Right Now, These Are The 16 Finest Pirate Movies:
Pirates from all over the world have left their marks on history. Some famous pirates are Henry Morgan, Blackbeard, Calico Jack, the Barbarossa Brothers, Sir Francis Drake, as well as Madame Cheng.
The life of a pirate was great for anyone who wanted to make a lot of money or for any country that wanted to hurt their enemies. A lot of people think that being a pirate is illegal, but most of the great pirates in history were allowed by their government to attack enemy ships as “privateers.”
Even though technology and time have changed how movies are made, pirate stories are still popular because they promise excitement and love on the high seas. They aren’t always true to history, yet that’s part of the fun.
In spite of this, pirate figures like Captain Jack Sparrow are becoming more and more popular in pop culture. Pirates aren’t always portrayed as likeable characters because they have bad manners and different morals, but there are some good things about them that make moviegoers excited to witness them every time.
Treasure Island:
Treasure Island is the most famous pirate story based on the book that inspired many others. It shows the spirit of the pirate world via the eyes of a young man who wants to travel.
When a traveling pirate talks about hidden treasure, it gets young Jim Hawkins interested and hungry for adventure. He decides to go on a journey with his new pirate friend Long John Silver to find the wealth.
Treasure Island is an obvious classic within the world of movies and a lasting standard in the subgenre of pirate movies. It is based on the story of The Hero’s Journey.
Cutthroat Island:
There was a lot that went wrong with this failed, mega-budget movie, but the goals it tried to reach must be admired. In a rare move, Geena Davis, who was a big hit in the mid-1990s, plays a female pirate chief.
Renny Harlin, who was her husband at the time, may have found her being guided by him too distracting. In any case, you could see the bits, but the end result was a souffle that fell apart.
Having said that, there are some good things about this movie. Frank Langella is great as the bad guy. He’s over the top as well as silly, but he’s also scary. There are enough fast-moving scenes and blasts to get a gold action star.
In pirate movies, the wealth map is usually marked on men’s heads and put together during a hunt while the pirates are being chased by the British. This might have worked with a few changes.
It didn’t, though. You might think that if this movie came out a few years later alongside a better director and a star actor like Johnny Depp or Jack Sparrow, it would have been just as popular and led to more movies.
The Black Swan:
Court politics and betrayals are common themes in pirate movies, and “The Black Swan” is no different. The story is about Captain Jamie Waring, who reluctantly quits piracy to help Henry Morgan, a famous pirate, in his new job as governor of Jamaica.
Waring, on the other hand, falls within affection for Lady Margaret Denby shortly after she learns that her fiancé is planning to bring Morgan down. So, Waring acts right away and comes up with a complicated plan to save his pirate friend and stop Lady Margaret from getting married.
One of only a few Technicolor adventure movies on this list, “The Black Swan” won Leon Shamroy an Oscar in 1942 for best color photography. His work shows how beautiful O’Hara is and how bad Power is. On screen, you can feel how well they get along, but it doesn’t quite cover up the fact that their relationship isn’t perfect.
Some of Waring’s attempts to win over Lady Margaret will seem strange to modern viewers, even though pirate films often show hesitant relationships between aristocratic women and thieves.
The Sea Hawk:
The Sea Hawk, which came out in 1940, is the perfect example of a thrilling pirate movie based on real events. During the Elizabethan age, King Phillip II of Spain wants to fight England to make his empire bigger.
He goes ahead with his plans to start building a huge navy that can beat England’s troops, but he makes sure Queen Elizabeth I doesn’t know about his goal. As a privateer and master of the Albatross, Geoffrey Thorpe takes the ship bringing Don Alvarez to England and uses it to trick her.
Since this is a pirate movie, there has to be a forbidden romance, as well as Thorpe falls in love with Dona Maria, Alvarez’s niece. Because he loves Dona Maria and has to do what’s right for the crown, Thorpe has to decide which side he really stands on.
There’s no doubt that this movie shows the British side within a good light, so it’s not the most accurate account of what happened. But keep keep in mind that it’s not a documentary. You will enjoy it, and you might even learn some interesting historical facts while you watch it.
Peter Pan:
One of the most famous Disney classics, Peter Pan was a story about magic and imagination that has been used as a model for many other versions of the story.
Wendy Darling and her boys are swept away to the magical world of Neverland through the hero Peter Pan. They visit a place where people are young forever and terrible things are that threaten to ruin their happiness.
Captain Hook, the main bad guy in the story, was an early example of some of the greatest common pirate stereotypes: he has a hook for a hand, a gang of wild pirates, a wicked personality, and a strong desire for payback.
 Swiss Family Robinson:
Being lost in Disney movies never seems like a bad thing. There are no hungry or thirsty people, body hair never comes back, and the land appears to bend to your will. Survival with Family Swiss Family Robinson turned the idea of being stuck with family members into a fun experience like a relaxing vacation.
In short, some determined castaways build a huge tower, train wild animals, make the world a paradise, and build a homemade fort to defend themselves against a ship full of pirates.
This movie is like a mix of Robinson Crusoe and Home Alone. It will make you want to be stuck upon an island one day, hopefully with someone who is capable of building things.
Anne Of The Indies:
“Anne of the Indies” is a short, snappy pirate story with some interesting thematic turns. It has a female pirate captain as well as hints at BDSM and bisexuality.
Anne Providence, played by Jean Peters, falls in affection for the mystery French sailor LaRochelle as well as ends up dying because of it. A famous director in horror and film noir, Jacques Tourneur, is in charge of this movie. Fans of Tourneur’s other work will recognize a fatalistic tone in Anne’s story.
Like in his favorites Out of the Past as well as Cat People, Tourneur’s best work is done in the dark, but the scenes that are shot in Technicolor during the day are also fine.
Anne of the Indies” is partially based upon the real-life tale of pirate captain Anne Bonny. Similar to most pirate films, The Guardian notes that the movie strays quite a bit from historical fact, yet the paper still hails Peters’ “fierce lead performance.”
A sharp voice is often used by Peters in the part, which makes me think of Ann Savage’s turn as Vera within the noir classic “Detour.”
Even though Savage is stronger and more dangerous, Peters still gives her pirate captain an interesting femme fatale vibe, which makes “Anne of the Indies” an interesting addition to the canon of pirate movies.
Treasure Island:
Treasure Island, a famous book by Robert Louis Stevenson, has been turned into many movies. But Disney’s 1950 version, the studio’s first fully live-action movie, really stands out.
That old family movie is fun for both kids and adults. After all, what kid doesn’t dream of finding buried treasure, and what grown-up doesn’t get nostalgic thinking about that dream?
After young Jim Hawkins finds a pirate’s mystery treasure map, he is determined to find out what is hidden beneath the sand. Yet he can’t get to the island shown on the map by himself; he will need some help.
Hawkins gets to Treasure Island on the Hispaniola alongside the assistance of Dr. Livesey, Squire Trelawney, as well as even the brave pirate Long John Silver, who joins his ragtag group. Hawkins and his crew aren’t the only ones after the wealth, though. Everyone wants a piece of it, and these people will do anything to get it.
Treasure Planet:
Based on the famous pirate story Treasure Island, Treasure Planet is a cartoon sci-fi adventure for kids with a story structure that is very similar to Treasure Island.
As a lazy and rebellious young man, Jim Hawkins is shunned by his community. At their inn, he buys a treasure map from a dying pirate, which sets him on an amazing journey into the universe.
Some parts of the movie’s physics don’t make sense, and the idea of sailing ships within space is a bit strange, but anyone who can suspend their fantasy will enjoy this cartoon favorite.
The Adventures Of Tintin:
Making an intense, hyper-realistic 3D world and shooting a long sea fight might have cost more than building ships, paying pirates, and filming the whole thing live. Without a doubt, this movie was big.
The story is about lost wealth and the children and grandchildren of two leaders who are fighting. Throughout the story, flashbacks to this amazing battle keep us interested, with a new part starting in each memory. It’s an odd way to tell the tale of a pirate prize, but it works very well.
Ticket prices went up for this movie because it took advantage of the renewed 3D craze a decade ago, but you can still enjoy the intense pirate action by watching it again without the special glasses.
The Pirates Of Penzance:
What more could you want than Kevin Kline, Angela Lansbury, as well as Linda Ronstadt in a Gilbert and Sullivan’s show? Audiences at the time seemed to think a lot more.
The Pirates of Penzance didn’t do well at the box office. This may have been in part because the company decided to show the movie on TV right before it came out in theaters, which caused some controversy.
The case that “The Pirates of Penzance” made about home video vs. theater release, which happened almost 40 years ago, is still the model for a current major film debate.
This silly opera is about Frederic, a young man who falls in love with Mabel and is mistakenly assigned to a group of kind-hearted pirates by his nursemaid Ruth. When Frederic falls in love alongside Mabel, misunderstandings and funny leap-year antics happen.
The whole group is great, but Kline’s performance as the Pirate King really makes the movie come to life. He steals the spotlight with his stretchy face, silly attitude, and knee strength that can compete with Megan Thee Stallion.
He jumps, spins, and flips across the screen while wearing a low-cut pirate shirt and tight black pants that make him look dangerously sexy. Kline chews the scenery alongside great joy at all times, which makes The Pirates of Penzance a very silly and very enjoyable movie to watch again and again.
Captain Phillips:
Captain Phillips isn’t like most pirate movies, which are set in the past. In fact, the events in this movie happened not too long ago.
As the title suggests, this biographical tale is about the 2009 capture of the Maersk Alabama in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia. Four pirates took over the ship and held Captain Richard Phillips hostage.
Many other pirate movies sometimes show the bad side of piracy, but Captain Phillips doesn’t. It shows modern-day piracy for what it really is, and you’ll be shocked at what the real Captain Phillips and his crew had to go through.
Captain Phillips had great talent, especially from Tom Hanks as Phillips and newbie Barkhad Abdi as the leader of the pirates, Abduwali Muse. The movie was a big hit with critics and was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
The Princess Bride:
Many subgenres and great acting make The Princess Bride a classic. It’s part pirate story, part romance, part magic, and many other things.
While being held captive through the Dread Pirate Roberts, Westley was taken away from his one true love and has to fight many enemies to get back to her. This timeless classic isn’t just about pirates, but pirates are at the heart of the story and have a big impact on our strong-willed hero’s personality and skills.
The Princess And The Pirate:
Bob Hope rarely stuck to a script during his career. As a former Vaudeville artist, he was used to improvising all the time and interacting with the crowd. This helped him develop the amazing and cutting comedic style that got him lead parts in more than 50 movies in the 1940s. Bob was the center of the comic universe.
As a child, he picked his movies and liked to work with Bing Crosby on movies that let him riff. In The Princess as well as the Pirate, he played a stage act named “Sylvester the Great” in a rough beach town, which was a role that really pushed him.
After a show, he gets too drunk and wakes up with Walter Brennan’s painting of a treasure map on his chest. The rest of the movie was Bob doing what he does best.
Bob dresses up, tells jokes that aren’t in the script, and tries to woo his beautiful co-star, who is also being chased by a scary pirate. It’s a classic studio comedy alongside Bob within his prime as well as of course, a surprise appearance by Bing Crosby.
Against All Flags:
Award-winning Technicolor pirate movie “Against All Flags” has stunning colors that are just one reason why it should be on this list. Starring Errol Flynn, Maureen O’Hara, as well as Anthony Quinn, the movie is a fun and steamy story of love and spies. Lieutenant Brian Hawke, played by Flynn, agrees to join a dangerous group of pirates.
Captain Roc Brasiliano played by Quinn is suspicious of Hawke right away, but O’Hara’s Spitfire Stevens, who is the only woman among the “Captains of the Coast” who decide Hawke’s fate, falls in love with him. This makes Captain Brasiliano jealous and makes things more tense among the pirates.
When Hawke does something that makes O’Hara mad, she takes the movie from the famous swashbuckler Flynn. She makes love advances and then flashes her eyes in anger. She really lives up to her name; like “Anne of the Indies,” “Against All Flags” shows that the most interesting pirate leaders are often women.
Interesting fact: Flynn wasn’t sure if he wanted to fight with a sword against a woman until O’Hara showed him how skilled a woman could really be. Spitfire was just as good alongside a sword as she is alongside a dangerous stare or a cutting insult.
A High Wind In Jamaica:
It is based on the same-named book by Richard Hughes. A High Wind within Jamaica is a classic pirate story set in 1870. A storm has hit Jamaica. With five kids, a British couple living upon the island thinks it’s time to send their kids to England to get a good education.
They are afraid that their kids will become “uncivilized” if they stay within Jamaica. However, their trip across the Atlantic doesn’t precisely proceed as planned. Pirates board their ship, and the kids get lost in all the noise and end up on the pirate ship by chance.
Of course, the pirates don’t want anything to do with them, so they try to find a place where they are able to leave the kids behind without getting caught. But when something bad happens, the pirates suddenly change their minds.
This movie feels like a dream because of the bright outfits and settings, or maybe it’s because there are kind pirates in it. Either way, a strong wind within Jamaica will take you to a different time and place.