AMP T-1 The Pirate and the King

It's a long flight from Singapore to Boston.  As I usually do on these flights, I catch up on the movies!  This time, I watched the latest instalment of the Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and Guy Ritchie's King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. 

Pirates is the usual Johnny Depp vehicle - dressed up as Jack Sparrow, he'd be entertaining in an empty room.  But this being the fifth instalment, you get the feeling that Johnny's just doing it for the money now.  King Arthur is shot with a number of Guy Ritchie's familiar quick jump cut sequences, which works well in mafia/low life criminal movies, but translates rather poorly to Camelot (which presumably is why the film bombed at the box office).  Nope, no artsy philosophical flicks for me - I am a cinematic Philistine, so sue me.

Aaaanyway.  Major spoilers ahead.

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In a nutshell, Jack Sparrow's old frenemy, the by-now-extremely-wealthy-pirate-with-jewel-encrusted-pegleg Hector Barbossa heads out to sea once more to deliver Sparrow to the ghost pirate hunter Salazar, so that Salazar will stop destroying Barbossa's pirate fleet. (Wow just read that last sentence - how can you pass up a movie with pirates, jewels, peglegs and ghosts).

Along the way, through a series of wild coincidences, Barbossa realises that the young lady who is accompanying Sparrow is actually Barbossa's long lost daughter (Wild coincidences!  Long-lost daughter!  The tropes just don't end!).  But Barbossa keeps the secret between himself and Sparrow.

In the film's climactic scene, Barbossa, his daughter and Salazar are being rescued from a watery grave, as they try to climb up the ship's anchor and chain to safety.  Barbossa is almost to safety, his daughter is just below him, and Salazar is below both of them.  Salazar is just about to catch up with Barbossa's daughter and drag her to her death, when she sees a tattoo on Barbossa's arm, and realises he is her father.  She asks in astonishment, "who am I to you?!"

And Barbossa, the grizzled, greedy old pirate looks down at her, considers for a moment, and finally grins.  "TREASURE!"

And he lets go of the anchor, grabs Salazar on the way down, and topples into the abyss.  As he falls, he looks up at his daughter, with peace on his face.

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What about King Arthur?  Well, as background, Arthur's uncle Vortigern has betrayed Uther and taken the crown for himself.  To gain the power to do so, he had to sacrifice the blood of someone he loves to the tower moat hag - so he murders his beloved wife.

Several quick-cut jump sequences later, Arthur is revealed as the long lost son of Uther (another long-lost child plotline!) and true born king of England.  Arthur then proceeds to bludgeon his way in slo-mo through the hapless hordes of Vortigern (with a name like that, you can hardly blame him for turning out evil to be honest), until he finally stands at the gates of Vortigern's tower.

At this point, Vortigern realises that the odds are against him, so he goes back to the tower hag for help, who tells him "you know the price".  And so Vortigern heads up the tower to the one thing he still loves, his daughter.  And you know what, the black-hearted villain kills her too.  But in a show of contrite regret, the camera pans out on Vortigern crying out in agony as he holds his daughter's body.

Needless to say, the additional help doesn't actually help, and Vortigern is quite promptly killed by Arthur anyway.  Which just goes to show, if your judgment leads you to believe that your best help is from someone who actually lives in a sewer and literally looks like an obese squid, really you are asking for it.

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So why on earth am I blathering on about these two movies?  Because there are two types of sorrow.  Barbossa is sorrowful.  He's spent his whole life as a bloodthirsty pirate, chasing wealth and power.  He never got a chance to be with his daughter.  But in his regret and sorrow, he has a moment of clarity.  He realises what his treasure really is.  And he acts on it by sacrificing himself for his daughter.  And so he is at peace as he falls.

Vortigern is also sorrowful.  He's spent his whole life as a bloodthirsty king, also chasing wealth and power.  Unlike Barbossa, he actually did have a chance to be with his daughter.  But in his regret and sorrow, he realises what his treasure really is.  More treasure.  And he acts on it by sacrificing his daughter for himself.  So while he might howl in regret, I'm not sure he's really sorry.

2 Corinthians 7:10 says "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death." 

Singaporean kids have an analogous saying - "sorry no cure". 

It's true.  So what if I'm sorry, if I haven't changed or remediated the matter?  But if I'm sorry, and I change, then yes, I am saved, and I am left with no regret! 

I have a choice - am I just regretful, or am I really repentant?  Life lessons from a pirate and a king, FTW :D

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