I smell a book deal for the heroic captain. When his book is optioned for a film I envision the scene of his heroic jump from the life boat with a knife concealed between his grit teeth as he jumps into the Gulf of Aden. Pirates shooting glow-in-the dark tracer bullets into the water. Harrison Ford might be cast as the hunky captain. Move over George Clooney Richard Phillips is the real deal.
Why this particular saga story lined on every major news agency worldwide? Even the puny Irish Examiner carried the headline. The true irony in all of this is the Maersk Alabama, an American-flagged and Danish-owned vessel, had been carrying humanitarian aid to Africa. Since the attack, Phillips and his captors had been floating in the life raft, out of fuel and shadowed by U.S. warships. I believe that because the crew fought back, and the captain has a certain photogenic quality, navy seals para shooting in, snipers hovering...stuff that readership is made of. Gimme gimme more. There is more. The soft-spoken captain had placed himself at risk in an effort to protect his crew, helping fight off the pirates and then offering himself as a hostage.
The pirates kept Phillips aboard the 24-foot lifeboat and repeatedly threatened him. They were seeking millions of dollars in ransom. "His courage is a model for all Americans," Obama said in a statement released Sunday by the White House.
Asked if he had any message for a public that had been captivated by his ordeal, Phillips was self-effacing. "The real heroes are the Navy, the Seals, those who have brought me home," he told John Reinhart, president and chief executive of Maersk Line.
Highseas vs. Movie Option= News Coverage Unparalleled. I am so smitten with Captain handsome...good manors too, whew.
What the main stream story doesn't carry is the non sexy bi lines from the other ships held for ransom. There's even a website that tracks the status. Perhaps if these pirates possessed a little more marketing savvy they would have their own website, with maybe a few corporate sponsors say maybe Haliburton or Blackwater.
Don't get me wrong, I am happy that the ships' captain is safe but what about the other poor saps still confined to the tanker awaiting who knows what. Nice to see a happy outcome to this ordeal. Can't wait for the movie version.
Posts
2 comments:
it's amazing to me that no one was killed in the aftermath..I think U are correct about the book deal.Can't blame him
don't mind the plethora of pirate attacks as of late..i just don't approve of the poor image they are portraying of pirates..
for hundreds of years we have been romanticized by swashbucklers swinging from ropes..the jack sparrow types..rum swillers with flintlock pistols and cool hats with skulls..stealing gold from only her majesty..piloting wooden ships across jagged carribean reefs whilst impaled..
now we are left to witness these pathetic human aid ship hijacker wusses.."imprisoning" a captain in a rubber raft..trying to extract a ransom from a corporation..
recently went on a spring break sunset cruise aboard a pirate ship..http://www.captmemo.com/..a couple of silicon valley expats working to restore the glory days of pirateering..
Post a Comment