Movie Villains

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February 29, 2004

Captain Barbossa

There is a myth about a great evil that lurks across the ocean, a ship with black sails with a damned crew and a captain "so evil that Hell spat him back out." The Pirates of the Carribean become a reality for the citizens of Port Royal living under the British flag. The pirates have come looking for something and someone, and when they kidnap the governor's daughter, they bring her before their captain.

Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and his crew have been in search of Spanish Gold, but not for profit. As it turns out, they once located a chest full of it once in the hands of Cortez himself, and upon plundering the loot and taking it away, a dark curse descended upon the entire crew. They were damned to live undead lives until every last piece of gold was returned with a tribute of pirate blood, and by the light of the moon, their ghastly zombie-like secret could be seen.

And so Barbossa was intent on spilling the blood of young Elizabeth Turner (Keira Knightly), certain she was the daughter of a pirate he had killed himself years ago. She had deceived them, however, going under the name of a local blacksmith, Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), whom she fancied a great deal. Upon hearing this name, the crew knew they had pirate blood within their grasp. Now to locate young Mr. Turner... It just so happens that the former commander of their ship, The Black Pearl, can deliver him. Since the crew mutinied against him years ago, he'll no doubt be looking to stick it to them in their time of need.

Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) strikes up a series of bargains - and double-crosses - with Barbossa, each one attempting to gain an advantage over the other. Barbossa hopes to lift the curse while Sparrow wants his ship back. For years, Captain Barbossa has swashbuckled his way across the Carribean searching for the lost gold and driving his eternal crew to the bone, so to speak. Now an end may be within their grasp. And then the British show up.

While the crew fights off the Brits, Sparrow swipes a piece of the cursed gold so he and Barbossa can battle each other to a stalemate, unable to injure each other's skeleton forms. This kills enough time for Will Turner to drop the last piece of gold - covered in Sparrow's pirate blood - into Cortez's chest. And in that moment, Sparrow unloads a bullet into Barbossa's heart, which beats again as the curse is lifted. Ironically, he is alive again long enough only to feel the coldness of death pulling him deep into oblivion.

Posted by Destro at February 29, 2004 12:15 AM