticity and rationality went out the window. Because there WAS a rationale that held together in the first movie, and held together pretty damn well. I think that the clothes because yet another victim of the stupid plot machinations. Remember that wedding dress thing? And, although you and I are mostly sympatico on most things POTC-ish, I thought dressing Elizabeth Swann up as some sort of Chinese ship captain was absolutely balderdash and not a little racist. And then we have Norrington restored to his naval dress blues just do they could kill him.

Yet clothes in this era were so important, and it seems like such a small thing to try to preserve that. There is a reason why sumptuary laws went in and out of vogue because they signaled your class; your place in the pecking order. That corset that Elizabeth wears during Norrington's proposal was beautifully symbolic. Just as symbolic as Jack saving her from the water (HIS territory) and then cutting her out of it. And lest you think I'm treading into sparrabeth territory, it's just as symbolic as Will getting struck by the ship's boom. This is Jack's territory where the old rules don't apply, so be fast on your feet. And it's the ONLY territory where a blacksmith and a governor's daughter can even retain the remote possibility of getting married.

Because of the expectations set up by the first movie, I reasonably figure a POTC movie is going to give me more than a Bugs Bunny cartoon, don't you?

Well, I guess we were both naive. Again, haven't seen the fourth movie but Jack shouldn't be the center of any movie. Part of what makes Jack work is that he is the catalyst for all the other character's dilemmas. He's supporting character material. I think you start to introduce all kinds of problems by making him a central character primarily because he's the person who creates chaos and if you have a central character who creates chaos, then how does the movie center hold up?

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't disagree about the deal with Elizabeth in the Chinese garb. I was thinking more of the men's outfits she wore to Tortuga and then on the Pearl, as well as the outfit she was wearing at the beginning of AWE - they were all practical, fairly plain materials, but she looked both cute (to me) and protected in them. (And I was thinking of her in the black Chinese garb as the appointed captain of the Chinese junk - which as you say may be racist, but it also looked like something a man would wear, and since she was the captain, at least it was also somewhat consistent with her role. Which, consistency is a little more than we got with Penelope's character and her outfits.)