Boys and their boots (and hats) ...

[veronica_rich]

My penchant for wanting to discuss symbolism does sometimes overextend my grasp; I'll admit that upfront. But there's something I wanted to bring up based on a DMC discussion I saw in a subset of someone else's REALLY GOOD LJ discussion (it's in the one about the dice, for anyone who's heard of/read that one).



I'll try to be brief. There's a discussion in the comments section of the dice post - http://community.livejournal.com/triskaideka____/16644.html?thread=145156#t145156 - wherein we discuss the symbolistic importance of hats in the POTC movies. It's pretty much a given that Jack's hat is his power source. *G*

But metalkatt and I were discussing this earlier, and I told her it occurred to me that hats didn't work for all the characters (I'm just dealing with the major ones here, because at 3 am, any more than that would induce a migraine. Please feel free to add your own 2 cents in the comments, though, about anyone you like). Let's look at Will and James, specifically.

Will really advances as a character in DMC. He learns how to cheat to get what he needs (using the dice game as disguise for his real motive, hardly "honorable" in his old world), how to square more with adversity, how to deal with Jack and accept the consequences for not getting *enough* information from Jack (witness how when Elizabeth finds out Jack lied to her, she gets pissed off, but Will simply calls him on it and lets it drop as if he expects no less). But at the beginning of the movie, when he's actually wearing a hat - the only time he is - he is arrested and shackled and led to Beckett.

This scene annoys me. Will seems so ... impotent here. He doesn't struggle physically as much as he should. Elizabeth's demand for the charges is more forceful and badass, while Will just sort of stands there - I don't mean because he's the man he should be louder or angrier, I mean WILL HAS A TEMPER and we've seen it. Frankly, if this were the first time I were ever seeing Will Turner in action, I would be underwhelmed with both character and actor.

I've always contended that Bloom's not a wooden actor, he just tends to underplay rather than overdramatize, and a lot of viewers don't appreciate or see need for the difference. And it occured to me that may be the case here, too (of course, direction helps, but an actor's gotta be able to pull it off and if my meta is right, he does).

Notice that Will doesn't act like this in the rest of the movie. Once he leaves the jail, he takes charge, tracking Jack down himself, taking risks, going into strange places, getting the crew out of trouble and ultimately, off the Pelegostos island. His attitude isn't the same, either - he's confident once he manages to get Jack on the Pearl and make demands. He's not even as impotent on board the Flying Dutchman as he was in his wedding coat and hat, not even when he's being physically whipped. And, while deferential to Tia Dalma's mystical powers, he's not hesitant in the way that Gibbs and the other pirates are.

In other words, there is Will Turner in this movie, and there is William Turner - and I don't mean son and father. ;-)

Anyway, if a hat isn't Will's power here, what is? metalkatt says it's the boots. She also pointed out James has the boots, too, and they seem to be better for him than his hat, as well. (Come to think of it, EVERYONE in this movie has pirate boots.) Throughout the first movie, James had his hat and wig, and he never seemed really in charge as he should've. When he rescues Will, it's at Elizabeth's wheedling; he doesn't get to defeat the undead pirates until they're mortal, thanks to Jack and Will; he doesn't even get to hang his captive, because of Will's, Elizabeth's, and Swann's interference. In DMC, he's buffeted about when we first see him, staggering here and there or being led about. But once he's free of his wig, he's free to comment on absolutely anything. He fights for himself, he seizes the chance to steal the two Power Objects in the movie (heart and letter of marque), AND he manages to trick his way away from Jones's crew with none the wiser. (metalkatt wants to know why the hell he'd want to go back to his hatted, bewigged life, if he does so much better without them, and I'm inclined to wonder, as well.)

Thoughts?

Comments

[vejiicakes.livejournal.com]

This is going to be all me talking out of my ass, but it was a thought, anyway: It's the world that links them to Elizabeth! Or the clothing hearkening back to the world linking them to Elizabeth:

- Will's entire wedding ensemble, a more obvious shackle linking him to Elizabeth.
- Norrington's powdered wig and social respectibility (if one wants to assume the hat is the sum of all that), that which would have idealy allowed him to be with Elizabeth.

Again, ass talking, but I can't help but be slightly snide--I finally got to go back and see the movie again, and found her character bothered me more than upon initial viewing (probably because I was just so damn delighted that she was taking on a more active role). I also noticed that when Jack returns to the Pearl to shoot the 'splodey barrels, Elizabeth does this weird thing where she reclines on the stairs and clasps herself to his leg in a manner which recalled dozens of tacky submissive romance novel covers to mind, in a moment of delirious, amused horror....

[pseudoblu.livejournal.com]

I just figured that Will didn't fight his arrest because when he told Elizabeth in the last movie that he'd accept the consequences of his actions he wasn't lying. It was when Elizabeth was charged that he started fighting because he may have a bit of a martyr complex but he doesn't want his loved ones to go down too.

This is interesting and I may have more to say when I think about it more. :)

[venusinchains.livejournal.com]

I agree with vejiita4eva and pseudoblu (and in much more detail, over at potc_discussion :p).

~

I've started to think the whole "Liz whoring herself out" would bother me far less if it didn't thrill so many young fans so much. *says she who still hopes All Will Be Set Right in the final chapter*

~

I have my own pet "symbolism" scene (significant for J/W, of course). It's more than slightly ridiculous, but I think I'll post something about it in my _jack_sparrow_ journal sometime soon anyway. (I'm still comparing my wacky notes to the transcript that was linked to recently.)

[heartofslash.livejournal.com]

So... if hats make one impotent, or at least less-in-control-of-one's-destiny, then if Jack had not spent so much time in Tortuga finding a hat that appealed to him during the giant bar brawl, he might not be in the belly of the beastie?

Just asking...

[elibad.livejournal.com]

I have no head for symbolism, but I think for Will, the hat thing is more transitional. In CoTBP, when Will is wearing the hat at the end, its definitely symbolic of the changes he's undergone as a result of his adventures, and the new man he's become.

In DMC, Will is diffident in the arrest scene, partially because he knows something is up, and waiting for the opportune moment (he's learning), and partially because this is who he is now, specifically with regards to Elizabeth and their relationship. Will idealizes Elizabeth which results in him catering to her, which in turn, results in her taking him for granted. The one time he does exert himself in this scene, ("Lord Beckett, in the category of questions not answered..."), Elizabeth cuts him off.

So, back to my transition theory, Will wearing the hat in this instance suggests both the changes since we've last seen him, and the changes he, and his relationship to Elizabeth, are due to under go. I didn't, don't and will never like the whole J/E thing in DMC, but it will undoubtedly put Will and Elizabeth on more even ground, relationship wise.

As for the boots, yup, they are working for Will, I even remember OB mentioning in an interview that he got boots, and yeah, they make him a bad ass. And as someone with a, er, thing for footwear, they so work for me as well, guh.

As for Norrington, I think, the loss of his hat and wig, the trappings of his former life, allow him to ignore what those things represented, his honor and duty, in his desperate attempts to get them back.

[nightengale.livejournal.com]

I really like what you've done here. Really expanded on the kernel of hat metaphor and gone a long way toward figuring out how it would apply to the whole cast in personalized ways. Kudos!

To reply to a thread of the comments, however, about Elizabeth:

I saw her potentially bodiceripper clasping-Jack's-leg thing as nothing but a practical precaution: She'd just gotten yanked off her feet by the Kraken, and she wasn't about to let it happen again. There was no time for a third chance, you know? And she was already *down* there - if she'd been standing and thrown herself to the floor to support him, I'd have an issue. As it is, I really think it was just her being smart.

And about the kissing thing...

Liz has been fascinated by pirates since she was little. Jack is the most piratey pirate she's ever met, and he likes her. He's worked closely with her and she has immense respect for him. I believe it's feasible that she's bandied around the idea of getting with him in her head - but never been actually willing to act on it, not only because of the hygiene issue ;D but also because she's engaged, hello.

She kisses Jack to distract him so she can shackle him, force him to face the Kraken, and save the crew.

She likes it because she isn't immune to Jack's mystique, Jack's advances, and most importantly, her own curiosity. I think it's really important to note she doesn't kiss him again, even though she hovers and almost lurches forward for a second kiss; she tells him she's not sorry and leaves.

Not sorry for what? For kissing him? For shackling him, thereby proving she's really become a pirate? Or for both at once: Perhaps (this is my take) she's not sorry that she manipulated - and so dirtied, or spoiled - the attraction both of them feel in order to get her advantage over him.

Not for a moment do I think Liz was intending to indulge in anything but tricking Jack. The kiss had power over her, which I think surprised her as much as its existence did Jack.


...No, I don't jump to defend any of the core three against attacks against their character, what do you mean? XD


In all seriousness, I think At World's End will show us that Elizabeth's made of the same stuff as Jack is, and the same as we're discovering (via boots/lack-of-hat evidence) that Will is too. They're all pirates of the highest caliber, though only one of them's had very long to practice the trade. The other two...will catch up soon enough. The potential's there. ^__^